Heart Eyes (dir. Josh Ruben)

by Jack Martin | Feb 12, 2025

Certificate: 18

Running Time: 97 mins

UK Distributor: Paramount Pictures

UK Release Date: 14 February 2025

WHO’S IN HEART EYES?

Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Gigi Zumbado, Michaela Watkins, Devon Sawa, Jordana Brewster, Chris Parker, Latham Gaines

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Josh Ruben (director), Christopher Landon (writer, producer), Phillip Murphy and Michael Kennedy (writers), Greg Gilreath and Adam Hendricks (producers), Jay Wadley (composer), Stephen Murphy (cinematographer), Brett W. Bachman (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A masked serial killer stalks a couple on Valentine’s Day…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON HEART EYES?

In this post-Scream world of slasher cinema, viewers are more aware of the horror subgenre’s familiar tropes than ever before. In response, various writers and directors have attempted to find new ways of shaking up the formula, and few have done it more effectively than filmmaker Christopher Landon, who across his career has combined the typical slasher template with various comedy templates – from time-loops to body-swaps to time-travel – and more often than not has found a balance that plays into audiences’ enjoyment of both competing genres.

So, it’s a bit surprising that it’s taken Landon all this time to finally blend slasher horror with arguably the most classic of genres: the romantic-comedy. While Landon only produces and co-writes Heart Eyes (with Josh Ruben serving as director), his mash-up approach is all over the final product, and once again it’s an enjoyable if slightly disposable ride that gives the viewer the best of both worlds, indulging in tropes from each genre in ways that both celebrate and poke fun at what we love about each of them – though not always for the intended reasons.

The film takes place on Valentine’s Day, when the city of Seattle is spooked by the sudden reemergence of a masked serial killer known as the Heart Eyes Killer, who for the last few years has been stalking and brutally murdering romantic couples. The killer’s latest targets are Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding) – except, they’re not really a couple. Ally is an overworked advertiser for a high-end jewellery company, and is still reeling from a bitter break-up, while Jay is the handsome and more romantically optimistic freelancer brought in to salvage a disastrous campaign that she fronted. Fate brings them together on Valentine’s evening for strictly business, but their natural connection is enough for the Heart Eyes Killer to spend the remainder of the night going after them and brutally killing anyone in his way.

A Valentine’s-set slasher is far from fresh territory – several cult classics like My Bloody Valentine and Lover’s Lane have all been set exclusively on or around the 14th of February – but Heart Eyes uniquely leans much more into traditional rom-com territory, amidst some pretty gory death scenes. Director Ruben, previously of the mystery video game adaptation Werewolves Within, aptly frames his film exactly like an archetypical romantic-comedy, including such staples as the embarrassing meet-cute, the awkward workplace encounter, the clothes-changing montage with the lead’s best friend, and even the climactic chase through their airport. The film even has aspects of the cinematography and musical score from your average Nancy Meyers joint, to where at times you could genuinely mistake it for being a straightforward rom-com just by simply looking at it, which Ruben and co-writer Landon are amusingly savvy about as they introduce every single familiar beat and then coat in as much grotesque blood as possible.

When the slasher element kicks in, Heart Eyes ironically feels a bit more reserved in its embracing of such tropes. That’s not to say the movie isn’t gory, because it most certainly is. Within minutes, people are stabbed in the eye (through a camera lens), shot in the head with an arrow, and squeezed to mere matter in a compression machine, all of which feel tame in comparison to what the killer does later on in the film. However, there’s more of an unshakeable feeling that the film is being strangely less playful with its slasher side than its rom-com side, with a lot of it seeming like business as usual when it comes to traits like jump-scares, conveniently dark rooms and corners, and even a funfair setting that feels somewhat underutilised. The film is less interesting when it is simply a slasher movie, as it seems more like it’s trying to do what Scream did (a franchise that, funnily enough, Landon was tapped to direct the next instalment of before things went sideways) but not as memorably, right down to a very predictable and slightly convoluted reveal of who the masked killer is as well as what their motivations are.

The film ultimately works better as a gory send-up of rom-com conventions rather than a slasher that just happens to also be a rom-com. As the former, Heart Eyes has more to offer, whether it’s the charming chemistry of leads Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding or writing that knowingly prods at one’s expectations with the overly saturated film genre. But as the latter, it’s just bog-standard slasher territory, with even the titular killer’s design not being unique enough to stand out among the plethora of other masked villains. To the credit of the filmmakers, both genres are handled decently enough to work well opposite each other without feeling like tonal whiplash, and there isn’t much cynicism when it comes to executing either of them. But regardless, the film can’t help but feel a bit uneven, especially when you can sense which of the two aspects works significantly better in this instance.

However, the film is entertaining enough to keep you from being too bored, even in its less interesting moments. Ruben and Landon keep the momentum going as long as they need to, and their film doesn’t outstay its welcome too much, though they probably needed to do a bit more work on one particular angle to bring it up to speed with what actually does feel as fresh as they were intending.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Heart Eyes is an entertaining if slightly uneven mash-up of slasher and rom-com tropes, with the film clearly having more fun with the latter than the former, which feels like substandard and ultimately unremarkable territory.