The MixTape podcast · Movie Review Podcast

Valentine ''2001'' film

March 23, 2026·53 min·3 clips

Lily opens Valentine chocolates and finds maggots inside.

1. The Mixtape Podcast reviews Valentine (2001), a horror film directed by Jamie Blanks and written by Donna Powers, Wayne Powers, Gretchen Jayberg, and Aaron Harberts from Tom Savage’s novel. 2. Dean hosts the episode and Marcelo joins him, and Dean says he is a horror connoisseur while Marcelo had never seen Valentine before. 3. The episode asks whether Valentine works as a slasher built around fifth-grade and junior-high humiliation, bloody Valentine cards, and a masked killer. 4. Dean describes the opening dance scene where Jeremy asks Lily, Shelley, Paige, Kate, and Dorothy to dance and gets rejected or mocked. 5. The hosts focus on Dorothy saying yes, Jeremy making out under the bleachers, and the boys beating him after she accuses him of forcing himself on her. 6. Dean notes the cherub mask in the background and likes that the opening credits are intercut with the story instead of running for five straight minutes. 7. The episode then jumps 13 years forward to Shelley, now a doctor-in-training, working in a morgue and finding a Valentine card in her locker. 8. That card reads, “The journey of love is an arduous trek. My love grows for you as you bleed from your neck,” before Shelley turns back to a corpse that starts breathing. 9. Dean and Marcelo describe the long black coat, the baby cherub mask, the cool room, and the killer stabbing body bags before slitting Shelley’s throat. 10. Dean points out the nosebleed that follows each killing and treats it as the film’s recurring clue that ties the murders back to the dance. 11. The episode moves to the surviving women as older Paige and Kate go speed dating, older Lily and Dorothy reconnect, and a detective starts asking about Jason Marquette. 12. Dean jokes that the speed-dating men talk only about themselves, while Marcelo says David Boreanaz’s Adam immediately sounds suspect when he asks Kate for another chance. 13. Dorothy receives a card that says, “roses are red, violets are blue, they'll need dental records to identify you,” signed “J.M.,” which the hosts treat as another clue pointing to Jeremy Melton. 14. Lily later opens Valentine chocolates, bites into one, and finds maggots, and Paige links the anonymous cards to Jeremy from sixth grade. 15. Dean likes the prop work on the Valentine cards and says the film makes the clues look elaborate even when the mystery is becoming obvious. 16. The art-show maze sequence sends Lily into a shot-and-fall death, and the hosts call it one of the film’s standout kills. 17. Marcelo says the movie uses the suspect pool well by introducing Adam, Campbell, Jason Marquette, the detective, and Kate’s creepy neighbor as possible threats. 18. Dean and Marcelo keep describing the tone as late-1990s and early-2000s teen horror, with sarcasm, gross-out humor, and practical slasher beats. 19. This episode suits viewers who like early-2000s slashers, suspect games, and scene-by-scene horror breakdowns. 20. It will skip best for listeners who want subtle mystery writing or dislike repeated red-herring talk.

As heard by us

A lively Valentine slasher discussion with sharp scene work and occasional fuzzy tracking.

Mixtape Podcast treats Valentine as a slasher that is easy to revisit with affection, and the hosts keep that tone steady. Dean and Marcelo move through the 2001 film with recap, character reads, and kill by kill reactions, which gives the conversation a nice pace.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

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Want a Valentine slasher recap that treats the movie like a real film?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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