Valentine (2001)

Five women are stalked by an unknown assailant while preparing for Valentine's Day.

Director:

Jamie Blanks

Writers:

Tom Savage (novel), Donna Powers (screenplay)

Stars:

Denise Richards, David Boreanaz, Marley Shelton

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Denise Richards	...	Paige Prescott
David Boreanaz	...	Adam Carr
Marley Shelton	...	Kate Davies
Jessica Capshaw	...	Dorothy Wheeler
Jessica Cauffiel	...	Lily Voight
Katherine Heigl	...	Shelley Fisher
Hedy Burress	...	Ruthie Walker
Fulvio Cecere	...	Detective Leon Vaughn
Daniel Cosgrove	...	Campbell Morris
Johnny Whitworth	...	Max Raimi
Woody Jeffreys	...	Brian
Adam J. Harrington	...	Jason Marquette (as Adam Harrington)
Claude Duhamel	...	Gary Taylor
Wyatt Page	...	Evan Wheeler
Benita Ha	...	Kim Wheeler

Storyline

Valentine's Day 1988: At the school dance, geeky Jeremy Melton bravely faces one rejection after the other when asking four popular girls to dance with him. A fifth girl, plump and insecure, agrees, but they end up making out under the bleachers. When a group of school bullies catches them, the girl claims that Jeremy attacked her. This causes them to strip off his clothes and beat him up in front of the entire school. Flash forward to 2001. We meet the five girls who were in that school gym: Kate, Paige, Shelly, Lily and the formerly plump Dorothy. They are all in their 20's now and trying to sort out their love lives, which is appropriate, since Valentine's Day is coming up. After a disastrous date with a loser, one of the girls, a pre-med student, is murdered by a Cherub-mask wearing killer who sent her a death threat in the form of a Valentine card prior to the attack. After the four remaining girls are reunited at her funeral, they all start receiving threatening cards and ...

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Plot Keywords:

valentine's day | revenge | nosebleed | valentine | public humiliation | 

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Taglines:

1... 2... 3... Are you ready to die?

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong horror violence, some sexuality and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Katherine Heigl has disowned the film, claiming that she hates it. She didn't read the whole script before accepting her role, only the scenes containing her character. In a 2005 magazine interview, she said she regretted the decision to appear in the film after seeing the final cut of the film.

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Goofs

When Kate is on the phone complaining about the water being cut off, the iron overheats. Kate then runs over to it, and the shadow of a crew member is cast on the iron and ironing board, then moves out of sight.

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Quotes

Paige Prescott: Does somebody wanna be my Valentine?

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Crazy Credits

The opening Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures logos are red.

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Alternate Versions

There is a scene in a TV spot where Kate and Adam are in the bar and she says: "why am i surrounded by all this craziness"; then Adam says "it's Valentine's day people get lonely and start acting strange"; then she says "you're not acting strange".

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Connections

Referenced in Let the Church Say, Amen (2002)

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Soundtracks

1 A.M.
Written by DJ Ashba (as Darren Jay Ashba), Joe Lesté (as Joe Leste) and Jeff Blue
Performed by Beautiful Creatures
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

Not Halloween.

This film did not click with me. The holiday theme, the characters - God, especially the characters - all piled on top of typical slasher gimmicks. The movie also gives a quick lesson on the importance of lighting and how that one single shot of the Cherubim in good lighting can wipe out any intimidation factor that mask might have had. It looks like the mascot to some high school football team, and ever after that's all it is.

The music was perhaps the best aspect, though a significant step down from Davis' other works including Matrix (which I did not like), JPIII, Anti-Trust, and his best score, House on Haunted Hill (99). How does it fair against slasher classic scores such as Herrmann's Psycho and Carpenter's Halloween? Simple. It doesn't. Likewise, how does the film stand up to classics? It doesn't.

Enter your typical slasher jumps in logic - retarded actions people do that get themselves killed like the opening scene in the morgue. What viewer does not see what's coming before it hits? Jumps in logic that only happen - only would be considered - in a movie because the writers thought it would be cool. Exaggerate reality for the sake of effect? Yeah, sure, go for it. But when a character's life is stake, make them do utterly retarded acts of virtual suicide (even by slasher standards)? No.

Let all the characters die - none of them arose above F13 standards. Their relationships to one another were as artificial as they come. But hey, it goes along with the plot that feels itself necessary to spell out all major plots and relationships. Why not freeze frame and superimpose text saying, `She's mad at her friends'? There's no need to ask questions about Valentine, because the film assumes, you the viewer, are mentally defiant and feels the need to ask all the questions for you. Absolutely no subtlety, which is what kills what could've been an effective, controversial, and thought provoking ending. Instead we get an over-explained misfire that's so jumbled and clumsy it defeats itself.

The premise . . . eh, might have had potential. Some sequences did have lots of potential and a few came through. The characters should have been scrapped in the first draft. Average slasher at best. If not obsessed with the genre, I'd pass this one up for a better slasher on the shelf.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site

Country:

USA

Language:

Cantonese English

Release Date:

2 February 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Love Hurts

Filming Locations:

Riverview Hospital, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$29,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,024,648, 4 February 2001

Gross USA:

$20,384,136

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$36,684,136

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1