Valentine

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Valentine
Directed by	Jamie Blanks
Produced by	Dylan Sellers
Written by	Tom Savage (novel), Donna Powers, Aaron Harberts
Starring	Denise Richards, David Boreanaz, Marley Shelton, Katherine Heigl
Music by	Don Davis
Studio	Village Roadshow Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	2 February 2001 (USA)
Running time	96 min.
Language	English
Budget	~ US$10,000,000

Valentine is a 2001 horror film directed by Jamie Blanks, director of Urban Legend. It is a slasher film with a Valentine's Day twist. The film is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Tom Savage.

Plot Synopsis

At a school dance in 1988, outcast 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 friend Dorothy accepts Jeremy's invitation and they proceed to make out in privacy. When school bullies discover the two, Dorothy claims that Jeremy sexually assaulted her, causing the boys to publicly taunt and severely beat up Jeremy, his nose bleeding heavily.

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 in a Cupid's mask, Shelley's throat is slit as she hides in a body bag. It is noticed that the killer's nose bleeds 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 correspondence with the police; they guess that it could be Jeremy Melton.

As the girls attend Lily's artist boyfriend's exhibit, 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 haven't heard from Lily, the others assume she is interstate on a work trip. As Valentine's Day approaches, Dorothy is planning a theme party at her house. Her boyfriend Campbell is also killed the day of the party as he relights the hot water. The others assume he has simply left Dorothy after freeloading off her, angering Dorothy, who believes they are jealous. At the party, Paige is killed when she is attacked and trapped in a hot tub. The killer proceeds to try and kill her with a drill. After cutting her he lifts the lid off the hot tub and throws the electric drill in, 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 don't know anything about him, while Dorothy counters by accusing Adam, Kate's on-off recovering alcoholic boyfriend. After being told by Lily's boyfriend that Lily didn't arrive in Los Angeles, Kate realizes she too is probably dead, and calls the detective assigned to the case. She follows the sound of a ring tone outside the house and discovers the detective's severed head in the pond.

Convinced that Adam is actually Jeremy disguised by reconstructive surgery, Kate returns inside only to find Adam there. Disturbingly, he asks her to dance, but frightened, Kate knees him in the groin and escapes. Running through the house, she discovers multiple dead bodies. She locates a gun but someone in the cupid 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 apologies profusely, Adam pulls off the Cupid 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's always loved her. Moments later, after she has fallen asleep on his chest while they are both sitting and waiting for the police to arrive, his nose begins to bleed, indicating that he really is Jeremy Melton.

Production

Star David Boreanaz shot his scenes in less than two weeks. Katherine Heigl only had 3 days to shoot her scenes since she was already committed to TV's Roswell (1999). Heigl later revealed that, if she had read the entire script, she would not have joined the movie.^{[citation needed]}

Director Jamie Blanks later said in an interview, "Forgive me for [Valentine]. A lot of people give me grief for that, but we did our best."^[1]

Cast

• Marley Shelton as Kate Davies
• Denise Richards as Paige Prescott
• David Boreanaz as Adam Carr/Jeremy Melton
• 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
• Woody Jeffreys as Brian
• Adam Harrington as Jason Marquette
• Claude Duhamel as Gary Taylor
• Wyatt Page as Evan Wheeler
• Benita Ha as Kim Wheeler

Original cast

This project originally began at Artisan Entertainment with producer Dylan Sellers with a different director and cast members. Richard Kelly was originally offered the chance to direct, but turned the offer down. Hedy Burress originally auditioned for the role of Dorothy Wheeler, but that role was handed over to Capshaw. However, Blanks still wanted Burress to star in the film. They both looked at each other eye to eye and said "Ruthie," resulting in Burress having the role of Ruthie Walker. Jessica Cauffiel originally auditioned for Denise Richard's role of Paige. In the original cast, Tara Reid who also starred in Jamie Blanks's first film, Urban Legend (1998), 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 included the songs "Pushing Me Away" by Linkin Park, "God of the Mind" by Disturbed, "Love Dump" by Static-X, "Superbeast (Porno Holocaust Mix)" from Rob Zombie, "Valentine's Day" by Marilyn Manson and "Opticon" by Orgy.

Reception

Valentine made $20,384,136 domestically and a further $16,300,000 internationally, allowing the film to surpass its $10 million budget.^[2] The film received a poor rating of 16% from Cream of the Crop and 15% from critics at Rotten Tomatoes.^[3]

References

1. ^ » Storm Warning: Q&A with director Jamie Blanks
2. ^ "Valentine (2001)". Box Office Mojo. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=valentine.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-31. 
3. ^ "Valentine Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/valentine. Retrieved 2008-05-31. 

External links

• Valentine at the Internet Movie Database
• Valentine at Allmovie
• Valentine at Rotten Tomatoes
• Valentine at Box Office Mojo