Valentine (film)

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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
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) 2 February 2001 (USA)
Running time 96 min.
Language English
Budget ~ US$29,000,000
IMDb profile

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 Valentine by Tom Savage.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Jeremy Melton, a geeky student, has five big crushes at the Junior High School Valentine's Dance. As he attempts to ask each girl out, they all turn him down, making crude comments (therefore foreshadowing their deaths). After the fourth girl turns him down, Dorothy accepts his offer and starts making out with Jeremy until some jocks find them kissing. Dorothy denies having feelings for him and says that Jeremy attacked her. The jocks chase Jeremy, humiliate him, and beat him.

Some 13 years later, Shelley (Heigl), now a pre-med, having dinner with Jason, a self-absorbed player. She declines to return to his house as she needs to study for a final. She later receives a death threat in the form of a Valentine's Day card. She is alone at the morgue when a man in a cupid mask attacks her with a scalpel. She runs from him, hiding in a body bag. He finds her and slits her throat. After her death, blood begins to drip from his nose through the mask.

The other four girls (Dorothy, Paige, Lily and Kate) meet at Shelley's funeral. A detective, Leon Vaughn, introduces himself and suggests them to that it may have been murder. At their apartment, Lily (Cauffield) and Paige (Richards) watch video dating tapes. A box of chocolates and a rose are delivered with a card signed "J.M.". Lily takes a bite of a chocolate, finding maggots inside. They try to figure out who J.M. is and Paige brings up Jeremy Melton, but they dismiss the idea.

In front of her apartment building, Kate has an awkward conversation with her estranged boyfriend Adam, a recovering alcoholic having difficulty staying sober. Later, in the shower, someone spooks her by turning off the water. She finds a cupid mask outside her apartment. At Lily's boyfriend's art show, Dorothy presents her new boyfriend Campbell to her friends. Lily's boyfriend tells the guests that the show has different sections for men and women. Lily finds her boyfriend with another woman inside the maze and storms off. She becomes separated from the others and the masked killer traps her. He shoots her with arrows, causing her to fall off a balcony into a dumpster. The girls assume Lily is angry about the breakup and has left for a trip to L.A.

Detective Vaughn begins investigating and Campbell is named as a suspect. The girls tell him about Jeremy Melton, but he is unable to find any recent information in the computer. The only photo available is of young Jeremy with his face badly bruised from the dance. Between 13 years and possible reconstructive surgery, Jeremy could be any of the young men in the women's lives. Vaughn makes a pass at Paige, but is rejected. Dorothy finally reveals to Kate and Paige that Jeremy did not attack her at the dance.

At her house, Dorothy asks Campbell to fix the heater in the basement where the masked killer kills him with an axe. That evening at her Valentine's Day party, Dorothy is disappointed when Campbell doesn't come. His ex-girlfriend, Ruthie, arrives looking for him and argues with Dorothy. While snooping around the house, Ruthie crosses paths with the killer who throws her through a glass window and kills her by impaling her neck on the broken glass. While Kate dances with Adam, Paige is expecting a man named Brian, whom she met while speed dating. Brian leads Paige upstairs hoping to get oral pleasure from her, though his expectations backfire as Paige ends up tying Brian to the bed and pours hot candle wax on his penis. Paige goes downstairs, and tells Kate that she's going to the hot tub to relax. Meanwhile, Kate catches Adam drinking and is disturbed by the way he acts.

Paige is in the hot tub when she receives champagne and a rose. She gets out and tries to find who she assumes is an admirer. Instead, the killer attacks her, throwing her into the hot tub and closing the cover. As she struggles for air, he uses an electric drill to puncture holes, hoping to hit her. He eventually hits her and the tub fills with blood. He opens the cover and throws the drill into the tub, electrocuting her in a bloody, watery grave. Her death knocks out the house's electrical system, ending the party prematurely. Kate and Dorothy start arguing that each other's boyfriends might have killed Shelley and Dorothy leaves in a huff. A drunk Adam asks Kate to dance with him. Kate runs away and he chases her all over the house. She discovers Paige's and Vaughn's bodies and finds a gun. Back in the main room, the killer's body drops on top of her from a closed door, causing them both to tumble down the stairs. The killer starts to stand and is shot to death by Adam. He removes the mask, revealing Dorothy's face. Kate assumes that Dorothy must have been killing out of jealousy, as she said in the argument she resented being 'the fat one' while the others were all thin and well-liked. The ordeal appears to be over until Adam's nose begins to bleed, revealing he is Jeremy.

[edit] 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, had she 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]

[edit] Cast

[edit] 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'.

[edit] Soundtrack

The musical score for Valentine was composed by Don Davis. The soundtrack also included the song 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.

[edit] Reception

Valentine made $20,384,136 domestically and a further $16,300,000 internationally, allowing the film to barely break even on it's $29 million budget[2]. The film received a poor rating of 16% from cream of the crop and 9% from critics from rotten tomatoes[3]


[edit] Irony

When Jeremy Melton asks each girl for a dance they each state a mean comment right after he asks them. This foreshadows each of their deaths.

  • Shelley
    • "In your dreams"
    • Dies lying down in a sleeping position.
  • Lily
    • "Eww!"
    • Receives maggots in a chocolate box and her body lands in a trash can.
  • Paige
    • "I'd rather be boiled alive"
    • Gets thrown into a hot tub and is later electrocuted.
  • Dorothy
    • "He attacked me!", she pretends she got "attacked". She makes everyone believe that it was all Jeremy's fault.
    • Jeremy makes everyone believe that all the killings were Dorothy's doing.
  • Kate
    • "Maybe later Jeremy"
    • Jeremy lets Kate live since she is the only girl that did not insult him.

[edit] References

  1. ^ » Storm Warning: Q&A with director Jamie Blanks
  2. ^ Valentine (2001). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-05-31.
  3. ^ Valentine Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-05-31.

[edit] External links

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