Valentine
Valentines Day - school party. Jeremy Melton faces humiliation as one after another, girls he asks for a dance humiliate him in front of the school, finally resulting in the ultimate school humiliation.
Valentines Day - school party. Jeremy Melton faces humiliation as one after another, girls he asks for a dance humiliate him in front of the school, finally resulting in the ultimate school humiliation.
Forward 15 or so years. Four women are upset to hear that a friend has been viciously murdered. Shortly after they receive murderous valentines cards initialled "JM", and begin to suspect Jeremy Melton, the kid from school that they all picked on.
As time goes by, the women realise that they are being stalked by a mysterious man in a cherub mask, and begin to suspect every man in their lives, including alcoholic boyfriend Adam (Boreanaz), Yoga friend Campbell (Cosgrove) and even Detective Vaughn, who claims that Melton appears to have disappeared.
There is an attempt here to elevate the teen slasher genre to a higher level. Valentine is considerably less gory than its stable mates, but this actually spoils it. Most of the violence, by the director's admission, is left to the imagination, but this somehow reduces the suspense. The killer is also quite smart in despatching and hiding the victims, but this means that future victims don't realise that they are in peril. Consequently there's little acting necessary, as the characters go about their business with gay abandon. Of course this is the only way the director could justifiably get Denise Richards alone in a bikini (thanks for that), but it flattens the emotion of the movie, leaving small pockets of tension whilst you wait for somebody to jump out of the shadows. This works well in the first ten minutes, but gets a bit tiresome by the finale. There are some neat bits - the multimedia gallery is a cool idea, and well executed, but is spoilt by some poor execution at the crescendo, a recurring theme through some nice set pieces.
The film also tries to be smart by keeping you guessing the bad guy until the end, but I found it rather obvious. The killer gets so much more screen time than any of the other suspects, you have a fair idea after about 20 minutes. This leads me to the real problem with this movie - trying to be smart. In attempting to be something a little different, it fails to elevate itself above even the average slasher movies. Most of the acting is two dimensional, with disappointing performances from all of the leads. The idea is neat, but it is executed poorly.
For the DVD, a colourful anamorphic transfer is complemented by excellent use of surround sound on the DD5.1 track. It is particularly good in the opening morgue scene, where the occasional noise on the rear channels raises the tension to the highest it gets. The director's commentary is interesting enough, Blanks is obviously a real horror fan and talks enthusiastically about his movie. You also get an 8-minute behind the scenes documentary, which is quite good, but should have been longer. It also shows deleted scenes, without dialogue, that are not featured elsewhere on the disk, which is rather annoying. On top of this a music video and trailer complete the package.
Overall a competent enough movie that could have been so much better if it hadn't tried to be so smart.
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