Valentine - Appuntamento con la morte

Scenario: Studio big wig to hack producer--"We need a horror film for Valentines day--give me a storyboard(sketch) by the end of the week!". Next Week: Hack producer shows scene of guy in cupid mask shooting preppy chicks with arrows, nothing else--what else can you do for Valentines day? Studio big wig: "We cant keep up a film for an hour and a half with that crap--steal stuff from every hackneyed horror film you can think of--especially 'Scary Movie'".

Next week hack producer produces about 20 minutes of cool death scenes with some half baked originality.

Studio big wig: "I like it! now get me a cheap ghost writer to fill in the other hour and I think I can get Denise Richards!"

That's pretty much it, throw in a few relatives of some semi-famous actors looking for a break and you have "Valentine".

A bunch of good looking slasher scenes looking for a plot.

I hope Denise makes it big before her looks go!

I really liked this movie. All my friends said that this movie was really stupid. But I decited to watch it anyway. I really liked this movie. I know its just another slasher movie but not too many movies that I know of has the theme of valentines day. I mean The killer has a valentine mask and kills people on valentines day. Some murders were really awesome and some were ok. I really liked the ending. Over all I'd like to wath this movie again. I recommend this movie to anyone who likes a good horror movie.

Valentine has a great premise. It takes all that Halloween stood for and tries to update it. It fails of course, but you have to give it full marks for trying. Where as a lot of films try to be original and fail at that as well, at least you can say that there is a masked killer in this film, he is incredibly strong, he walks and still catches his victims as they run and he finds original and quite disgusting ways of disposing of his victims. So I give the film credit for trying. But like most other films that have tried to follow in Screams footsteps, it does fail quite miserably.

Valentine is a story about a geeky kid that just wants to be accepted in the sixth grade. He is at a dance and asks all the pretty girls to dance and they all say no. Some of them are disgustingly mean to him and tell him that they would rather be boiled alive than to dance with him ( guess how that character dies? ). Then one heavy set girl decides she will make out with him and then when all the popular guys catch her doing it, she says that he forced himself on her and they beat the tar out of him and he is sent to reform school. That is the beginning and it is well done. It sets up the killer on the loose with a revenge plot quite nicely. We of course skip ahead about 15 years and we have beautiful women in college lined up to be slaughtered. The opening death is extremely laughable but has its moments of nice touches and subtle homages to films like Halloween. It is worth mentioning how the first woman is killed because it is a lesson in horror mythology of all the wrong things to do to attract a killer on the loose on a college campus.

A young woman just comes back from a disasterous date and decides that she is going to go do an autopsy at 11 o clock at night. Then to top it off, she is wearing a flimsy tank top, has large breasts and she decides to keep the lights off in the autopsy room, because, well you know, you don't need light to disect a human being. I started to ask myself why she was allowed to disect a corpse with no supervision this late and with no lights on seeing as she was only a med student. Horror movies are always filled with silly situations ( Friday the 13th's, no one wipes after they are finished in the bathroom, people always go to investigate noises and so on ) but this is one of the sillier ones. Then when she is grabbed by the corpse, instead of leaving, she stays in the room to see who it is. And then when the things chases her, she doesn't go for the door, she tries to hide in the other rooms. DUMB! DUMB! DUMB!

Figuring out who the killer is is fun, I must admit and they do a good job of concealing his identity until the end so you have to give it credit for that as well. But this is not really a scary film and it is not even a well done film. It had it's moments but when it leaves the theater, no one will really remember anything about it. Nothing really jumps out at you. I think Jamie Blanks has an idea of what it takes to scare an audience, he has probably tried to emulate many of the greats like Raimi, Hitchcock and Carpenter, but he can't quite seem to hit the perfect note. Maybe if he keeps trying he will get it because there are scenes in here that are close to perfection but then they end too abruptly or without the proper pay off. That is what made Halloween so elusive in it's brilliance. The pay off was so horrific and so perfect that to try to duplicate it is almost unfathomable. Valentine comes close but ultimately fails.

This is not as bad as some horror out there but it is not in the same league as some of the new horror films that have made audiences embrace horror again. Sixth Sense, Blair Witch, Stir Of Echoes, The Gift are all pretty good films. Valentine is on the brink.

6 out of 10

OK, I'm going to be honest with you. The only reason I want to watch this movie (well, the first time anyway) was because David Boreanaz is in it. I know, shallow, right? Well, this comedy thriller was actually pretty good!

One thing that I LOVED was that Kathrine Hiegl's name is on the front of the box and yet she was only in 10 minutes of this 96 minute movie. That's okay though. The beginning part at the dance, was very upsetting and, of course, I felt sympathy towards Jeremy Melton. I mean, if you don't you have some serious problems. This entire movie consisted of constant murders and suspense, you barely have time to breathe!; there isn't a lot of down-time.

Did anyone else get freaked out about the whole maze thing? God, that was one of the creepiest parts of the entire movie!! And then when Lily is trying to find a way out, all of the screens start to turn off or go all static-y, I'm scared for her!! In the background you hear people saying, "Don't walk away from me"s and "Love me"s and "What do you like to do"s. AND THOSE EYES!!! *shiver*

This is probably one of the only recent horror movies I've seen that had some reasonable actors! Most horror movies stink because of the acting, but this one was actually pretty good because of it! With the exception of Marley Shelton (Kate). I don't understand where she got her acting diploma! I did like one of her lines describing Adam (Boreanaz), "Well, he's no angel...". You know. Because of his role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel? Okay then...

The ending was a major plot twist! Throughout the entire movie you pretty much know who the culprit is, but you don't know WHO it is... Does that make any sense? Well, if you've seen the movie, then you should get what I'm saying. Overall, this movie is very good!

7/10 stars!

This movie, despite the low rating is NOT that bad. It is better then most of the teen movies that come out these days. (I liked it more then scream and I know what you did.....). I mean, its nothing ground breaking its just good scares and fun. Don't go into this movie expecting anything special...just some typical scares and it will make you jump at times. There are also a few good death scenes. Get your friends and go see this for a good time.....I give it 6/10