Into the Dark: My Valentine (2020)

Disclaimer: The My Valentine review was originally posted February 12, 2022 and rewritten July 23, 2025.

Into the Dark: My Valentine (2020) is a Scott Pilgrim vibe that has collided with the post social media music landscape of fandoms mixed with murder. This well lit anthology installation in the Into the Dark franchise uses comic book style editing and sound effects to give a neon feeling to a tale of abuse. Opening with a blue haired pop singers, Trezzure portrayed by Anna Lore, music videos and commentary that bolsters her status in pop culture as an up and coming starlet. In opposition to this glamorized blue banged singer a similarly blue haired singer named Valentine Fawkes portrayed by Britt Baron, sings the same charting song in a dive bar. Alongside Valentine her best friend, Julie portrayed by Anna Akana, plays the guitar and has her back when Trezzure stans heckle them.

Into the Dark: My Valentine (2020) spoilers beyond this point

Valentine makes a point of stating that the song, which is good enough to download for casual listening titled Edge of the Knife, is her own and was stolen from her. Along with her songs Trezzure has purportedly stolen her look, donning the blue hair for herself as part of her image at Royal’s direction. Royal, portrayed by Benedict Samuel, is an eccentric psycho who happens to be Valentine’s ex-boyfriend and business partner. Once they broke up Royal stole the image, the music, and the brand they were building for himself, finding Trezzure to take Valentine’s place. Royal bribes the bartending manager to close the place early and give them privacy while also ensuring the band that played before Valentine couldn’t get in through the backdoor again.

Once Valentine sees Royal in the club she wants to make a hasty exit but is stopped by both her and Julie’s phones missing from their belongings in the back. Royal has stolen these phones and commences his tyrannical tirade at them by revealing he’s done this before smashing both phones. Stuck with the threat of physical harm Royal attempts what he feels is a confrontation of Valentine for continuing to use the look and perform the songs as her own. Due to Trezzure’s success she has stans that also attack Valentine and accuse her of trying to impersonate Trezzure. By enlisting the help and allegiance of the 3 stans that have shown up to the show Royal is able to control the entire situation.

It doesn’t make full sense because Royal still cares so much about Valentine despite his success and apparent new love, Trezzure. It becomes clear that the entire thing relies on Valentine’s creative vision and him and Trezzure don’t have material or direction on their own. Through songs and flashbacks the abuse Valentine endured is revealed, showing that despite their instant connection and chemistry he was volatile and unpredictable. Although he claims to only want to confront Valentine and threaten her to relinquish her claims to the persona Royal escalates things when he stabs and kills Julie. She’d been the one to respond to most of his bullshit spin on his relationship with Valentine and his framing that she is the villain, incensing him. He goes on to murder the bartender that he paid off to leave him alone inside with everyone, a witness to who he is and his motive for being there.

Trezzure eventually joins them inside the bar, coming in from the limo due to not hearing from Royal in a long time. She’s shocked and seemingly disturbed to hear Valentine’s accusations about Royal and he attempts to keep her happy and appeased. He does snap and the mask falls multiple times when he’s interacting with her, taking out his frustrations with Valentine and the night on her. As Valentine recalls via flashbacks her realization that Royal was abusive and couldn’t be saved at the same time that Trezzure realizes the same through his current behavior. The relationship violence flashbacks are parallels to the more tangible damage of Royal’s indiscriminate murder spree at the bar.

Several moments try to break up the seriousness of Royal and display a truly absurd version of him that takes a lot of the bite out of his fearful personage while committing abuse. Him and Trezzure even break out into a full disco dance while Valentine looks on horrified they could do that at a time like that. In addition to moments like this sound effects over Royal using his knife and zoom in reminiscent of the mentioned Scott Pilgrim break up the serious subject matter. The story itself is predictable but the moments of break in action that often air on the side of comedy aren’t.

Although these moments are included in what seems to be attempts to be unpredictable it doesn’t make up for the lack of depth to the story. There isn’t enough meat on the story’s bones to carry an entire plot and by the reveals and introductions of all characters it’s safe to tune out without missing much else. If one does watch through the slog that can become the center they will arrive at a gruesome and unnecessary death that Valentine and Trezzure weirdly watch happen from start to finish without intervening. This turns into Trezzure pretending she’ll help Royal only to attack him with a piece of stage equipment, her having witnessed Royal beg for Valentine back and reveal he’d discard Trezzure if he needed to.

In a bit of a twist but also somewhat predictable outcome Trezzure wants to continue on as herself and enjoy the fame the persona has granted her. She believes she shouldn’t be punished for what Royal did and deserves to have what she feels she’s worked for. Trezzure even threatens to sue Valentine if she doesn’t relinquish her claims to the persona. Valentine decides to kill her before they leave the bar and instead take back her sunglasses and take on Trezzure’s identity briefly. Once she’s done this it cuts to her “coming clean” as Valentine as if she was just pretending to be someone she wasn’t when using the Paris Hilton style voice that Trezzure has.

Conclusion

As a longtime watcher of YouTube drama I recognized this tale from the beginning: Trezzure is Poppy, Royal is Titanic Sinclair, and Valentine Fawkes is Mars Argo. Mars Argo alleged that she and Sinclair were in an abusive relationship as well as being business partners and that they together created her persona. Along with her persona they created music and upon their breakup Mars Argo alleges that Sinclair took what wasn’t his and started working with Poppy. She alleges that Poppy’s persona and schtick is almost identical to her own and therefore a violation of intellectual property laws but I don’t think it’s gotten traction. Since this initial coverage on niche media of the story Poppy’s career has skyrocketed and the claims don’t seem to be a hinderance.

As a Valentine’s horror movie it is passable but not great, despite it being a love story gone sour that takes place on Valentine’s Day and includes a character named Valentine. It is easy to forget it’s a Valentine’s horror movie because the music industry aspects and story elements take focus. Much of the relationship is via music covered flashback and they also don’t really evoke images of Valentine’s Day when watching. If I put this movie on I find myself just letting it play in the background as I get distracted scrolling on my phone but I wouldn’t say that is necessarily a bad thing. What the movie lacks in depth it makes up for in visually appeasing shots and murder moments that are somehow made silly by Royal.