Heart Eyes Review
Valentine’s Day slasher Heart Eyes is a clever genre mashup with lots of bloody laughs.
Director Josh Ruben’s (Werewolves Within) new film is an excellent addition to the proud tradition of holiday slashers. The movie cleverly combines slasher horror with romantic comedy to great effect, something the film’s trailers completely fail to capture.
The movie’s premise is ridiculous from the outset. A serial killer is on the loose, who for three years has murdered couples on Valentine’s Day, only to vanish and elude capture. The Heart Eyes Killer—so named because of the heart eyes emoji mask they wear—strikes again in Seattle, murdering a couple during their engagement photoshoot in the gleefully overacted, hilarious opening.
After the cold open, we meet Ally (Olivia Holt), a struggling marketing exec fearful of losing her job over her latest ad campaign. She collides with and is smitten by Jay (Mason Gooding) in an adorably cliched coffee shop meet-cute scene, only to find out in the following scene that he’s the expert brought in by her boss to fix the ad campaign, and he might cost her the job. When Heart Eyes spots Ally and Jay during an awkward exchange after a work dinner “date,” the killer mistakes them for a couple, and hijinks ensue as the killer hunts them down.
The film’s trailer would have you believe that this is a straightforward slasher. In reality, Heart Eyes is a romantic comedy at its core, just as much as it’s a slasher. The movie hits every story beat you’d expect in a romantic comedy, and the leads have the charm to pull it off. The conflict—and biggest laughs—arise when that vanilla romantic comedy collides with slasher horror. Both genres are executed in a textbook-generic way, to the point of parody, but together, they form something that feels very unique. The trailer only plays up the film's horror element and seriously undersells how funny this thing is.
Excellent writing and direction make Heart Eyes a great comedy. The film has some fantastic visual gags in addition to its memorably gruesome R-rated slasher violence, pulled off with perfect timing and editing. Great visual gags have become an increasing rarity in modern American comedies that seem to rely more on often improvised dialogue, so I appreciated what Heart Eyes brought to the table.
Aside from a rocky third-act denouement, Heart Eyes was a great time at the theater and a genuinely pleasant surprise. I hope word of mouth brings this movie box office success because the marketing isn't doing it any favors.
Heart Eyes opens in theaters on February 7, 2025, just in time for Valentine’s Day week.
