Metacritic reviews

Although the body count averages one murder every 7 1/2 minutes--which will undoubtedly please the gorehounds it was intended for--this film is slightly better than most slice-and-dice efforts and contains several genuine surprises.

Certainly, the performances are cheesy and the scripting decidedly non-Shakespearean, but the film remains a terrifying and entertaining offering to the god's of 70's/80's horror. And those gods were good, indeed.

There's a masked killer, an abundance of ready victims, and a series of elaborate, implausible deaths. But for those willing to look past the surface similarities, Valentine has its own distinctive charm.

The shocks are strictly mechanical and redundant, the script uncomplicated by incidental humor or character byplay. It comes as no great surprise when the killer is revealed to a be a Halloween clone and then allowed to vanish, aggravating the pathetic resemblance. The reviewers who made a fuss over Halloween have a lot to answer for. [25 Feb 1981, p.B12]

My Bloody Valentine probably won't make you shiver with fright, but it's almost certain to make you squirm, first with irritation and then with revulsion.