Throwback Thursday: Valentine (2001)

Roses are red….

In 1996, Wes Craven breathed new life into the stagnant slasher genre with Scream. It spawned a number of popular sequels and a slew of copycat films including Urban Legend and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Eventually the genre began to lose its appeal and studios attempted to revive it by injecting supernatural elements into the fray as in films like Final Destination. One of the last films to be released during the 90s slasher revival was Valentine, a 2001 film that followed the tried and true formula of a vengeful serial killer taking out those that wronged him in the past. It also utilized many of the same tropes that made other films in the genre very popular including a relatively new one introduced in Scream. While that movie listed Drew Barrymore as one of the stars, she was quickly offed at the beginning of the movie. In Valentine (spoiler alert), another popular actress was given top billing and dispatched immediately after the establishment of the the villain’s backstory. That actress was Katherine Heigl, who was riding a wave of success thanks to starring turns the television series Roswell and films like Bride of Chucky and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.

Heigl wasn’t the only popular actor in the film. Both Denise Richards (Wild Things, Starship Troopers) and David Boreanaz (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel) were enjoying solid careers at the time of the film’s release. Jessica Cauffiel was in the early stages of a career that includes supporting roles in popular films like Legally Blonde and White Chicks and regular guest roles on television series such as My Name Is Earl. Not to be outdone, the other primary stars of the film, Marley Shelton and Jessica Capshaw, have both had stellar careers. Shelton is perhaps best known for appearing as Wendy Peffercorn in The Sandlot and Judy Hicks in two films in the Scream franchise. She currently stars in the series 1923, a Yellowstone spinoff. Capshaw, while appearing in a number of films over the years, carved out a stellar career on television in Grey’s Anatomy and The Practice. Hedy Burress, Johnny Whitworth, and Noel Fisher also have roles in the film.

In the film, we learn how Jeremy Melton, a lonely outsider at the local junior high Valentine’s Day dance, is cruelly blown off by three popular girls in quick succession. A fourth girl, Kate, tells him that she might dance with him later. A fifth girl, the “slightly chubby but popular because she’s rich” Dorothy, accepts Jeremy’s request and ends up making out with him under the bleachers. Discovered by a group of bullies, Dorothy denies that she willingly made out with Jeremy and accuses him of attacking her. The bullies strip Jeremy to his underwear and humiliate him in front of the other kids at the dance. His nose begins to bleed. We are then taken thirteen years into the future where we see one of the mean popular girls, Shelley (Heigl), working on a cadaver in college. She is attacked and murdered by a mysterious person in a black coat and a creepy Cupid mask after receiving a cryptic Valentine’s Day card signed “JM.” A detective questions the four remaining girls at Shelley’s funeral and learns that all but one of them have recently entered into new relationships. The boyfriends immediately become suspects and Paige (Richards), who is unattached, begins to receive advances from the detective. As the story continues, the remaining girls begin receiving Valentine’s Day cards from “JM.” The killer, listed as “The Cherub” in the film credits, then murders Lily (Voight) at her boyfriend’s art show. The other girls assume that she is on a business trip out of town when the detective questions them yet again. Then the Cherub turns his attention to a Valentine’s Day party at Dorothy’s house. Dorothy (Capshaw), Paige, and Kate (Shelton) have to battle the Cherub in an attempt to stay alive. Who lives? Who dies? Who is the Cherub? Watch Valentine in order to find out!

Yes, Valentine is a generic slasher flick that utilizes a ton of genre tropes. The killer is easy to pick out and director Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend) doesn’t even try that hard to throw the audience off during the film. There is a slight twist at the end that, in all honesty, does nothing to make the audience second guess itself. What really sets this movie apart is that the core cast is all female and the guys that are in the film are essentially window dressing with the exception of the killer. That’s pretty cool in my book, but it isn’t enough to save this film from being just another generic slasher film. I enjoyed watching it but I wouldn’t necessarily rush out to watch it again. If you’re hungry for a decent little slasher flick with an especially cool looking villain, check out Valentine.

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