By Stephen Pytak 

     This is "My Bloody Valentine (1981)" the way it was meant to be seen.
     All the gore cut out by the MPAA is here for horror hounds to feast on. 
I've been waiting for 27 years to see this stuff. I wasn't disappointed.
     My favorite kill -- actually one of the best stalk and slash sequences of 
all time -- is the one involving the girl in pink, "Sylvia (Helen Udy)," who's 
running through the miners' locker room. All the uniforms are falling down 
on her. It's very tense. Then the killer grabs her by the head, picks her up 
and carries her to her doom. On this special DVD, we finally get that in all 
of its horrific glory.
     Other death scenes are extended. The laudromat clothes dryer kill. The 
nail gun kill. The pick through the jaw and out the eyeball. The severed arm 
at the end...
     "My Bloody Valentine (1981)" has always been one of my favorite slashers, 
even though I knew it was cut up by the censors. Every time I'd watch it, I knew 
I wasn't seeing it as it was intended. And the BEST PART about the new DVD
is you can watch the film with all of the restored footage. 
     In my opinion. there is no reason for anyone to watch the theatrical cut ever 
again, even though there is the option to.
     This version with the added gore gives the film that much-needed sense of 
carnival it needs to further cement its place in horror history.
     One featurette in the special features focuses on these extended scenes. "Deleted 
Footage with Director, Cast and Special Effects Designer Introductions" is fun 
and informative, and Director George Mihalka even speculates as to why the 
MPAA insisted on so many cuts.
     I also liked the other special, "Bloodlust: My Bloody Valentine and the Rise of 
the Slasher Film." It features production stories from cast and crew and comments 
from Adam Rockoff, author of "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher 
Film." Plus there are interviews with the director and cast members of the "My 
Bloody Valentine" remake. 
     You can also read about the history of slasher cinema in a neat section set up 
like a family tree, with Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" at its base. It's called "Bloodlines." 
It was written by Rockoff, so it's not too bad.
     All that's missing is a commentary from cast and crew over the film. But, I can live 
without that. Just seeing the film restored is enough for me.