Valentine

Year of release : 2001

 

Run time : 1h36min

 

Genre : Slasher / Horror / Mystery

 

Cast : Denise Richards, Marley Shelton, David Boreanaz, Katherine Heigl

 

 

The movie is loosely based on the 1996 Tom Savage novel of the same name, about a female novelist who is stalked by a man who installs listening devices in her home, leaves notes in her mailbox and gifts by her door.

 

Our movie opens in 1988, at a Valentine's Day dance, with a young Jeremy who asks quite a few girls to dance, each of them refusing him,in various ways from borderline mean to nice. Kate tells him 'maybe later' , while Dorothy accepts to dance with him. The dance goes so well, they end up kissing,until they are spotted by the school bullies,who start calling him names, and Dorothy lies he attacked her. The bullies beat him up, and Jeremy ends up in a reform school and juvenile hall,culminating with a mental institution, due to the girls lying he s3xually assaulted them.

 

13 years later, in the weeks around Valentine's Day, Shelly is on a date with Jason, who speaks about himself in the 3d person. She goes back to school after he asks her to pay for what she had, where she gets a Valentine card, and is stalked by someone in a Valentine mask,and k1lled. We notice the k1ller's nose bleeds when he k1lls her.

 

The girls are still friends, and at Shelly's funeral are questioned by the police.

Kate broke up with her boyfriend, whom she still loves, because he is a drunk.

 

All girls except for Kate, receive threatening Valentine cards,signed JM.

 

Dorothy's love interest tells her he has no place to stay, so he moves in with her, at her parents' mansion. Her love interest might be a gold digger, as a woman keeps on appearing saying he stole her belongings.

 

The girls go to an art exhibit, where one of them, Lily, is shot by 'cupid' with a bow and arrow.

Knowing she was supposed to leave for Los Angeles, the girls think she's fine,not talking to her for days.

 

After Dorothy tells the girls she lied about Jeremy molesting her, Kate's neighbor breaks into her apartment to wear her clothes, and the k1ller k1lls him. Every time he k1lls, his nose bleeds ( I kept on wondering if it's possible for the blood to come through the mask, as I find it unlikely).

 

Dorothy hosts a Valentine's Day party, and can't find her boyfriend, the gold digger, whom her friends find suspicious,so she lashes out. The man can't be found, because the k1ller found him first. We see the k1ller was busy, my guess is, he had some collateral damage to take care of, as he was seen in the act.

 

The movie follows the serial k1ller slasher movies pattern, and moves pretty fast.

One thing that bothered me (after the one with the blood going out of the mask ) was, there's no character growth - the girls remain exactly the same mean spirited kids,Kate being the only one who was good -then and now. As adults, they feel no remorse for what they did to Jeremy,they are a grown version of their kid persona. So, as a viewer, you don't feel bad when they die.

The women are surrounded by shallow men, who only want one thing from them (s3x), and in Dorothy's case, money.

All characters are unlikable,even the detective who's hitting on Paige,who could be his daughter!

 

Another thing was SPOILERS how could the k1ller dress Dorothy to take the fall, did he drug her? Her mouth wasn't taped. Although, I liked how he turned the tables on her,and did to her what she did to him, when they were kids.

 

The soundtrack was fine.

 

The acting was good, I thought the best was Marley Shelton, who had to scream and act scared a lot. The teenage actresses who played Paige and Dorothy looked like the actresses who played them in their 20's, Denise Richards, respectively, Jessica Capshaw.

Speaking of the actors' looks, I found the women beautiful, while the men completely unattractive!

A bit of movie trivia, Tara Reid was considered for the role of Dorothy, and Jennifer Love Hewitt was supposed to play Paige.

David Boreanaz filmed his scenes in 2 weeks! Katherine Heigl shot her scenes in 3 days!

 

The movie didn't impress the critics, giving it average reviews,scoring it below 5 stars in a score of 10 stars, or approval of 11% to 18 % on a 100% score, while it grossed almost 37 million dollars, surpassing the 29 million dollars budget. In spite of all this, the movie was nominated for 3 Teen Choice Awards, including the Choice Movie Award (Horror / Thriller) category.

 

Valentine is 7 days free on AppleTv+, for rent / sale on Amazon Prime, AppleTv, Fandango at Home.

 

Rating : Could have been a contender !