Heart Eyes Turned Me Into a Smitten Kitten

Anyone who knows me knows that my love for slasher movies runs deep. It’s an affection that was forged at an early age, probably around 7 when I first discovered Sleepaway Camp — yes, seriously — and A Nightmare on Elm Street, although I suspect my obsession with Scooby-Doo helped in some ways as well. There’s just something about a murder mystery fueled by a dangerous killer that just curls my toes and I’m always excited when we get a new slasher movie in theaters.

So, on Valentine’s Day, I was thrilled to be able to have a date night with my other half so that we could enjoy Heart Eyes by director Josh Ruben and writers Michael Kennedy and Christopher Landon.

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I should preface here that going into Heart Eyes, I already knew I was in for a good time simply because I adore the work of all three of these creatives and have spent years shouting from the rooftops about films like Scare Me and Werewolves Within (from Josh Ruben, who also gives a brilliant performance in A Wounded Fawn), the Happy Death Day series, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and the criminally underappreciated Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (Christopher Landon), and both Freaky and It’s a Wonderful Knife (Landon directed Freaky but Michael Kennedy wrote both scripts).

Having these three team up for horror Heart Eyes was like immersing yourself in 97 minutes of horror heaven where you could feel their love for the genre permeate through every aspect of the film. What was even cooler though is that Heart Eyes equally took on the task of celebrating romantic comedies here too, and does it with such an earnest sense of conviction. I will admit that for as much as I loved all the horror-ness, the rom-comness of Heart Eyes charmed me in ways I was not expecting and I had an absolutely delightful time with the movie.

In Heart Eyes, we’re introduced to a mysterious serial killer known as "Heart Eyes" who has been terrorizing different cities in the United States, amassing his own personal body count of couples on Valentine's Day, and has now set his sight on Seattle (I know that somewhere out there, Nora Ephron smiled at the selection of this locale). At the same time the titular killer arrives to claim more victims, recently single Ally (Olivia Holt) is dealing with a major professional catastrophe when her “doomed lovers” marketing campaign nearly derails her boss’ company, so she’s asked to team up with marketing wunderkind Jay Simmons (Mason Gooding) to come up with a new approach to get things back on track.

Ally and Jay go to dinner that night — which just so happens to be Valentine’s Day — to brainstorm together on a new campaign. Even though their shared chemistry is off the charts, they end up at odds with each other over their respective views on romance. When they leave dinner, they run into Ally’s ex with his new love interest, so Ally and Jay end up putting on a show to convince them they are also a couple in love. The shared kiss between Jay and Ally just so happens to catch the attention of the “Heart Eyes” killer and he begins stalking them hoping to claim them as his latest victims.

The co-workers end up in the proverbial fight of their lives as they have to outrun, outwit, and ultimately survive against the ruthless killer who has no idea that they don’t fit his ongoing modus operandi since they’re not romantically involved.

And that’s the thing about Heart Eyes — it does a brilliant job of subverting expectations at every turn, yet it still lovingly pays homage to the tropes of both the slasher and rom-com subgenres so well that it’s easy to fall under its spell by the time the credits roll, which is such a tricky tightrope to walk, yet director Josh Ruben makes it looks so effortless here.

In the opening scene, set to OutKast’s “Valentine’s Day” (which might be my favorite needle drop in a movie in the last 5 years), Heart Eyes pokes fun at the superficial social media engagement sessions we’ve all seen at one point while spending time online (Oh, you were surprised? You don’t say!) which sets the perfect tone for all that follows. And for as much as the film has some fun with the concept of manufactured sentimentality in both film and television, there’s still an earnestness to how Heart Eyes’ script approaches the concept of love and how, for some, true horror resides in opening yourself up to someone else and letting them into your world.

But when it comes to the genre elements at play in Heart Eyes, the movie delivers some fantastic set pieces and a variety of great kills that were all different and wickedly fun. I also loved the mask design of the “Heart Eyes” killer from special effects legend Tony Gardner which felt like something you’d see in an ‘80s horror movie but also has a contemporary vibe to the design, too, especially when the night vision glowy eyes are activated.

I think my favorite aspect overall is how a drive-in movie theater becomes such an integral locale in Heart Eyes, as the drive-in, as an institution, is something that has meant so much to me ever since I was a little kid. In the first half of the movie, we get to enjoy a maniacally over-the-top drive-in massacre and then Heart Eyes comes full circle to close out the story back at the drive-in (I’m being vague here on purpose). I can’t even begin to explain just how much I loved that aspect of the film.

There’s so much more about Heart Eyes that I appreciated: the cop team so brilliantly named — Hobbs (Devon Sawa) and Shaw (Jordana Brewster), the rom-com speech which featured so many movies that I grew up loving (yay for the Some Kind of Wonderful representation!), and the reveal of “Heart Eyes’” identity as well (I love when movies take big swings and this was a big swing that landed for me).

Everything about Heart Eyes just worked like gangbusters on me, and for as much as the script and execution both contributed to my enjoyment, the way that both Holt and Gooding play off of each other is total perfection. Their chemistry is palpable and I would watch 10 more movies with them co-starring alongside each other.

It’s been a while since us horror fans have had a Valentine’s Day-themed horror movie to enjoy, and Heart Eyes has quickly earned it’s place alongside both My Bloody Valentine films as well as Jamie Blanks’ Valentine as a wintry holiday classic that will undoubtedly be enjoyed each and every February from here on out.

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