| With two genres that seemingly do not go together at all, horror and romantic comedy, Heart Eyes proves that they do make a rather compelling pair. And in other surprising news, its rom com elements shine a lot brighter than the horror plot. Each year on Valentine’s days, a serial killer known as Heart Eyes, roams a city looking for happy couples and murders them. | | 2025
Directed by: Josh Ruben
Screenplay by: Phillip Murphy and Christopher Landon & Michael Kennedy
Starring: Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding
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Two years later, while everyone dreads which city he’s about to pop up in, couples start making other, less public, choices. In a solid joke which helps establish the tone, newscasters are interviewing young people to see how plans are changing, but most respond with how Valentine’s Day is a capitalist holiday, or one guy who boasts that he could take on the Heart Eyes Killer.
My least favourite elements all involve the Heart Eyes killings. For the first few murders, he makes it look really easy. Whenever somebody gets away, it’s only for a few seconds, as he devises a new method of killing of them. Until he gets to our lead couple, Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding), who are not a couple at all. They’re strangers who met on Valentine’s Day, with Ally convinced Jay is stealing her job and then Jay weirdly books a romantic dinner for a work meeting. The weird little oddities (which includes why Ally will be/should be fired from her job) help set the engaging comedic tone which the film handles so well.
Back to the Heart Eyes Killer. After he picks Ally and Jay as his next target, the bulk of the action of the movie is Heart Eyes chasing after them and they continually get the upper hand. And it just gets more and more ridiculous as it goes along. Yes, it’s a comedy, but how easily he murders every one else and compared to how Ally and Jay always get away, wears thin quickly. I’m also not a huge fan of the reveal, but it’s probably the best way of handling the ending if they want to turn this into a franchise. Even though I have my issues with the film, I could get behind continuing this as a series.
The highlight of the film, in addition to the comedy, is the romance. Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt are delightful as they balance the comedy with the romance and the horror. The writing of their relationship fits the tone of the movie and just perfectly slots into the plot.
Heart Eyes is funny; it’s a unique twist on the horror genre even when it does get too ridiculous.
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