Finally, a flick that can please every Valentine’s Day moviegoer: those who hate the holiday, those who adore it, those who want romance in their Valentine’s Day movies and those who prefer their gushing more gory. All can come away satisfied from “Heart Eyes,” a fun and irreverent seasonal slasher from director Josh Ruben.

Writers Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy (who co-wrote with Phillip Murphy) are the brains behind some of the best high- concept horror flicks of the past few years, including the “Groundhog Day”- inspired “Happy Death Day” and the “Freaky Friday” riff “Freaky.” They continue to apply their genre mashup skills to “Heart Eyes,” delivering a classic ’90s-style slasher remixed as a rom-com.

Every good rom-com has to have killer chemistry at the center. Fortunately, “Heart Eyes” has Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt, two veterans of recent teen horror hits (the “Scream” sequels for him; “Totally Killer” for her). The pair have a crackling charm together, and while there’s a winky-ness to these kinds of self-referential genre exercises, they know to play it straight, both the flirtation and the fright.

Holt is Ally, Gooding is Jay; they meet-cute over their very specific identical coffee order, and then later at a work meeting, discovering they’ve been pitted against each other on an advertising campaign for a jewelry designer (Michaela Watkins). Their bumbling, burgeoning connection is set against a series of slayings accredited to the Heart Eyes Killer, a serial murderer who targets happy couples across the United States every Valentine’s Day. Ally and Jay never assume they’ll be targeted as they’re not a couple — but the killer (and the audience) can see the sizzle between them, and they team up to fight off the knife-wielding maniac, who sports a mask with glowing eye holes in the shape of hearts, like the emoji.

The film follows a classic screwball comedy formula — prickly rivals fall for each other over the course of a wild adventure — with the kind of Scooby-Doo twist that usually comes at the end of a slasher movie, wherein the killer is unmasked, and they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids, who happen to be falling in love.

There may be a few plot wrinkles, and the mystery isn’t much to write home about. But that’s not really what’s important about “Heart Eyes,” in which Gooding proves himself to be a funny leading man, Holt a steely, yet vulnerable final girl. The lore isn’t compelling, but their love story is.

While Ruben delivers some impressively bloody and innovative kills, “Heart Eyes” is a love letter to rom-coms, with references to “Clueless,” “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion,” “His Girl Friday” and many more, name-checked in a cheeky monologue by Ally’s best friend, Monica (Gigi Zumbado). It is also, weirdly, a love letter to the “Fast & Furious” franchise, with Jordana Brewster and Devon Sawa (“Final Destination”) playing a pair of detectives named Hobbs and Shaw.

“Heart Eyes” reminds us that stories of love and death have always been intertwined in the popular imagination. Ally’s Valentine’s Day ad campaign features doomed love stories like “Romeo and Juliet,” “Titanic” and “Bonnie and Clyde.” There are elements of these famed tales woven throughout “Heart Eyes,” from the teamwork to the willingness to sacrifice oneself for your love’s survival. Love and death are inextricably intertwined in a symbiotic relationship, and “Heart Eyes” makes that manifest, with wit, good cheer and plenty of blood.

MPA rating: R (for strong violence and gore, language and some sexual content)

Running time: 1:37

How to watch: In theaters