Slasher movies have capitalized on Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, the Fourth of July, and even St Patrick’s Day. One set on Valentine’s Day isn’t anything new, but Heart Eyes feels like the first that’s 50% rom-com and 50% slasher flick. The film establishes from its opening scene that horror fans will get their fill of over-the-top, R-rated deaths. Yet, Heart Eyes isn’t afraid to be a romantic comedy, indulging in the cliches we love, hate, love to hate, and hate to love. Whether the film is aiming to be romantic or bloody as hell, it commits.
Heart Eyes opens with the recently dumped Ally (Olivia Holt) bumping into the conveniently handsome and single Jay (Mason Gooding) over a cup of coffee. Speaking of convenience, it turns out that Jay is Ally’s new co-worker and potentially taking her job. If that meet-cute isn’t familiar enough, Heart Eyes also works in the sassy best friend (Gigi Zumbado), a demanding boss (Michaela Watkins), the jerky ex-boyfriend (Ben Black), a shopping montage, a spontaneous kiss, an almost kiss, an apartment that’s too nice for Ally to afford, a dramatic dash to the airport, and other hijinks.
Among those hijinks is being hunted down by the Heart Eyes Killer, or HEK. Striking every Valentine’s Day, this masked maniac targets couples and anyone who gets in their way. When Jay asks Ally to a business dinner, she asserts that this isn’t a date. Of course, the audience knows that Ally and Jay are destined for each other (til death do they part). The Heart Eyes Killer also recognizes this, aiming their arrow at them. It’s a screwball setup with a deadly satirical twist, playing more like Scream than the original My Bloody Valentine.
There are plenty of romantic comedies where I’ve wished Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees would show up. The Ugly Truth, What Happens in Vegas, and Failure to Launch are a few that come to mind (the late-2000s were a dark age for the genre). Jay and Ally are two people we don’t want to see hacked to pieces, however. Naturally, they engage in the tropes we expect, bickering being their love language. Holt and Gooding share undeniable chemistry, though, whether talking about relationships or teaming up against a murderer. Even if Heart Eyes was a straightforward rom-com, they’d make for a cute couple. That said, the severed body parts give the film more of an identity.
It’s no surprise that the writing team’s past credits range from Happy Death Day to Freaky. Director Josh Ruben also brings his eye for horror and comedy to the equation. At times, the humor can be on the nose and the third act twist isn’t as clever as it thinks it is. As self-ware as Heart Eyes can be, the film doesn’t resort to mocking the genres at its core. This isn’t like Scary Movie where the filmmakers clearly hate the material they’re parodying. You get the sense that the people involved appreciate slashers and rom-coms. It might seem like a mismatched pair, but that’s often the case with every memorable love story. For hopeless romantics and cynics who have sworn off love, Heart Eyes is a date movie that can satisfy two very different demographics.