“Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, One Is Dead, And So Are YOU!”
Although he doesn’t get as much attention as Jason, Michael, Freddy, or even Ghostface, the Miner from My Bloody Valentine (1981) and My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009) definitely deserves to be in this month’s Revenge Of The Slashers entries. He has a cool suit, an even cooler primary weapon, and he sends folks Valentine’s Day candy boxes packed with a human heart. Now that’s class!
The Miner keeps things simple. He wears a miner’s uniform complete with a hard hat and gas mask. He mainly uses a pick-axe as his go-to weapon and he uses it with great accuracy. He also uses the occasional laundry dryer, boiling hot dog wieners, and a nail gun. He’s also pretty lethal with a shower head. He may not have the charm of Freddy, the dashing good looks of Jason, or the charisma of Michael Myers, but the Miner is efficient and industrious.
The Miner is technically two people in both of the films. Harry Warden is the original villain in both films. In the 1981 version, Harry and other miners are trapped in the mine. In order to stay alive, he murders his co-workers and resorts to cannibalism to survive. He then kills the two supervisors who skipped out on work early to go to a Valentine’s Day party and failed to check on the men. He is shipped off to a secure asylum. Twenty years later, Harry apparently returns just in time for the first Valentine’s Dance since that fateful night in the mines……except it isn’t Harry that’s doing the killings. Nope, it’s Axel Palmer, who is basically a jealous boyfriend who witnessed the murder of his father at the hands of Warden when he was a child. He never recovered from that night and decided to ease his mania by killing townsfolk and the competition, T.J. Hanniger, for his girl. In the 2009 remake, Harry kills his co-workers to conserve air and goes into a deep coma after being recovered from the mine. He later awakens from the coma, escapes from the hospital, and is then brutally murdered by the local sheriff and the mine supervisor after going on a killing spree at a party in the mines. Ten years later he apparently shows up again, but this time around it’s T.J. Hanniger who is on the hunt, and although Axel isn’t the most likeable guy in the film, he turns out to be the good guy. Both films end with the potential for a sequel, but there has yet to be one made.
Harry Warden was portrayed by Peter Cowper in the original film. Neil Affleck portrayed the murderous Axel. Rich Walters portrayed Harry in the remake and Jensen Ackles played the wicked Tom Hanniger. The Miner was immortalized by NECA when that company released an action figure of the character in 2021.
Thanks for checking out today’s post! Tomorrow’s slasher promises to make you fear sleepovers!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 