How Lionsgate killed the My Bloody Valentine sequel

My Bloody Valentine director George Mihalka had almost made an official sequel to the slasher classic… until Lionsgate got involved with the project.

One of the most intriguing 1980s slashers is, without a doubt, George Mihalka’s My Bloody Valentine. Legendary director Quentin Tarantino has gone on record to say that it’s his favorite slasher flick. It seems most horror fans who have seen this film love it, which makes it all the more strange there had never been a sequel.

After catching this brutal classic on the big screen at last weekend’s Slash-O-Rama, I got to thinking about the fact that the movie didn’t have a sequel when most other slasher flicks did. Curious as to why, I hopped on Google and found this article from Bloody-Disgusting which which explains the whole story. I had missed this story at the time, so it’s news to me (and presumably, if you’re reading this, chances are it’s new to you, too).

Apparently, there really was going to be a sequel, titled at the time as Return of the Miner. Set nearly 30 years after the events of the original, it would have brought back several of the surviving characters, continuing the same story. As Mihalka explains:

"“In the sequel, the girl that survived (Lori Hallier) married the boy survivor (Paul Kelman) and she became the town’s Chief of Police. And he became a drunk. They would have been the two main characters that maintained the action.”"

That… actually sounds pretty awesome! We’ve got the man behind the original film writing and directing this sequel, with the same characters returning as well. There’s no better way to maintain the spirit of the 1981 film than that. Better yet? Paramount was interested enough to buy the script, which just about set the gears of pre-production in motion.

So, that brings us to this question: WTF happened?

Apparently, as much Paramount as liked Mihalka’s script, they were more impressed with Lionsgate’s money. Some guy in a suit over there got swept up in the horror remake trend going on at the time, and wanted to give MBV the same treatment. So Paramount flushed Mihalka’s story down the toilet so a remake could be made instead. And the worst part, at least for Mihalka, is that he’s evidently not a fan at all of the result:

"“When there were talks to revisit My Bloody Valentine, I had written a sequel, which they bought…only to shelve it. Some guy at Lionsgate decided the remake should be a “date movie.” Now, we didn’t even understand what a date movie is. So they canned my script. They bought me out. We had thought they were gonna make it, but to our surprise, they shelved it. The damn thing that bothered me about the remake is that everyone is running around being killed with an axe. The same axe. It gets boring. Absolutely boring.”"

I’m sure that really has to sting for Mihalka, but it sucks for fans of the original film as well. In fact, I kind of regret looking the story up, because now I’m just even more depressed about the sequel never happening. But I guess that’s just show business.

Next: Last Slasher Standing: In a world of reboots, be a Chucky!

Are you just as disappointed about this sequel that never was, or do you prefer the remake anyway? Join in on this conversation in the comments section below.