Bloody cinema

Valentine's Day will never be the same again, at least not for those who attended the showing of the 1981 film "My Bloody Valentine" on Saturday night at the Cinemat. Instead of chocolates, flowers and romance, these moviegoers enjoyed a sanguinary night of pickaxes, gore and blood-curdling cries.

"My Bloody Valentine" is part of the Cinemat's weekly independent-horror-film series Atomic Age Cinema. Every Saturday at midnight, $3 will get you into the bad horror flick of the week for the benefit of independent film in Bloomington. According to the Cinemat's Web site, Atomic Age Cinema provides "the strangest selection possible of Cult, Horror, and Sci-Fi movies." Proceeds go toward the third annual Indiana Festival of Independent Film & Video, the festival's Executive Director David Pruett said. The festival will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

 Three men dressed in costumes fit for Halloween hosted the night of horror. One of the masters of ceremonies was clad in all black, sporting a tall top hat, skull scepter and ghostly make-up. At least six feet tall, his presence commanded the crowd of about 35. The other host had a similar eeriness to him. He wore a squid mask, and his manic laugh resounded off the walls throughout the film. The third host's face was painted white with a red heart around one eye. He told the crowd it was his birthday, so the night was more than one celebration for him. As all three hosts sipped on beers and cracked jokes about the "Saint of Alcohol Day" being Feb. 14, the film began.

"My Bloody Valentine" is a low-budget Canadian film that was made amidst the popularity of slasher films in the 1980s. Set in the small mining town of Valentine Bluffs, the story centers on a methane-gas explosion. The explosion traps six miners in a shaft. The rest of the crew left work early to attend a Valentine's Day dance. The only survivor of the horrific accident, Harry Warden, witnessed the death of his fellow workers and subsequently went crazy. After spending a year in a mental institution, Warden began to kill his supervisors and put their hearts in candy boxes. Since its release, the film has become a cult classic among horror film buffs, including the online horror-and-thriller-film museum www.terrortrap.com.

The three hosts narrated the film with cheesy jokes and lewd comments about the plotline. Many audience members also chimed in with sexually-charged comments, filling in dialogue for the actors in the movie, making for an atmosphere similar to Rocky Horror Picture Show screenings. When an old woman in the film received a human heart in a heart-shaped box, a man in the audience screamed out, "Are you gonna eat that?" Along with adding their own personal commentary, the crowd stomped its feet joyously along to the film's campy and almost country soundtrack. Although the film was grotesque, the atmosphere was lighthearted and fun. Bruce McKinney, an Ivy Tech student, expressed his love of the horror film scene.

Although Bruce said he has only been to Atomic Age Cinema once or twice before, his attire suggested otherwise. He was dressed from head to toe in black with ghostly makeup and bloody vampire bites on his neck. Bruce also drove his friends to the show in a hearse.

"We decorated the hearse with paper hearts for Valentine's Day," Bruce said with a smile.

He attained the automobile while working at a haunted house in his hometown of Greenwood, Ind.

In addition to providing horror film fans a weekly outlet, Atomic Age Cinema aims at funding The Indiana Festival of Independent Film & Video. The festival shows a variety of independent movies all produced within Indiana. Not only does the festival include work by some of the best filmmakers across the state, but Angelo Pizzo, writer of the widely loved movies "Hoosiers" and "Rudy" will be a guest speaker there. Proceeds of Atomic Age Cinema also go toward the Dark Carnival International Horror Film Festival, which will be held in Bloomington in September.