Harry Warden, colloquially known as the Miner, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the My Bloody Valentine films. He was created by writer Stephen Miller and portrayed by Peter Cowper in George Mihalka's original My Bloody Valentine and Richard John Walters in Patrick Lussier's remake My Bloody Valentine 3D. Despite the films not launching a franchise, Warden has gained a cult status in the horror genre despite only appearing in two films and has become a popularized slasher villain in recent years.
Appearances
Films
''My Bloody Valentine''
In the original My Bloody Valentine, Harry first appears inside a mine shaft, with a female miner that performs a strip tease and fondles with his breathing tube. Harry brutally kills her with a mining pick. When the town's police chief Jake Newby receives an anonymous box of Valentine chocolates containing a human heart and a note warning that murders will begin if the dance proceeds, he checks the mental institution where Harry Warden was incarcerated, but they have no record of him. It is later revealed that the murders were done by the young miner Axel who witnessed his father being murdered by Harry Warden when he was a child and was since traumatized by the event ever since while Harry Warden died five years before the events of the film.
''My Bloody Valentine 3D''
In My Bloody Valentine 3D, on Valentine's Day 1997, a cave-in on the north side of the Hanninger mine trapped six miners. Several days later, rescue teams found five dead miners and Harry Warden, who survived by killing the other miners with a pickaxe, allowing himself to breathe. Exactly one year later, Warden wakes from his coma in the hospital, and goes on a murderous rampage. Soon after, Sheriff Burke arrives, finding multiple mutilated bodies and the heart of a nurse inside a candy box. Meanwhile, a party is thrown at the abandoned mine shaft that was the site of the disaster where Warden appears. After murdering several of the partygoers, and before he can murder Tom, Warden is shot by Burke. Warden escapes by going deeper into the mine and going through an escape hatch. Sheriff Burke and the other townsfolk find him at the same escape hatch bleeding out and shoot him dead, then buried him in the woods claiming it was a more proper burial than he deserved. Ten years later, murders begin again leading to speculation that Warden is back. It is revealed that Tom is the killer after developing a split personality from his encounter with Warden.
Development
Conception
He is depicted as a once normal man who descended into madness when his bosses weren't paying attention to their workers, which led to the disaster and subsequently Warden's insanity. He is depicted similar to Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees in that he is a deranged silent killer who lurks in the shadows. In Canadian Cinema Since the 1980s: At the Heart of the World, Mihalka stated, "Harry Warden wasn't born evil; he was a hardworking guy who went insane when the bosses neglected the people that worked for them, causing a disaster. I really insisted on the subtext. Okay, it's not exactly a treatise on Das Kapita, but at the same time, that's who the character is."
Reception
Film journalist J. A. Kerswell described Warden as iconic: "The mad miner is one of the subgenre's best and most iconic villains: silent and menacing in his gas mask, carrying his pickax ready for mayhem." Writer Don Sumner called Warden a "great villain". In Understanding Social Divisions, Shaun Best compared Warden to Hannibal Lecter, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Leatherface, Norman Bates, and Jason Voorhees, stating that they all "reinforce the stigma surrounding mental illness and present a powerful picture of people who suffer from mental illness as potential psycho-killers." Matt Molgaard of Horror Freak News praised the character, saying, "You know, it really doesn’t matter who sports the mask of the Miner: be it Harry Warden, Tom Hanniger, or Billy Crystal. It’s all about the sense of inescapable dread that sinks to the bottom of the stomach the moment that mask earns screen time. Of all the legendary masks horror freaks discuss on a regular basis, this one is certainly one of the more frightening to behold. The odd thing is I can’t even fully explain why that is. Perhaps it is better that I don’t over-analyze things and just respect the Miner and his mask for what they are: kick ass, top notch additions to the genre! Don’t bypass the 2009 remake simply because you’re a purist: it’s awfully entertaining and sports one of the most awkward nude scenes I’ve seen in 31 years!" J. A. Kerswell praised the character writing, "The mad miner is one of the subgenre's best and most iconic villains: silent and menacing in his gas mask, carrying a pickax ready for mayhem.
