Valerie – review

Director: Jay Lind

Release date: 2002

Contains spoilers

Not to be confused with the director’s 1992 film of the same name, this was a straight to video, zero budget flick that has received Blu-ray treatment in a collection of five of his films, released by SRS video.

When I got the set, I was conflicted, after all I didn’t particularly think the films would be masterpieces but there were at least two vampire features (this and Carmilla). I watched this first and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is low budget and has plenty wrong with it, but it was also a very watchable psychosexual drama.

bite

It starts with Nosferatu on TV and then cuts to a graveyard and, in a crypt, led on top of the tomb is Valerie (Maggi Horseman). She rises and does a slow amble through the graveyard – a note that the night lighting is well done but the shots seem out of focus, probably deliberately so to give a dreamlike feel. A couple are in the car and the lady (I think Crissy Madarang) hears something, she sends the guy out. He is killed by Valerie, who gets in the car with the, now topless, girl and feeds from her.

Maggi Horseman as Valerie

Valerie’s mom (Kelley Rouse) wakes her, with Valerie complaining that she is an adult (she’s 18). Her mom notices that she has had a nosebleed in her sleep and her face is smeared with blood. She goes to her therapist and talks about her dream and how excited it has left her. She works at a boutique, then takes lunch on a boardwalk and finally goes to dance class. She disassociates whilst in class, reliving memories of a violent sexual assault that leaves her screaming and comforted by her friend Lori (Mellani Love).

pick up

So, we discover that she was assaulted, immediately after believing she had been followed home. She cannot remember the assailant and refers to him as a vampire. Her step-father doesn’t believe it was an assault, rather she invited it and essentially victim blames. She is also self-harming. She regularly dreams of being a vampire, with Lori and the girl from the first dream (who is a person she has seen in real life) taking victim and vampire roles in the dreams. There is some evidence that she has killed someone she picked up, but that could be a dream also (and a serial killer called the moonlight maniac is mentioned occasionally to obfuscate the truth further).

Lori with fangs

As the film progresses, she meets an older artist, Jack (Jay Lind), who she falls for and who falls for her. Lori is less than pleased but it seems that she has sapphic feelings for her friend (these are unreciprocated in real life, but the fact that she and the other woman feature in her vampire dreams suggests that subconsciously Valerie entertains the notion). The whole film moves towards the realisation of who the attacker was.

projecting the vampire

The dialogue is sometimes off – I couldn’t believe that two 18-year-olds would be that coy around sexual language. However, aspects like Valerie’s ofttimes bluntness, worked well with the character and the performance suited that. There was no shying from nudity and some of the themes were very dark (rape, self-harm and attempted suicide). One poor aspect was the chosen soundtrack, which I felt was too bombastic. The film is more belief in vampires and acting like a vampire, though the projection of a vampire persona (the only male vampire) on her attacker kind of makes for a vampire and Valerie is an untrustworthy witness to her own narrative. However, surprisingly entertaining and worth watching 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.