What makes Heart Eyes a great date film?
Picture it. It is date night on Valentine’s Day weekend. You suggest dinner and a movie. Your date is craving something romantic, and sentimental. However, you are in the mood for some good old-fashioned slice and dicing. This presents a unique quandary. Fortunately, director Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within) – working from a script by Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day), Michael Kennedy (Freaky), and Phillip Murphy (The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard) – conjured up a brilliant solution to this conflict. Whoever said you could have your heart-shaped cake and eat it too? Presenting, Heart Eyes, a genre-bending horror satire that aims to play cinematic matchmaker between the saccharine and the sinister. Not since Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving has a holiday-themed slasher served up this much laughter, carnage, and yes, heart.
How would you describe the plot of Heart Eyes?
As the film’s title suggests, a masked serial killer (coined “The Heart Eyes Killer” AKA “HEK”) annually stalks and murders unwitting couples on the Valentine holiday. When Ally (Olivia Holt), a newly-single pitch designer for a jewelry company botches critical presentation, Jay (Mason Gooding, Scream V & Scream VI), a handsome fixer, is hired to clean up her mess. To salvage her career, Ally agrees to join Jay for an impromptu “business dinner” to exchange ideas. What starts as a heated, tenuous encounter morphs into something sweet, making them the perfect candidates for Heart Eye’s next killing spree. Now Ally and Jay must put their infatuation aside to survive a night of relentless, blood-soaked terror.
How does Heart Eyes slice through the monotony of traditional holiday cash grabs?
Heart Eyes owes most of its success to the warm, sexy chemistry between its two leads. Gooding is a natural charmer which pairs well with Holt’s impeccable comedic timing. It is easy to root for them, even when their snarky banter reaches critical mass. Slasher vets Devon Sawa (Final Destination) and Jordana Brewster (The Faculty) also have some cheeky, meta-fun in supporting roles. The film balances elements of rom-com and slasher without ever compromising the integrity of either genre. It earns all its feels, its laughs, and its screams. It does not attempt to reinvent the genre but rather means to be a hard-hitting and crowd-pleasing entry within it. With a reverence and admiration for 80s slashers, a wickedly funny and biting script, and some inventive, gnarly kills, Heart Eyes is a bloody good time from start to finish. It does what Psycho did for showers for drive-in movie theaters.
Available Now in Theaters.
For more reviews from Reel Insights’ Laron Chapman, check out his Top 25 Films of 2024.
