Director Jamie Blanks opens the tale with what look like the sequel to Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse." A bespectacled, geeky but determined young man is trying unsuccessfully to get a few girls to dance with him at the school prom. Wrongfully accused of attacking the one wallflower who accepts his offer, he is sent to reform school presumably to seek revenge later against those who snubbed him and perjured themselves. Ten years later, we eavesdrop on the girlie talk involving Kate (Marley Shelton), Paige (Denise Richards), and Lily (Jessica Cauffiel), all crazy about the guys except for Paige, the one obnoxious bit of man bait who hates the opposite sex enough to tease it unmercifully. The scene that work best despite its lack of originality involves no knives or guns but deals with the young women as they involve themselves in a dating game in which each young man gets thirty seconds to impress each woman before moving on to the next table and repeating the process. As "Valentine" becomes darker with the usual false alarms, the bodies pile up, the killer wearing a mask that has more in common with Bob Smith's Howdy Doody than with Wes Craven's "Scream."

We're introduced to set pieces rather than human beings, each male characterized by a fatal flaw. To cite two examples, Adam (David Boreanaz), who is Kate's boy friend, is a drinker while Campbell (Daniel Cosgrove), is a two-timer. "Valentine" becomes a whodunit as more than one oddball has a motive for revenge.

We've seen it all before.