1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Production
    Conception  Filming 

4. Release
    Critical reception 

5. Soundtrack
    Track listing 

6. Home media

7. References

8. External links

• Gretchen J. Berg
• Aaron Harberts
• Donna Powers
• Wayne Powers

• David Boreanaz
• Denise Richards
• Marley Shelton
• Jessica Capshaw
• Jessica Cauffiel
• Katherine Heigl}}

• Village Roadshow Pictures
• NPV Entertainment

• Warner Bros. Pictures
• Roadshow Entertainment^[1]

Valentine is a 2001 American slasher film directed by Jamie Blanks and starring Denise Richards, David Boreanaz, Marley Shelton, Jessica Capshaw, and Katherine Heigl. Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Tom Savage, the film follows a group of women in San Francisco who are stalked by a man whom they tormented during their childhood.

Released theatrically in February 2001, the film was critically panned, with critics deeming it too similar to 1980s slasher films. The film earned $36.7 million on a $29 million budget.

Plot

At a junior high school St. Valentine's Day dance in 1988 San Francisco, Jeremy Melton, an outcast student, asks four popular girls to dance. The first three girls, Shelley, Lily, and Paige reject him coldly, while the fourth girl, Kate, politely responds "maybe later". Their overweight friend Dorothy accepts Jeremy's invitation and they proceed to secretly make out underneath the bleachers. When the school bully Joe Tulga and his friends discover them, Dorothy claims that Jeremy sexually assaulted her. Joe and his friends publicly strip and severely beat Jeremy, and his nose starts bleeding under the distress. Later, Jeremy is expelled and eventually transferred to a reform school.

Thirteen years later, in 2001, Shelley, now a medical student at UCLA, is at the morgue one evening studying on for her medical exam. After receiving a vulgar Valentine's card in her locker, she is attacked by a man in a trench coat and Cupid mask. She is cornered in a cooler used to store cadavers, where she attempts to hide in a body bag, but the killer finds her before slitting her throat. The killer's nose bleeds as she dies.

At Shelley's funeral, Kate, Lily, Paige, and Dorothy are questioned. They admit to not having seen her in some time after she moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Kate, Paige, and Dorothy subsequently receive obscene cards, each signed "JM." Lily also receives a card with a box of chocolates which she finds are filled with maggots. Meanwhile, Dorothy's boyfriend, Campbell, loses his apartment and temporarily moves in with her at her father's large mansion.

As the girls attend the exhibit of Lily's artist boyfriend Max, they meet Campbell's bitter ex-girlfriend Ruthie, who accuses him of being a con artist. Lily becomes isolated at the exhibit and is confronted by the killer, who proceeds to shoot her repeatedly with arrows until she falls several floors into a dumpster. When they have not heard from Lily, the others assume she is in Los Angeles on a work trip. Upon contacting the police, they agree that the culprit could be Jeremy Melton. Dorothy admits to her friends that she lied and that Jeremy never attacked her and she ruined his life by getting him beat up and sent to reform school. Meanwhile, Kate's neighbor Gary, breaks into her apartment to steal her underwear and is murdered by the killer.

As Valentine's Day approaches, Dorothy is planning a party at her family's estate. On the morning of the party, the killer murders Campbell with an ax in the basement. The others assume he has simply left Dorothy after dumping her, angering Dorothy, who believes that they are jealous and still look at her as the "fat girl" of the group. After coming to the party to confront Dorothy with the truth about Campbell, Ruthie is thrown through a shower window by the killer who then impales her neck on the glass. At the party, Paige is attacked and trapped in a hot tub by the killer, who taunts her with an electric drill before throwing it in the water, electrocuting her to death.

The party disintegrates when the power cuts out, and Dorothy and Kate argue over who the killer is. Kate claims that Campbell could be a suspect because they do not know anything about him, while Dorothy counters by accusing Adam, Kate's recovering alcoholic on-off boyfriend, who is now a journalist. After being told by Lily's boyfriend that she did not arrive in Los Angeles as planned, Kate realizes she is also probably dead and calls the detective assigned to the case. After dialing the number, she follows the sound of a ringtone outside the house and discovers the detective's severed head in the pond.

Kate becomes convinced that Adam is actually Jeremy, disguised by reconstructive surgery, and goes back into the house, only to find Adam waiting for her. To her surprise, he asks her to dance, and they dance together for a while until she becomes frightened, kneeing him in the groin and escaping. She runs through the house, discovering the corpses of Paige and Ruthie. She locates a gun, but someone in the Cupid's mask jumps out and runs into Kate, resulting in knocking the gun from her hand and sending them both tumbling down a staircase. The supposed killer arises and is shot by Adam who appears at the top of the stairs using Kate's gun. As a shocked and confused Kate apologizes profusely, Adam pulls off the mask to reveal Dorothy. Adam forgives Kate, explaining that childhood trauma can lead to lifelong anger and some people are eventually forced to act on that anger. As Kate and Adam wait for the police to arrive, they hug as Adam says he has always loved her. Moments later, as Kate closes her eyes as they wait for the police to arrive, his nose begins to bleed, indicating that he is Jeremy Melton and the true killer after all.

Cast

• Denise Richards as Paige Prescott
• David Boreanaz as Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton
• Marley Shelton as Kate Davies
• Jessica Capshaw as Dorothy Wheeler
• Jessica Cauffiel as Lily Voight
• Katherine Heigl as Shelley Fisher
• Hedy Burress as Ruthie Walker
• Fulvio Cecere as Detective Leon Vaughn
• Daniel Cosgrove as Campbell Morris
• Johnny Whitworth as Max Raimi
• Claude Duhamel as Gary Taylor
• Adam J. Harrington as Jason Marquette
• Woody Jeffreys as Brian
• Sterling McCay as Joe Tulga
• Noel Fisher as Tulga Gang Member #1
• Cody Serpa as Tulga Gang Member #2
• Mark Mullan as Tulga Gang Member #3

Production

Conception

While Warner Bros. had acquired the rights to the Tom Savage novel in May 1998, the project was later transferred to Artisan Entertainment with producer Dylan Sellers and writers Wayne & Donna Powers, with Wayne Powers attached to direct.^[3]

The original script had a different tone from the book, was set on a college campus

& the killer’s identity was concealed by a pig mask .^[3] The project went into turnaround to Warner Bros., was rewritten by Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts.^[3] Richard Kelly was originally offered the chance to direct, but turned the offer down.^[3] Hedy Burress auditioned for the role of Dorothy Wheeler, and Tara Reid was considered for the role, but it was given to Jessica Capshaw instead. However, Blanks wanted Burress to star in the film and cast her as Ruthie Walker. Jessica Cauffiel originally auditioned for Denise Richards's role of Paige. Rebecca Gayheart turned down a role in the film. In the original cast, Jennifer Love Hewitt was to play Paige Prescott. For the role of Adam the studio favored Jared Leto but also considered Jeremy Sisto & Luke Wilson before David Boreanaz was cast.

Filming

Blanks later said in an interview, "Forgive me for Valentine. A lot of people give me grief for that, but we did our best."^[5]

Release

In promotion of the film, Warner Bros.'s official website featured digital e-card valentines that visitors could send via email,^[6] and stars David Boreanaz and Katherine Heigl—both well-known at the time for their roles in the series Angel and Roswell, respectively—appeared at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Festival.^[7]

Critical reception

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, calling the film a "smart, stylish horror picture that offers a fresh twist on the ever-reliable revenge theme and affords a raft of talented young actors solid roles that show them to advantage."^[11] Dennis Harvey of Variety gave the film a mixed review, noting: "Looking good but lacking much in the way of personality or gray matter — rather like its characters — Valentine is a straightforward slasher pic that’s acceptably scary until a weak finale."^[12] Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide awarded the film one out of five stars, calling the film "A throwback to the formulaic, holiday-themed stalk-and-slash pictures of the

early '80s — but why it took four writers to adapt Tom Savage's generic genre novel is thoroughly baffling."^[13]

At Rotten Tomatoes, an internet review aggregator, the film received an approval rating of 11%, with the general consensus being that "Valentine is basically a formulaic throwback to conventional pre-Scream slasher flicks. Critics say it doesn't offer enough suspense or scares to justify its addition to the genre."^[14]

In a 2015 retrospective review, the online horror publication Icons of Fright published a retrospective review of the film, defending the spirit of the film and its thematic handling of the holiday's mythological aspects.^[15]

Soundtrack

The musical score for Valentine was composed by Don Davis. The soundtrack also includes the songs "Pushing Me Away" by Linkin Park, "God of the Mind" by Disturbed, "Love Dump (Mephisto Odyssey's Voodoo Mix)" by Static-X, "Superbeast (Porno Holocaust Mix)" by Rob Zombie, "Valentine's Day" by Marilyn Manson, and "Opticon" by Orgy. This soundtrack compilation was lampooned in a sketch by Saturday Night Live, which humorously pointed out that many of the bands featured on it were not only unknown to a mass audience but have oddly nonsensical names.^[16]

Track listing

Home media

Valentine was released on both DVD and VHS by Warner Home Video on July 24, 2001.^[17] Scream Factory is scheduled to release the film on Blu-ray on February 12, 2019.

References

External links

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170215205356/http://valentinemovie.warnerbros.com/ Official website]
• {{IMDb title|0242998}}
• {{Allmovie title|233524}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|valentine}}
• {{mojo title|valentine}}

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