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Film: Heart Eyes
Year: 2025
Director: Josh Ruben
Writers: Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy
Starring: Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding and Jordana Brewster
Review:
This was a film that I heard about when the trailer was shown at the Gateway Film Center. I’m not shocked to see an uptick of holiday inspired horror films, since that is how the slasher genre started with the likes of Black Christmas, Halloween and Friday the 13th. Then figuring out that Christopher Landon helped write this, knowing he’s done things like Happy Death Day and Freaky. I heard mostly positive reviews which also helped me to check this out.
Synopsis: for the past several years, the ‘Heart Eyes Killer’ has wreaked havoc on Valentine's Day by stalking and murdering romantic couples. This Valentine’s Day, no couple is safe.
We start this off with a great cold open. Patrick (Alex Walker) proposes to his girlfriend, Adeline (Lauren O’Hara). What seems like a romantic outing is more staged than we originally thought. They are trying to get it right so they have pictures to remember it as perfect. That is until Heart Eyes show up. He kills the photographer and then Patrick, giving chase to Adeline. This ends in the warehouse where they make the wine.
It is from here that we learn about the backstory to this point about the Heart Eyes Killer. They have struck in Boston and Philadelphia before now moving to Seattle to kill more victims. This is on a news report that is playing at a coffee shop. It is here we meet Ally (Olivia Holt) who is with her friend and co-worker, Monica (Gigi Zumbado). Ally and her ex-boyfriend, Collin (Ben Black), recently broke up. He’s moved on and she tortures herself by stalking his social media.
Her drink gets called and it is oddly the same one as Jay Simmonds (Mason Gooding). The two go off to chat, but it ends with him getting a bloody nose. She flees in embarrassment. Ally and Monica go back to work where we see that Ally thinks she is going to be fired. Her nationwide campaign for this company bombed. HEK isn’t helping either. Her boss is Caroline Cane (Michaela Watkins) and to salvage things, called in a savant in marketing. It just so happens to be Jay.
He seeks out Ally to tell her they’re going to work over dinner. Monica takes her shopping to get her prepared. The evening doesn’t go well. The two leave and attempt to part ways. That is until she sees her ex with his new girlfriend. She kisses Jay to make Collin jealous. She also gets into his ride to hold up the facade.
This fateful move has much bigger implications. HEK saw and he’s now targeting these two, thinking they're a couple. This leads to a night that neither of them will ever forget, if they can survive.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is something I’ve seen others say and I agree with the sentiments. This is a good romantic comedy that is blended with a good slasher as well. I wasn’t sure that balance would work, but it does. I do think it leans more into the former. It works better as a Rom-Com, but that doesn’t necessarily detract from the latter. It is more my issues with slasher films in general. I did want to set this up before delving deeper.
I think here is where I’ll say how I judge slasher films. They neither need to have good characters or kills. If they have both, they tend to be ones that I love. Let’s then start with our two leads. Their chemistry is great. Ally and Jay are broken in different ways. She was jaded by her father passing away when she was growing up. It sounded like her parents got along great before that happened. It makes her worried about falling in love. On the other side, we have Jay who is jaded because he gives too much in a relationship and he’s left each time. Their past traumas prevent them in the beginning from opening up. Holt and Gooding are great here at bringing the characters to life. It was something that I could connect with as well having gone on many first dates before finding my wife. I will be honest that I do think this works better as a Rom-Com.
That’s not to say that the slasher aspects don’t work. They do. I love the cold open kills to set the stage, then introducing the characters before the kills ramp up as this goes on. This went more brutal than I was expecting so credit there as well. The kills come at good intervals. It looks like we have a combination of practical effects and CGI. The latter seems mostly to enhance when things couldn’t be done practically. Credit to that. We also get a solid array of kills. I do love the lore of St. Valentine is incorporated with the weapons being a long machete, almost like a sword, as well as a crossbow with arrows. The only gripe I have here is that the reveal to the killer was a bit weak. It falls in line with this subgenre so I won’t complain about that.
Let’s then finish out discussing the filmmaking. Something that I didn’t give credit to when discussing the effects was the cinematography and framing. Those definitely help there. This does use jump-scares, but I thought those were effective. It doesn’t rely on them, so that helps. Think more like a Friday the 13th or Halloween. Other than that, the soundtrack has good selections from when I was in high school as well as songs that help build the atmosphere. The sound design was good as well.
All that is left then is the rest of the acting. I’ve already said that I like our two leads. Zumbado is good as Ally’s co-worker and best friend. Their banter was fun. Jordana Brewster and Devon Sawa are in this as detectives who are looking into the HEK in Seattle. There is a fun gag there with their names. They also work as a duo. Other than that, I thought the rest of the cast helped to round this out for what was needed, whether it is pushing characters to where they end up or as victims.
In conclusion, I rather enjoyed this blending of Rom-Com with the slasher film. It is more of the former than the latter, but that made me like our two lead characters more. I cared about what happened to them. The look of Heart Eyes is good. I don’t love the reveal there, but it wasn’t a cheat. It was also fine. The practical effects were great. The cinematography and framing help there as well. This is made well overall. Being how early into the year we are, I’m not sure if this will make my top ten list. I do plan to revisit this one though to see how it sits.
My Rating: 7 out of 10