Romance may not be dead, but it certainly gets gory in Heart Eyes, a clever rom-com slasher flick that finds the narrow way through balancing multiple tones at once. I’ve seen my share of horror movies built around romances (Bones and All, any Dracula movie, Audition…) and the occasional attempt to deliver a horror romantic comedy (Shaun of the Dead, Warm Bodies, last year’s Your Monster). Managing to do it successfully is a tricky prospect. Yet here we are with an original feature that refreshingly has fun injecting humor into its story without becoming self-aware or pandering. Instead, there’s a genuinely good pair of performances fit for a rom-com pushed into a slasher movie that’s not afraid to get messy.
The movie is set in a world where a serial murderer known as the Heart Eyes Killer (HEK), dubbed as such due to wearing a mask with heart-shaped lenses, spends their Valentine’s Day murdering couples in big cities. You may want to ask how pictures were obtained to know they have hearty eyes, but let’s focus on the story instead. Olivia Holt is Ally, a recently heartbroken woman who works at an ad agency. Her latest project is a disaster, and now a freelancer, Jay (Mason Gooding), has been brought in to fix it. These two already had a meet-cute in a coffee shop (where else?), but it now appears they may be rivals. Mistaken for being a couple, however, it would seem the Heart Eyes Killer is set on ending the lives of these non-lovers no matter what.
See Also: ‘Totally Killer’ Review: This Slasher Comedy Is, Like, Wicked Awesome
It would appear that writers Phillip Murphy, Michael Kennedy, and Christopher Landon (of Freaky and Happy Death Day fame) tried to develop a story that could feasibly work as just a romantic comedy, even without HEK lurking around the corner. Holt and Gooding are excellent together, fitting into clear archetypical roles yet inhabiting them with enough charm and personality to make the characters work as two people who will inevitably fall for each other. Even the film’s structure suggests a plot that could replace the graphic violence with more standard rom-com obstacles and lead to similar results.
This is important, as the romance angle really needs to work to sell the stakes of this film, as well as understand how to have fun with the incorporation of a slasher villain into the proceedings. Does that mean Heart Eyes is equally as scary as it is funny and charming? Not necessarily. There are jumps, mostly ones that play fair, no less, but the kind of tension found in a slasher movie isn’t exactly what keeps horror fans up at night. But that’s no matter. What’s important is being able to reconcile both the silly rom-com shenanigans at play (including an ex-boyfriend, a sassy best friend played enjoyably by Gigi Zumbado, and even an airport chase) and the horror aspect.
In a post-Scream world, delivering horror comedies within this genre that still play things without winking to the audience can be difficult. That’s not to say none exist (Landon’s had a solid track record in this territory, and the Terrifier films have become wildly popular for a reason…though comedy may be a stretch), but I was impressed with how consistently funny Heart Eyes was without the film breaking out of its own world. Granted, I think one has to buy into the universe in which this film exists. There’s a level of casualness to the characters who we know are contending with an active serial killer that sometimes skirts with being too broad. So, it then becomes a matter of remembering that this is a fictional and heightened reality where wanting to force one’s own idea of realism is not a fair way to look at the movie.
Keeping this in mind allows the film to have fun with the other characters, with gentle reminders that this is a horror movie. Michaela Watkins is very amusing as Ally’s boss. Devon Sawa (who was quite good on the horror-comedy series Chucky) and Jordana Brewster play a pair of detectives with over-the-top cop attitudes matched with aspects of their personal lives that could only work in a movie like this. It’s all enough to fill out this world in the right ways, but Heart Eyes gets plenty of mileage out of our leads, let alone the chases involving HEK.
Thanks to a variety of circumstances, Ally and Jay may be the killer’s primary targets, but this maniac has a lot of opportunities to lay down the hurt on others. There are nicely done kill scenes that show various ideas for how a slasher can get their slaughter on. Also worth noting – both the heroes and the villains suffer from injuries. Whether being bumped on the head or mistiming steps, there’s a lot of stumbling around and other horror movie clichés that feel acceptable thanks to the genre these films exist in. Seeing knives, arrows, and miscellaneous objects all factor into what kinds of weapons are utilized is nice, but having human beings, as opposed to overpowered monsters, using them makes it all the stronger.
Director Josh Ruben accomplishes a lot with this script and his performers. Having already made the lo-fi horror comedy Scare Me and the quite good Werewolves Within (easily one of the best video game movies), I’m happy to see him continue to land his voice in projects with more wit than some may expect. That said, this film lives on what Holt and Gooding are bringing, as they each lean into these characters in ways that make them likable. Holt’s Ally is a mess, but you get that she’s had a rough go of it. Gooding plays into his easygoing demeanor and tosses off several spectacular deadpan one-liners. It’s the kind of stuff that good performers can make look easy, and the combination of all involved works well here.
Heart Eyes is a fine film to add to the roster of romantic comedy horror films fit for anyone who likes to go a different direction when it comes to movies to watch on Valentine’s Day (or whenever). It’s smart and funny, quite bloody when it wants to be, and light enough on its feet to never get too bogged down in the inessential. The fact that it works as a rom-com, only to layer in a solid slasher villain (the mask design is terrific), speaks to the fun this crew must have had writing and filming this movie. I certainly had heart eyes while watching something like this turn out so successfully.
Heart Eyes opens in theaters on February 7, 2025.
