Director: Jamie Blanks
Writer: Donna Powers, Wayne Powers, Gretchen J Berg, Aaron Harberts (Screenplay) Tom Savage (Novel)
Starring: Denise Richards, David Boreanaz, Marley Shelton, Jessica Capshaw, Jessica Cauffiel, Katherine Heigl, Hedy Burress
Plot: Five women are stalked by an unknown assailant while preparing for Valentine’s Day.
Tagline – Revenge is sweeter than candy.
Runtime: 1 Hour 36 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Slasher 101
Story: Valentine starts as we see a high school kid getting rejected and embarrassed at a school dance, after he asks for a dance, move forward to college time, Shelley (Heigl) a medical student is murdered. The four remaining friends Paige (Richards), Kate (Shelton), Dorothy (Capshaw) and Lily (Cauffiel) reunite because of the funeral, seeing the old friends getting twisted valentine’s day cards.
When the women start getting stalked they realize they might be getting attacked by the former high school student, but nobody knows where he is now, leading to a host of boyfriends or ex-lovers become the suspects.
Thoughts on Valentine
Characters – Kate is the nice one of the girls, she was the only one that didn’t reject Jeremy at the dance, she is in a struggling relationship with her best friend trying to help her move on, she hasn’t given up on her partner yet. Paige is the flirty one of the group, known for sleeping around but confident about what she does, she will shoot down any unwanted advances and be the one that sticks up for the girls. Dorothy is another one of the girls from a rich family that has grown up to improve herself always self-conscious of her image. Lily is leaving for LA and is like Paige only just not as successful, willing to give artists a chance. Adam is Kate’s boyfriend, he has a drinking problem and to keep her, he needs to improve his act, which he is trying to do. The sad thing about the women characters in this film, is that they only seem to care about whether they have a boyfriends or not, nothing else is made out to be important in any means.
Performances – We have a cast here which does everything they need to, Marley does make us feel like the girl next door, Denise Richards is a flirty seductive character works well and David Boreanaz as the boyfriend with problems does work too, the two Jessicas does well too, with Capshaw showing the insecurities she is feeling and Cauffiel being the confident bubbly one.
Story – The story here follows five friends that are getting stalked on valentine’s day with them believing it is a high school kid that once embarrassed at a high school dance years before. Let’s start by making sure we know this is a slasher film, with the story that doesn’t need to be that deep in how everything unfolds. The characters are never going to be that deep with most of these being horrendously written to be unrealistic, we have women who are only interested in whether they have boyfriends and who are only interested in men that let them down in different ways. The only thing this does is introduce us to a string of different potential suspects who could be the grown up former student. The smartest part of the film comes from the kills on the main group, while another weakness would come from the random deaths, which just don’t make sense to what the calculated plan is.
Horror/Mystery – This is one of the horror films that grabbed the slasher era of late 90’s early 2000’s well, it is pure slasher material and an ease to watch. The mystery here comes from just who the killer could be, we do get plenty of suspects, though the killer does seem to kill the suspects that would make the most sense.
Settings – The film here is set in a big city, one that people do want to get out off and the one the girls grew up in, they have their own lives, which see them being targeted by the killer.
Special Effects – The effects are used for the injuries which work, without needing to be anything more or going for fancy over the top kills.
Scene of the Movie – Hot tub time.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Certain side kills are just too random to the plan.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun slasher that while it does have flaws, you could easily watch with a drink or two and enjoy the events of the genre done correctly.
Overall: Pure Slasher Horror Fun.
