Valentine (2001)

thriller
directed by : Jamie Blanks
featuring : David Boreanaz - Denise Richards - Marley Shelton - Jessica Capshaw - Jessica Cauffel
running time : 1 hour 36 minutes
The novel of the same name by author Tom Savage becomes this horror film starring Marley Shelton as Kate Davies. Kate's in a troubled relationship with journalist Adam Carr (David Boreanaz), a problem drinker, but she receives support from her best friends, the same four girls she's known since grade school: Paige Prescott (Denise Richards), Dorothy Wheeler (Jessica Capshaw), Lily Voight (Jessica Cauffel), and Shelly Fisher (Katherine Heigl). When Shelly is murdered and the other girls begin receiving gruesome Valentine's Day cards signed "JM," they begin to speculate that the killer could be an awkward schoolmate named Jeremy Melton, whom they once teased mercilessly at a school dance, leading to his beating and humiliation. Dorothy in particular is afraid that a false accusation she made against Jeremy might be causing him to seek bloody retribution, but the macho detective (Fulvio Cecere) assigned to investigate Shelly's murder has some other suspects in mind. As the body count is racked up and Dorothy's lavish Valentine's Day party approaches, Kate begins to suspect that the true identity of Jeremy, who likely underwent plastic surgery to alter his appearance, could hit very close to home. Valentine is the second slasher flick from Urban Legend (1998) director Jamie Blanks.

After the trio of Scream films and a handful of spoofs such as Scary Movie (2000) deconstructed the slasher-movie genre, this predictable, by-the-numbers horror picture from genre director Blanks seems remarkably redundant. Grisly knife slayings, increasingly "creative" means of dispatch, a masked killer, the one-by-one nature of the murders, the holiday setting, and a guess-who's-the-villain finale are just a few of the cliches piled on this seen-it-all-before thriller. Blanks is certainly a competent director and manages to create some stirring visuals, even wringing suspense from one stalk-and-hunt sequence involving the shrewish, jilted ex-girlfriend (Hedy Burress) of a playboy suspect. Blanks' stylish cleverness is pointless, however, as it's in the service of a hackneyed tale that's been oft and better told. Two decades earlier, when the paint was still drying on this genre, Valentine might have been considered a prime example of the type, but in the early next century, it's further proof of how tired and flaccid the formula has become.