Valentine - Appuntamento con la morte

"Valentine" is another horror movie to add to the stalk and slash movie list (think "Halloween", "Friday the 13th", "Scream", and "I Know What You Did Last Summer"). It certainly isn't as good as those movies that I have listed about, but it's better than most of the ripoffs that came out after the first "Friday the 13th" film. One of those films was the 1981 Canadian made "My Bloody Valentine", which I hated alot. "Valentine" is a better film than that one, but it's not saying much. The plot: a nerdy young boy is teased and pranked by a couple of his classmates at the beginning of the film. Then the film moves years later when those classmates are all grown up, then they're picked off one-by-one. The killer is presumed to be the young boy now all grown up looking for revenge. But is it him? Or could it be somebody else? "Valentine" has an attractive cast which includes Denise Richards, David Boreanaz, Marley Shelton, Jessica Capshaw, and Katherine Heigl. They do what they can with the material they've got, but a lackluster script doesn't really do them any justice. There are some scary moments throughout, however.

** (out of four)

This movie is both horrible and amazing at the same damn time! I love any slasher in this time period early 2000's. Typical slasher if that's your kind of thing I'd definitely watch

A loose adaptation of a novel by Tom Savage, the 21st century, post-"Scream" slasher "Valentine" offers adequate entertainment, but not much more. It doesn't offer much that is fresh or interesting. Of course, it may still appeal to die hard lovers of this time-honored formula, especially the way that it concentrates on a very attractive, largely female cast. A bunch of friends start to get threatened and then killed by a mystery murderer who wears a creepy cherub mask. It just MIGHT be that geek whom the girls spurned back in junior high, but they can't know for sure.

Amusingly, many of the male characters are portrayed as being smarmy, self-serving jerks. Even nice guy Adam (David Boreanaz) has a character flaw; he's a sportswriter with a weakness for the bottle. It is because this particular slasher is so female-centric that it works to any degree. Some horror fans may appreciate the fact that director Jamie Blanks ("Urban Legend", "Storm Warning") downplays gore (for the most part, there are still some violent moments) in favor of straight suspense. All in all, the film is slick, and watchable, but hardly inspired, going through its paces with some competency but no nuance.

The cast doesn't rise above their material, but the gorgeous ladies (Denise Richards, Jessica Cauffiel, Katherine Heigl, etc.) and the hunky Boreanaz are entertaining enough to watch. Marley Shelton is the main focus as Kate, herself a journalist who is trying to learn to trust Adam (Boreanaz) again. In an amusing twist, even the requisite detective on the case (Fulvio Cecere) turns out to be a lech.

There is a prominent plot point involving nosebleeds that had some veteran horror fans recalling the 1982 thriller "Alone in the Dark", which did the same thing more memorably. The story plays out in a way familiar to any "Friday the 13th" series fan, where you have a final girl discovering various dead bodies during the final act.

You could certainly do better than this, but you could also definitely do worse.

Six out of 10.

The picture begins in the 1980s at a High school party, a young geeky named Jeremy Malton is insulted and humiliated by young girls and boys.Years later the same girls(Katherine Heigl,Marley Shelton,Denise Richards,Jessica Caufield,Jessica Capshaw),nowadays grown-up and beauties are threatened by someone who send them a rare Valentine's day cards.After one of the girls is brutally murdered in the anatomy lab by someone wearing a cherub mask.Later are killed one at time,always appearing the masked psycho-killer.Then ,the Police inform them which Jeremy has not been seen from many years ago,and are suspects all their boyfriends(David Boreanaz: Bones, among other).

This slasher packs suspense,terror,gory killing and beautiful girls.The chief excitement lies in seeing what new and spectacular death can be executed by the cruel murderer that seems to dispatch some new victim every few minutes of runtime.The picture gets restless horror,shocks,tension and takes accent as the suspense as well as the terror when the gory murders happen.In the wake from ¨Prom night,Scream and I still knows what you did last summer¨,the movie take parts here and there of these movies.It's all frightening entertaining ,if predictable but we have seen the previous films,but also its predictability is redeemed in part by the wonderful protagonists.The film displays a colorful cinematography by Rick Bota and adequate music score by Don Davis(Matrix and sequels,Jurassik Park III).The motion picture is professionally directed by Jamie Blanks,he's composer and director and made a similar film titled ¨Urban legend¨.The movie will like to psycho-killer genre enthusiastic but gets some decent scares and a twisted ending. Rating : Average but entertaining.

Ok. I'll say it right now - I'm NOT a fan of 1990's horror. Scream, I Know What You Did, etc... they can do without me. I'm a fan of 80's slashers, though - and the Italian horror films of Fulci and Argento.

While Valentine does share much with it's 1990's brothren (hot young cast, pulsating soundtrack), it also has much to share with 80's slasher flicks, and the films of Argento (please, fans of the maestro do not crucify me yet).

First an explanation of the 80's comparison, it should be a fairly obvious comparison. A young boy is tormented and rejected by his schoolmates, and comes back later to seek revenge. If that wasn't typical enough of the 80's, he also dispatches of victims in a way that reminds me of Prom Night. It's a very nice - you know who it is, but you don't - type of feel. As for comparing Valentine with Dario Argento's films - just look at the style of the killer, and then view "Tenebre." The black gloves, the relentless stalking, and even the death scenes (at times) could be seen as "style over substance."

All in all, Valentine is a fun, but sometimes slow moving, horror flick that is just a cut above the average horror films of late. It might not be such a big improvement, but it's definitely an effort.