Valentine’s Day comes in as a third place for holiday-themed slasher movies. You’ve got Halloween and then Christmas in that order. The holiday is ripe for crafting something absolutely terrifying. After all, what’s scarier than death? In a lot of cases, it’s love. You can do something with a jilted lover, a crazed incel, or just a maniac that hates the holiday. Heart Eyes looks to capture those feelings but present this slasher in a more romantic comedic lense. Sure, you come for the gratuitous kills and the badass mask that the killer Heart Eyes wears. But really, you’re keeping your ass in that seat because of the tremendous chemistry between the two leads, Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt.

So what is the deal with Heart Eyes? It comes from the creative team of writers Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy (go watch Freaky, he wrote it.) It’s directed by rising star Josh Ruben. (Seriously, if you haven’t seen his other work like Werewolves WIthin, go watch it too.) Together they lovingly craft a movie that does what Marvel does best and blends two genres that don’t normally work out. You get your slasher tropes and beats, but you also end up with some classic tropes that usually only reside in the rom-com genre. This is legitimately like if Harry Met Sally and My Bloody Valentine had a baby. Like I mentioned before, Gooding and Holt have an electric chemistry that just oozes off the screen.

From the opening scene all the way to the end of the film, Gooding in particular, proves that he’s just got IT. He’s got the looks, washboard abs, but he’s also got the timing and comedy down. Blending those two genres together requires some quick changes of tone even within the same scene. One minute the two leads are getting close and cute with one another, and in the same scene, Heart Eyes is breaking down a door to kill them.

That chemistry and comedic timing is what holds the entire film together. It’s also what separates it from your average horror-comedy and really brings it up to something special. Now, that’s not to say this is just the Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt show though. The direction required from Ruben here is immense. You have to balance the differing tropes and beats that everyone knows and loves with some pretty wild swings in tone. Outside of those two the film also stars Jordana Brewster and Devon Sawa as two agents tasked with catching the Heart Eyes killer. One of the best jokes in the film involves what their last names are, so don’t ruin it ahead of time.

Every horror movie, particularly slashers, needs some heavies like this, Brewster and Sawa are more than up to the task, sinking their teeth into the police procedural aspect of it. There’s even some intrigue between the two as to what their relationship actually is. Gigi Zumbado plays Ally’s (Holt) best friend and while she does get sent off for a good portion of the film because of the plot (and her sugar daddy, but don’t actually call him that), the scenes that she’s in are hilarious and gutbusting.

The plot is pretty simple, the Heart Eyes killer strikes on Valentine’s Day every year in a different city, going on a killing spree. It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that. Ally and Jay run into each other at a coffee shop, strike it off immediately, but Ally runs off. Her job forces her back with Jay after he’s brought in as a consultant. One is a wild romantic, the other hates love and is petrified of it. Perfect setup.

So where does Heart Eyes stumble? It doesn’t in very many places. Depending on how much you want out of your horror movie, some of the rom-com aspects could be too much, but it’s a Valentine’s Day love story, there’s gotta be some mushy/lovey dovey stuff in there. The only place where I really felt like something was even a bit off, was the false finish to the movie that leads into the big reveal. It’s a nice twist that I didn’t really see coming and made a good bit of sense in the grand scheme of things.

The other thing that I could have used a bit more of was spacing the kills out in the middle of the film. There’s a long portion of the film that doesn’t have any that leads into a HUGE bit of kills. So it does make sense, but that section without much in the way of kills could throw some people off.

Yep, that’s really what is “wrong” with Heart Eyes. This is a fantastic holiday slasher movie that should become an every year rewatch for horror hounds out there. It’s a near-perfect date movie that’ll provide enough kills, thrills, and d’awwwww moments for any couple or person out there.

The humor hits, the cute couples hit, the soundtrack hits, the performances, the actual design of the killer. Sidebar, NECA or whoever else, can we get a figure of the killer with lights around the eyes already? My money is here.

Heart Eyes brings together two genres that are unlikely bedfellows, but like the couple in the movie, they learn to coexist and we’re all better for it. When the kills hit, they hit, when the romance hits, it hits. An immediate introduction to the horror holiday slasher pantheon of greatness.

Heart Eyes releases in theaters on February 7th, 2025.

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