Valentine is a 2001 horror film directed by Jamie Blanks, and starring Denise Richards, Marley Shelton, Jessica Capshaw and Katherine Heigl.
The film is loosely based on the book of the same name by Tom Shaw.
Plot
At a junior high school dance in 1988, outcast student Jeremy Melton asks four popular girls to dance. Three girls, Shelley, Lily and Paige reject him cruelly; while the fourth girl, Kate, kindly answers that perhaps she would later. Their overweight friend Dorothy accepts Jeremy's invitation and they proceed to secretly make out underneath the bleachers. When a group of school bullies discover the pair, Dorothy claims that Jeremy sexually assaulted her, causing the boys to publicly strip and severely beat him up, and his nose bleeds heavily. Later in the film, Paige reveals Jeremy was sent to a reform school as punishment for his alleged "assault".
Thirteen years later, Shelley, a medical student, is at the morgue practicing for her medical exams. After receiving a vulgar Valentine's card and being pursued by a killer wearing a Cupid's mask, Shelley's throat is slit as she hides in a body bag; the killer's nose is seen to bleed as he performs the act. Her friends are questioned at her funeral but nothing is concluded. All the girls except Kate and Paige receive cards in the same fashion as Shelley, and upon contacting the police, they agree that the culprit could be Jeremy Melton. Soon afterwards, Lily receives a box of chocolates and a card which says "You are what you eat". She then takes a bite of one of the chocolates, and vomits upon realizing that there are maggots inside the chocolates. Dorothy (Jessica Capshaw) also receives a card, which reads "Roses are red, Violets are blue, They'll need dental records to identify you".
As the girls attend Lily's artist boyfriend Max's exhibit, they meet Campbell's bitter ex-girlfriend Ruthie who tells them off. Lily is isolated and 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 out for LA on a work trip. As Valentine's Day approaches, Dorothy is planning a theme party at her house. Campbell is killed the day of the party as he relights the hot water, after being revealed as a con-man who is using Dorothy to gain access to her vast inheritance. The others assume he has simply left Dorothy after duping her, angering Dorothy, who believes that they are jealous. 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 on the glass. At the party, Paige is attacked and trapped in a hot tub by the killer, who proceeds to try and kill her with a drill. After cutting her, he opens the lid of the hot tub and throws the electric drill into the water, electrocuting her.
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. 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 ring tone outside the house and discovers the detective's severed head in the pond.
Kate then 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 multiple dead bodies. She locates a gun, but someone in the Cupid's mask tackles Kate, knocking the gun from her hand and sending them both tumbling down a staircase. The supposed killer arises and is shot by Adam, shocking and confusing Kate. As she apologizes profusely, Adam pulls off the Cupid's mask to reveal the killer as 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, after Kate has fallen asleep on his chest as they wait for the police to arrive, his nose begins to bleed, revealing that he is Jeremy Melton after all. The screen cuts to black followed by a scream, then the credits roll.
List of deaths
| No. | Name | Cause of Death | Killer | On Screen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Jeremy's mother and father | Fire | N/A | No | Mentioned |
| 3. | Shelley Fisher | Throat slit with kitchen knife | Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton | Yes | Revenge for cruelly rejecting him |
| 4. | Lily Voight | Shot 3 times through stomach with arrows, fell over 5th floor stairway/lands in dumpster | Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton | Yes | Revenge for cruelly rejecting him |
| 5. | Gary Taylor | Head bludgeoned/pressed against face/head bludgeoned twice more with hot iron | Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton | Yes | |
| 6. | Campbell Morris | Axed in back | Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton | Yes | |
| 7. | Milly | Impaled in stomach with kitchen knife | Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton | No | |
| 8. | Ruthie Walker | Thrown through shower glass door, impaled through throat by broken glass shard | Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton | Yes | |
| 9. | Paige Prescott | Arm impaled with electric drill through lid, electric drill thrown into hot tub/electrocuted | Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton | Yes | Revenge for cruelly rejecting him |
| 10. | Detective Leon Vaughn | Decapitated | Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton | No | Head found in pool |
| 11. | Dorothy Wheeler | Thrown down stairs, chest shot 7 times with handgun | Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton | Yes | Framed:Revenge for framing him of assaulting her, getting him bullied, getting him expelled from school, getting him arrested, getting him in juvy, having him sent to reform school, having him sent to a mental hospital and ruining his life. |
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
- Melissa Burns as Melissa Burns
Production
David Boreanaz shot all his scenes in less than 2 weeks. Katherine Heigl only had 3 days to shoot her scenes as she was already committed to the television series Roswell.
Blanks later said in an interview, "Forgive me for [Valentine]. A lot of people give me grief for that, but we did our best."
Original cast
The project originated at Artisan Entertainment with producer Dylan Sellers and a different director and cast members. Richard Kelly was originally offered the chance to direct, but he turned the offer down. 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' role of Paige. In the original cast, Tara Reid who also starred in Jamie Blanks' first movie Urban Legend was to play Dorothy Wheeler, and Jennifer Love Hewitt was to play Paige Prescott.
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" by Static-X, "Superbeast (Porno Holocaust Mix)" by Rob Zombie, "Valentine's Day" by Marilyn Manson, and "Opticon" by Orgy.
Reception
Valentine made $20,384,136 in the United States and Canada and a total gross of $36,684,136, allowing the film to surpass its $29 million budget. At [Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film received a poor rating of 14% from Cream of the Crop and 9% from critics, 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."
Videos
Valentine (2001) - Modern Trailer
