We’ve seen an influx of holiday themed horror slashers in recent years and the production team behind the Scream franchise revival Spyglass Media is trying their hands at one centered around the ultimate romantic holiday. In Heart Eyes, the Valentine’s Day holiday has been marked by the emergence of a serial killer dubbed the “Heart Eyes Killer” who has gone on a killing spree the past couple of years stalking and murdering romantic couples. The killer began on the east coast of the United States but has now targeted Seattle as his next hunting grounds. At the same time Ally (Olivia Holt) is struggling to make her mark as a marketing exec at a jewelry company with her latest campaign centered around romance bombing. Her boss, played by Michaela Watkins, brings in hotshot marketing freelancer Jay (Mason Gooding) to help Ally revamp the campaign…and potentially replace her. The two meet over dinner to strategize, but soon find themselves in the Heart Eyes Killer’s crosshairs after being mistaken as a couple.
Heart Eyes does perhaps one of the best jobs in recent film history of establishing the bulk of its tone for the audience in the opening scene, displaying its mix of horror, comedy, and gore from the onset with the Heart Eyes Killer’s first kills. This is a film chock full of camp, but it balances this element out well with its classic slasher tropes to avoid feeling too over the top and cheesy. The comedic elements are well timed and flow within the story beats, but take a backseat to the action and thrills when called for so as not to take away from the main thematic attraction. It’s melded well by director Josh Ruben, echoing his past work like the underrated 2021 film Werewolves Within. The horror elements are also well executed, drawing the audience in not just through the gory kills hardcore fans come to see, but investing viewers in the chase of the killer and the effort of the potential victims to get away. Perhaps the highest compliment that one can give Heart Eyes is that many of the interactions between the titular killer and other characters evokes the telltale sign of audience engagement, exasperatedly thinking to yourself “Why don’t they just [insert action that would help them better avoid death here]?!”
While the film is mostly a mix of horror and comedy, Heart Eyes plays up its Valentine’s Day setting with a set of subplots surrounding love and romance, involving its characters and the exploration of our experiences with the volatile concept itself. Its main two actors in Holt and Gooding display fantastic chemistry as Ally and Jay, displaying a relationship that starts out as slightly adversarial and slowly blossoms into romance. They are believable as coworkers who have a slight attraction to each other mixed in with distrust and their eventual bonding feels earned and realistic based on their shared experience. Ally’s arc as a professional woman jaded about love due her experiences falls slightly flat and feels less believable than her romance with Jay, through not fault of Holt’s. The arc feels rote and not fleshed out enough to evoke the reaction from the audience it’s searching for.
Heart Eyes features the perfect amount of jokes and humor along with the slasher action and gory kills we associate with the subgenre to make a satisfyingly entertaining film that’s perfect for date night or a quality time in front of a screen. The romance element between its main characters is a nice touch that both leans into its Valentine’s Day setting and leans on the strength of the chemistry between Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding. It gives the film a unique element that will allow it to stand out in the horror comedy slasher subgenre, even if it does feel a little small and low budget at times. The Heart Eyes Killer themselves feels like a good mix of Ghostface from the Scream franchise and Jason from the Friday the 13th franchise. The former is to be expected as Heart Eyes comes from the same production company, but the story utilizes its Valentine’s hook to differentiate itself enough to avoid feeling derivative. The film also adds an element of mystery to break up any potential monotony within the story as the potential identity of the Heart Eyes Killer is obfuscated with various whodunit possibilities. This is executed decently but never really truly throws off the viewer, but creates just enough doubt to keep things interesting. Heart Eyes is entertaining overall and it’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. There’s enough here to keep things going with a franchise as there’s still room for growth, but enough good to build upon.
Image: Screen Gems
