One of my single most favorite slasher movies ever made is not Halloween nor Friday the 13th, but a rather early 80s Canadian flick titled My Bloody Valentine.

It is a movie that is considered by many as highly underrated, showcasing a palpable atmosphere, characters that feel real and have a purpose other than dying, and to top it all off, has some of the most memorably brutal kills ever put on film. It is a classic slasher film that deserves to be seen by all at least once in their lives.

Unfortunately, when it was initially released back in 1981, it was absolutely butchered by the MPAA in order to get an R rating (Likely due to the controversy the Friday the 13th series had stirred up). As a result, a total of 9 whole minutes of footage had to be chopped out in order to get the desired R rating.

It took 28 years before any of this cut footage was released to the public through the form of a special edition release of the movie by Lionsgate to tie in with the remake that came out that same year.

However, this release is not perfect, for it only managed to return 3 out of the 9 minutes of footage to the movie, meaning that there's still 6 minutes of cut footage still floating around. In fact, the director of the movie, George Mihalka, stated that there's even a whole scene involving a couple being impaled graphically that was removed in its entirety and was never restored.

On top of this, the restored footage has a noticeable grainier, scratchier look with a different color grade in comparison the rest of the movie. You can take one quick look at screencaps between the cut and uncut footage and you can easily tell the difference.

To add insult to injury, the special edition of the movie ran out of print and wildly range price-wise ($20 - $80) to get your hands on a copy on today's market, and the newer digital releases of it are only of the censored R version.

This is where this petition comes into play.

I believe that if enough of us speak out about this, there may be potential in a proper re-release of this movie in its complete former glory: Uncut and Remastered.

Now you may be asking me, how is that possible? And well, I've thought through this a fair bit.

I believe that the company Shout! Factory can make this happen. Shout! is a movie distribution company that specializes in re-releasing movies (cult classics or mainstream). Utilizing their sub-brand Scream Factory, there's a real possibility of license negotiations between them and Paramount for the movie.

From there, Shout! can begin giving the movie the proper treatment it deserves. Most releases by Shout! nowadays seem to make use of a brand-new scan of the movie's original prints or negatives, often times in 4K, something this movie desperately needs.

Of course, there's the issue of the original negatives and prints being in pretty bad shape, and thankfully, there seems to be a workaround to this. According to sources, there exists a UK copy of the original film reel stored carefully in the British Film Institute, supposedly uncut ending included (which was still trimmed in the special edition release).

It's purportedly in pretty good shape and is perfect for a proper re-scan of the movie. Shout! can also attempt to salvage more cut footage from the Paramount vaults–such as the drill impalation as mentioned earlier–since there's a fair chance some of it may still exist.

Not to mention the fact that it has been previously stated that the now-late producer John Dunning had the original negatives of the movie with the footage. Although I've heard that it's actually quite faded nowadays and I have no idea where its current whereabouts are, it's one of several possible sources of uncut footage floating around.

But, in short, salvage what you can and make the most of it.

Throw in a remixed 5.1 stereo track with the original theatrical mono audio track for purists and some new behind-the-scenes extras that come traditionally with most Shout! releases and you've got yourself a hot deal.

So with the support with enough people, we can draw enough attention to these companies and studios to help bring back this classic Canadian slasher definitively.

Thank you for taking the time to read this petition.

Lucas M. Henkel, Fellow horror enthusiast.