A predictable teeny slasher movie which scores thanks to a wealth of explicit and gruesome death sequences, a few good jumps, and some nice stalk 'n' slash routines which are handled well by enthusiastic Australian director Jamie Blanks (who cut his horror teeth on URBAN LEGEND). Blanks seems to have his heart in the right place - after all he is a big horror fan - and indeed with the right material he could be the break that the genre is currently looking for. In the meantime, VALENTINE is fairly mindless fodder, appeasing enough but nothing that you wouldn't expect from the premise. Although the movie is fairly slow paced when it comes to the action, it's plot heavy stuff with plenty of minor characters and red herrings to keep the viewer on his/her toes and the running time pretty much flies by; rarely was I having to resort to checking my watch as I sometimes do with new releases.The death scenes are the one element of the film that do show some originality about them. Victims are killed in novel fashions, with weapons such as irons, hot tubs, even a bow and arrow in one macabre and violent romance-inspired game. The appearance of the killer, in a creepy cherub mask and black clothing, is a fairly memorable one (a lot better than the boring parka-clad fencing-mask-wearing murderer in URBAN LEGEND, that's for sure) and there are some okayish suspense bits going on here, my favourite being at the beginning with the macabre yet methodical stabbing of the corpses in the body bags, whilst another murder at a weird media art exhibition is disorientatingly good.On the downside, the characters are grating and unappealing and the story appears to have been borrowed wholesale from SCREAM, following a very strict and unremarkable plot to the unsurprising end which nonetheless finishes ambiguously, which makes a nice change from the usual run-of-the-mill productions which feel it necessary to tie up every single loose end. The casting is fairly average; the young actresses are good enough to carry themselves but the ante has been upped in the youth horror genre as of late and none of them excel as they perhaps should. The biggest offender is Denise Richards who is more than happy to play a one-dimensional bitchy character and who grates on the nerves throughout. David Boreanaz appears briefly but is largely wasted, at least until the end. At the end of the day, you can safely miss watching VALENTINE and not worry about anything remarkable that you lost out on seeing; however, if you want some slick, glossy, well-made and occasionally stylish thrills then you could do a LOT worse than this, what with all the junk on the Blockbuster shelves at the moment.

Someone is killing young women who have a connection to one another - they all knew and/or bullied a boy in junior high school. We first see a Valentine's Day dance held in the high school in 1988. Jeremy Melton is a loner, some might even say a geek. He asks five girls his age for a dance. Most of them turn him down rudely EXCEPT for Dorothy. They get caught making out by some bullies and those bullies humiliate him in front of the whole school. Fast forward thirteen years - the girls are all grown up and are (for the most part) successful women. Pretty soon they, and others, start getting picked off by a mysterious serial killer who stalks them wearing a cupid mask. Could that boy they bullied and make fun of be the killer all grown up, or is the culprit someone new? Perhaps one of the girls' boyfriends?I really enjoyed 'Valentine' when I first saw it years ago. Is it a pretty sophisticated horror film. It's got a beautiful cast, gorgeous location shot, clearly a decent sized budget.. and it's actually scary! There is something unsettling about the killers' mask. It's a cupid mask, but from afar it sort of resembles Michael Myers' mask from the Halloween films. It was really creepy and some of the stalking scenes were just as creepy. The killer goes after his victims in a college campus, a small apartment, a mansion - all the location spots work in this movie. Lots of tense moments when he appears. There isn't a ton of blood, so the gore-hounds might be disappointed. I thought it was a decent amount. It didn't add or take away from the story.Some very good acting in this as well, especially by Marley Shelton, Jessica Capshaw and Denise Richards. I loved Jessica Cauffiel in this as the quirky Lily, but her role was sort of small and she was underused much like Katherine Heigl. I thought "Valentine" (for the year it was made in) was a cut above most slasher/horror flicks. It isn't just some silly average horror movie, it's got class and a certain kind of edge that separates it from others made around this time. The ending, without giving anything away, is also pretty terrifying in my opinion... Good movie all around. I recommend it!8/10

So I've just finished watching Valentine, and for those of you who don't like reviews that are too long - let me start off by saying it's definitely worth the watch. Good ol' late 90's Slasher/Thriller. My main problem with such films is that they are tagged/labeled as Horror. Having a killer in a film, even this kind of stalking creepy killer, doesn't make a movie Horror. There are many films that resemble Valentine in many aspects and features that weren't labeled as Horror, so why? Because it had blood in it? Just my opinion.Valentine, as I said, one of the better Slasher/Thriller films of the new millennium. It has all the makings of suspense and "on edge" sensation. I personally found the dialogues to be superb, absolutely my favorite part of the film, especially the "letter from hell" style Valentine cards and Gary's discussion with Kate. Respect to all 4 screenwriters (and of course to Tom Savage, writer of the novel). Also, great soundtrack! Really enjoyed the music.As for acting, it was also good, especially Denise Richards who really aced the role of the flirty-slutty member of the group (none of the actresses lacked good looks, and still Richards really manages to stick out). Nice work also by David "Angel" Boreanaz who really managed to get into the role of the guilt-ridden slightly neurotic boyfriend with the drinking problem, although his "drunk act" wasn't all that convincing.As for the story - nothing special about it, basic Slasher type revenge tale. It appeared that I hadn't really understood the ending before I read about it in the message boards here, but it was also good. Could have used a better, smarter and slightly more obvious twist to it, a good twist is what makes a good slasher great.All in all, Valentine is definitely a worth while film that I'm glad I got to watch, even 11 years after it's release. Recommended!

This film is severely underrated. It does not deserve to be such negatively reviewed. One should maybe watch it as a giallo film, not a random mystery slasher film like Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer. Its stylish and beautiful camera-work as well as sets and locations, creative and brutal death scenes, superb soundtrack, intense chase scenes, a mysterious plot and a quite cheesy finale are all points that can make the film a giallo movie, but an American one and has slightly lesser investigations of the murderer going on. For those who do not know what what a giallo film is, I recommend you watching Italian thrillers like Deep Red, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage or Tenebre and you will know what I mean. A giallo film does not need to be as scary as Halloween or Friday the 13th but instead stylish and mysterious, so does Valentine. However, I felt that the ending should be better and have more twists and turns because it is not climatic and it is quite predictable.