History Characters / Valentine

* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Denise Richards was the biggest name in the film at the time of its release and her death marks the point where the party clears out, leaving only a handful of people to deal with the killer.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:The second half of the film is one long one for Dorothy. After Campbell goes missing, Dorothy starts binge-eating. Then she learns that her boyfriend wasn't the guy she thought he was. Finally, Dorothy lashes out at Kate, the last of her friends, for being "the popular one" while in denial about Campbell. All of this just makes her look suspicious.]]

* LightIsGood: In the opening scene where she politely turned Jeremy down in contrast to the rest of her friends, Kate wore a white dress.

* SacrificialLamb: [[spoiler:The first character to die in the film. Also counts as DeadStarWalking]].

* VillainProtagonist: While the film takes place from Kate's point of view, Jeremy's quest for revenge is given the most narrative weight as the main character of the opening scene and the fact that the film ends with him achieving his main goals: revenge on Dorothy and finding that Kate loves him.

!!!'''Played By:''' Fulvio Cecere

!!!'''Played By:''' Hedy Burress

* GenkiGirl: Lily is the most cheerful and energetic among the girls.

-->'''Adam''': ''[after drinking a glass of alcohol]'' There you are, I've been looking all over for you.

* {{Foil}}: To Kate. Campbell and Kate are the significant others of [[spoiler:Dorothy and Jeremy, the two people whose years-long conflict drives the plot. Both are "taken" from Dorothy in the second half of the film: Campbell by death, Kate by Jeremy making Dorothy lash out at her and make Kate believe she went on a killing spree. Both their significant others (Jeremy for Kate, Dorothy for Campbell) place a lot of their own self-worth on their partner. However while Kate never tried to manipulate Adam aside from wanting him to behave around her friends, Campbell wants Dorothy's money.]]

* ClassicVillain: If you consider him a villain. Despite not being a classic per se, he ticks a lot of the boxes. First, his sins are gluttony and wrath, with his "Adam" persona having a drinking problem while Jeremy is a SerialKiller whose anger drives the plot; this is contrasted with Kate being a NiceGirl who was even nice to Jeremy when they were young (which is why she's still alive at the end of the film). Outside of the cherub mask he wears while killing, Adam shows a preference for greens and dark blues coupled with a black coat while Paige is a LadyInRed and Kate wears [[TrueBlueFemininity lots of blue]]. Deceives the main characters and the audience into believing he's not a threat until the end of the film. Achieves half of his goals before the third act (and even [[TheBadGuyWins manages to achieve all of his goals]]). While the main characters are a group of friends [[WithFriendsLikeThese who bicker]], Adam is working alone, has no friends outside of Kate, and despite not having friends is highly competent and dangerous.

* GeniusBruiser: Jeremy isn't just a killing machine, he's put together a revenge scheme ranging over a decade and contingency plan doubling as a pièce de résistance.

* {{Leitmotif}}: A high-pitched piano line, starting out innocent but with darker tones that creep in.

* TranquilFury: Jeremy spends much of the film (and probably the last 13 years) in a state of controlled rage until he has the opportunity to strike, with little to show at how angry he is. His unmasked one scene with one of his targets (Dorothy) has him using an almost casual tone of voice which clashes horribly with the DeathGlare he affixes on her.

* RhymesOnADime: Makes three or four rhymes in an attempt to ask Kate out. "You look great, Kate. How about a date, Kate? You could be my mate, Kate... This could be our fate, Kate." Adam mentions a couple others he's made in the past: "Don't be late, Kate. You're first-rate, Kate." However, Gary appears to do this just to impress Kate, as he speaks in a more normal pattern when [[spoiler:he finds himself face-to-face with the killer]].

* FrameUp: Joe corroborated Dorothy, Paige, Lily, and Shelley's testimonies.
* KidsAreCruel: Teased Jeremy and Dorothy, then poured punch on him and beat him to a pulp.

[[AC:Kate Davies]]

->'''Played By:''' Creator/MarleyShelton, Brittany Mayers (young)

[[AC:Paige Prescott]]

->'''Played By:''' Creator/DeniseRichards, Chelcie Burgart (young)

[[AC:Dorothy Wheeler]]

->'''Played By:''' Creator/JessicaCapshaw, Kate Logie (young)

[[AC:Lily Voight]]

->'''Played By:''' Jessica Cauffiel, Chelsea Florko (young)

[[AC:Shelley Fisher]]

->'''Played By:''' Creator/KatherineHeigl, Sarah Mjanes (young)

->'''Played By:''' Creator/DavidBoreanaz, [[spoiler:Joel Palmer (young)]]

->'''Played By''': Creator/DanielCosgrove

->'''Played By''': Creator/JohnnyWhitworth

->'''Played By:''' Creator/DavidBoreanaz, Joel Palmer (young), Marshall Virtue (stuntman wearing Cupid Killer's costume)

->'''Played By''': Fulvio Cecere

->'''Played By''': Hedy Burress

->'''Played By''': Claude Duhamel

->'''Played By''': Creator/AdamJHarrington

->'''Played By''': Woody Jeffrys

->'''Played By''': Sterling [=McCray=] (Joe Tulga), Creator/NoelFisher, Cody Serpa, Mark Mullan

** For Kate: Paige doesn't think Kate should get back with Adam; it was her idea for Kate to do turbo-dating to take her mind off Adam and due to Adam's drinking problem, Kate should dump Adam. While Adam isn't the best boyfriend, the drinking [[spoiler:isn't the worst problem. He's also a SerialKiller.]]

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Despite the rough last exchange between him and Lily, he is genuinely concerned with her safety, hence why he asks Kate about Lily's whereabouts after not hearing from her for a week, completely unaware that [[spoiler:she's dead]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Dorothy started this whole mess by setting up Jeremy as a fall guy when they were seen by the bullies and she lied that he assaulted her to save face. So what does Jeremy/Adam do to her as his last victim? He knocks Dorothy out and puts her in his costume so that she bumps into Kate as she comes to, knocking them both down the stairs. When the disoriented Dorothy sits up, Jeremy/Adam guns her down and "unmasks" her, pinning all his crimes on her.]]

* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler:Killed at some point after Kate called him, with only his head being found.]]

** To Dorothy. Both have self-esteem issues stemming from being marginalized while growing up and took steps to make themselves more attractive (Dorothy exercised a lot, Jeremy had plastic surgery and also exercised), place a lot of their own self-worth on their significant others, and are good deceivers when the chips are down. Unlike Dorothy (and sadly for most everyone she knows), Jeremy is prepared to murder just so he can resolve his psychological issues.

* FreudianExcuse: Jeremy had some obsessive tendencies judging by his yearbook, but these were exacerbated after being framed for sexual assault, with his main focus in life being revenge. Vaughn lampshades this by saying that [the gals] "did a number on him."

* TranquilFury: Jeremy spends much of the film (and probably the last 13 years) in a state of controlled rage until he has the opportunity to strike, with little to show at how angry he is.

->'''Played By''': Adam J. Harrington

* {{Foil}}: To Kate. Campbell and Kate are the [[spoiler:significant others of the two people whose years-long conflict drives the plot and are "taken" from Dorothy in the second half of the film: Campbell by death, Kate by Jeremy making Dorothy lash out at her and make Kate believe she went on a killing spree. However while Kate never tried to manipulate Adam aside from wanting him to behave around her friends, Campbell wants Dorothy's money.]]

* {{Foil}}: To Kate. Campbell and Kate are the [[spoiler:significant others of the two people whose years-long conflict drives the plot and are "taken" from Dorothy in the second half of the film: Campbell by death, Kate by Jeremy making Dorothy lash out at her and make Kate believe she went on a killing spree. However while Kate never tried to manipulate Adam aside from wanting him to behave around, Campbell wants Dorothy's money.]]

** To Campbell. While both men are manipulating Dorothy, Campbell just wants her money; Jeremy wants her dead and her life ruined.

* InTheBack: [[spoiler:Gets killed when the killer swings an axe into his back.]]

* CasanovaWannabe: Shows signs of this trope, what with bringing his assistant for a threesome with Lily and making passes at Kate at Dorothy's party which are all rejected.

* MadeOfIron: Downplayed compared to other slasher villains but Jeremy takes a decent amount of damage with barely a moment or two spent recovering from wounds he suffers throughout the film that would otherwise incapacitate him. In the opening scene he gets stabbed in the leg and walks it off. In the climax he gets a pool cue smashed into his head, [[GroinAttack kneed in the crotch]], and a bottle smashed against his head and appears none the worse for wear by the end; he can even aim and shoot quite well.

* AcceptableTargets: In-universe, Paige likes to make fun of short men, as shown in her first scene after the TimeSkip where she talks about one of Kate's dates who lied about his height (Kate tries to cut her off at that point) and later on a neighbor who doesn't clear the peephole in a door when Lily's doorbell rings and she can't see the caller.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:In a film full of jerks being murdered, Dorothy probably takes the gold star as the person whose FalseRapeAccusation set everything in motion, culminating in her death.]]

* RecoveredAddict: Adam's been clean from drinking for a few weeks by the time the film begins. [[spoiler:He starts drinking near the end of the film though by its end it's suggested that he was never really as addicted as he made it look (in fact being a drunk would be a rather minor issue).]]

* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:Adam goes on a complete bender towards the end of the film thanks to falling OffTheWagon, begging a dance from Kate, declaring her the only good thing in his life, and asking her why she wants to hurt him. Subverted since the ending implies he [[ObfuscatingStupidity deliberately acted more off-kilter to lull Kate into a false sense of urgency]]. Or it's the Jeremy part of his personality leaking back in.]]

* MrFixit: Dorothy counts on him to do some of the maintenance around the house, much to his annoyance. He's relighting the pilot light to the water heater when [[spoiler:he gets killed]].

* MysteriousPast: Everything after winding up in the mental hospital and the film's main events is up in the air. The audience knows that he met up with Kate at some point while they were working at the same job, he made up a story about his family being from Seattle, and that he's met Dorothy and Paige, but other than that it's left blank.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Almost everyone on his kill list (including offscreen victims like the bullies) is either a lecherous asshole or did something terrible to him.

* MightyGlacier: Never moves faster than a MenacingStroll, but he ''will'' get to his target and once he does [[CurbStompBattle he ends fights quickly and painfully]]. This might be due to the coat constricting his movements as he has no problem chasing Kate down stairs while not wearing it.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: It's implied Jeremy murdered Gary out of concern for Kate's safety. Campbell is another case of this since he did nothing to him but was an AssholeVictim.

* ArchEnemy: To Jeremy Melton. Dorothy framed Jeremy for sexually assaulting her in middle school, and this is the root of his vendetta against Dorothy and her friends (minus [[TokenGoodTeammate Kate]]). While Jeremy is fully intent on killing them, [[spoiler:he has a particularly cruel fate for Dorothy by using her as his fall guy (and to that end he murders her boyfriend just to break her and make her easier to frame).]]

A quartet of bullies who found Jeremy and Dorothy kissing in the prologue.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Their teasing of Jeremy and Dorothy and the latter's [[FalseRapeAccusation subsequent lie to save herself]] kicks off the plot.

* CopKiller: Detective Vaughn is his second-to-last victim.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Toes the line between this trope and AffablyEvil. Adam puts up a pleasant front, albeit one marred by his drinking, [[spoiler:to deceive his targets into a false sense of security before offing them.]] The mask begins to slip at Dorothy's party where he acts quite callously towards Dorothy when it looks like her boyfriend stood her up [[spoiler:(which he's responsible for).]]

* RevengeIsSweet: The expression he makes at the very end suggests that he's just going to live out his life as Adam, free from the pain Dorothy caused him.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Puts up a pleasant front, albeit one marred by his drinking, [[spoiler:to deceive his targets into a false sense of security before offing them.]] The mask begins to slip at Dorothy's party where he acts quite callously towards Dorothy when it looks like her boyfriend stood her up [[spoiler:(which he's responsible for).]]