Valentine

By-the-numbers slasher is entertaining

In the San Francisco area, five girls in 6th Grade reject a boy’s polite offer to dance with one of them falsely accusing him of assaulting her. Thirteen years later, when they’re all about 25 years-old, the women start receiving macabre valentines before their gruesome deaths. Who’s killing them and why?

"Valentine" (2001) was made by the director of “Urban Legend” (1998), which gives you an idea of what to expect. Like “Urban Legend” and the overrated “Scream” (1996), there’s a wink of parody, but it’s done better and is actually amusing, not to mention disappears by the second half.

Unlike those flicks, “Valentine” wasn’t successful at the box office, but I like it better. Sure, it’s a standard slasher with the tropes thereof, but I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It’s similar in tone to “April Fool’s Day” (2008), just superior.

The notable female cast includes: Marley Shelton (Kate), Jessica Capshaw (Dorothy), Katherine Heigl (Shelley), Jessica Cauffiel (Lily), Denise Richards (Paige) and Hedy Burress (Ruthie). On the other side of the gender spectrum there’s David Boreanaz (Adam), Fulvio Cecere (Detective Vaugn) and Daniel Cosgrove (Campbell).

The rockin’ soundtrack is good, featuring acts popular at the turn-of-the-century, like Rob Zombie, Disturbed, Linkin Park, Deftones and so forth.

The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Riverview Hospital in nearby Coquitlam.

GRADE: B/B-