Valentine is a 2001 slasher film directed by Jamie Blanks and starring Denise Richards, David Boreanaz, Marley Shelton, Jessica Capshaw, and Katherine Heigl. Based on the novel of the same title by Tom Savage, the film follows a group of women in San Francisco who are stalked by a killer wearing a Cupid mask in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day.

Released theatrically on February 2, 2001, the film was critically panned, with critics deeming it too similar to 1980s slasher films. The film earned $36.7 million on a $29 million budget. The film’s accolades included nominations for three Teen Choice Awards.

At a junior high school St. Valentine’s Day dance in 1988 San Francisco, Jeremy Melton, an outcast student, asks four popular girls to dance. The first three girls, Shelley, Lily, and Paige, reject him cruelly, while the fourth girl, Kate, politely responds, “Maybe later”. Their overweight, awkward friend Dorothy accepts Jeremy’s invitation, and they proceed to kiss behind the bleachers. When the school bully Joe and his pals discover them, Dorothy falsely claims Jeremy attacked her. Joe and his pals severely beat him and his nose bleeds from distress. Jeremy is expelled and transferred to reform school and juvenile hall, due to Dorothy, Shelley, Lily, Paige, and Joe all testifying for unwanted sexual advances; he then ended up in a mental institution.

Thirteen years later, Shelley, now a medical student, receives a threatening Valentine’s card and is attacked by someone in a trench coat and Cupid mask. She has her throat slit by the killer. The killer’s nose bleeds as she dies.