The plot tells about a group of young adults who decide to throw a Valentine's Day party, only to incur the vengeful wrath of a maniac in mining gear who begins a killing spree.

Despite a mixed response from critics and grossing $5.7 million at the box office, the film has developed a large cult following over the years since its release.

My Bloody Valentine faced notable censorship, having a total of nine minutes cut by the Motion Picture Association of America due to the amount of violence and gore.

Though co-producer Dunning confirmed that the excised footage still existed, attempts to release it proved difficult as Paramount Pictures refused to offer an uncut version.

In 2009, Lionsgate subsequently licensed the home media rights to the film and released Blu-ray and DVD editions with three minutes of additional footage restored.

A group of young residents is excited about the dance: Gretchen, Dave, Hollis, Patty, Sylvia, Howard, Mike, John, Tommy, and Harriet.

Mayor Hanniger and the town's police chief Jake Newby receive an anonymous box of Valentine chocolates containing a human heart, and a note warning that murders will begin if the dance proceeds.

At the party, the miner brutally kills Dave; his heart is subsequently found boiling in a pot of hot dogs being prepared in the kitchen.

Director George Mihalka, on the strength of his earlier movie Pick-Up Summer, was approached by Cinepix Productions, headed by André Link and John Dunning with a two-movie contract.

[11] Lori Hallier was cast as Sarah, the girlfriend of Axel and ex-girlfriend of T.J.[12] Hallier arrived to the set several weeks after the other actors, as she had prior obligations at the National Theatre School of Canada where she was studying at the time; director Mihalka, intent on casting her in the role, convinced her academic advisors to allow her to finish the semester early in order to appear in the film.

The production company decided on the Sydney Mines location due to "the exterior [being] a dreary, cold and dusty area [with] no other buildings around it so it looked like it was totally in the middle of nowhere".

[3] This resulted in the production team spending an estimated $30,000 to paint portions of the mine to achieve a darker atmosphere, akin to how it had appeared in its original state.

[14] The crew kept the identity of the killer a secret to the cast members until the end of production, when the final scene was shot, in order to assure the actors played their parts in an ambiguous manner.

Bruce Bailey of the Montreal Gazette noted the film as having an "awkward script": "All that's really notable about My Bloody Valentine is that it gives you more than the usual m.p.g.p.—murders per gallon of popcorn".

[19] The Detroit Free Press's Jack Mathews conversely complimented the film on delivering "on its title promise by bucketfuls", adding: "There's nothing subtle about My Bloody Valentine.

[25] Dan Scapperotti of Cinefantastique, alternately praised the film's cinematography, writing "[it] is beautifully photographed, and the utilization of the mine creates powerful imagery".

[27] Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times said the film was "too convoluted, too derivative and, oddly, too ambitious to properly coagulate into the kind of exploitation movie that it tries to be".

[5] For the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to award the movie with an R-rating, cuts were requested to every death sequence in the film.

It has been suggested that Paramount Pictures was keen to remove the offending footage due to the backlash they had received from releasing Friday the 13th the previous year.

The second reason, that Mihalka attributes, is that the film was cut due to the murder of John Lennon in December 1980, stating that there was a major backlash against movie violence in the wake of his death.

[35] When Paramount released the film on DVD in North America for the first time in 2002, the studio claimed that the purported "missing" footage did not exist.

[33] In January 2009, Lionsgate under license from Paramount released an unrated Region 1 "Special Edition" DVD and Blu-ray featuring this footage.

[37] It has been argued that the so-called uncut DVD/Blu-ray is still missing additional footage, particularly the double-impalement of Mike and Harriet which the director recalls filming.

This is given credence by the fact that Mihalka gave his seal of approval to this release, and a written introduction by him precedes the beginning of the special edition DVD/Blu-ray, stating that this version was the way that the film was meant to be seen.

[38] The film made its DVD debut on September 3, 2002 from Paramount Home Video;[39] this was a standard widescreen release of the theatrical cut, and it contained no bonus materials.

Director Mihalka, cast members Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck, Helene Udy, and Carl Marotte, composer Paul Zaza and make-up artists Thomas Burman and Ken Diaz are all involved.

Factory utilises the original negative for many of the uncut scenes, with only a few brief shots still using the print from the previous release but with additional clean ups.

Taking place 40 years after the events of original film, TJ and Sarah's estranged child returns to Valentine Bluffs following his mother's death as a new string of murders by a man in a mining suit begin.