Ticketworthy! - Heart Eyes

There is a well-known rule among movie fans that horror movies released near the beginning of the year are most likely not very good. January and February are dumping grounds for films that studios don’t think are good enough to release near Halloween. Because of this, I understandably had some concerns about Heart Eyes, a Valentine’s Day themed slasher movie.

As it turns out, I needn’t have worried. Director Josh Ruben, who also directed 2021’s criminally underrated Werewolves Within, gets the absolute most out of both the script and the actors, creating a wickedly self-aware date night film. From the opening chase scene to the final battle, this movie is packed with solid humor, lovable characters, and some pretty decent scares.

A big part of the reason it all works is the leads. Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding) are twenty-something co-workers with obvious attraction to each other, despite Ally’s objections to the idea of the two dating. Holt and Gooding both have fantastic comedic timing, and I found myself wondering how much of the dialogue was in the script and how much the two were allowed to improvise. They sound very natural. On top of that, there is an obvious chemistry between these characters. It isn’t hard to imagine them falling in love over the course of one terror-filled night.

Said terror comes in the form of H.E.K, the Heart Eyes Killer, a masked madman that kills couples on Valentine’s Day every year. He’s not exactly a force of nature, think more Ghostface than Jason Voorhees, but he still feels like an almost insurmountable threat every time he is on screen. It helps that the costume is great, his mask is almost certainly going to make appearances on Halloween this year. The sound design does some heavy lifting for him as well, as every step comes with a loud, ominous thump. It gives the character an intimidating presence.

For all the good done with the villain, though, it is the slasher part of this slasher rom-com that I think drags it down a bit. While there are certainly good moments and scares, it all feels a little predictable and similar to other films that have come before it. Most notably, I think of the Scream franchise. That’s fine, of course. The idea was to drop a stereotypical killer from that kind of movie into a romantic comedy, so it’s not really a problem that H.E.K. isn’t terribly original. If you’re a hardcore fan of movies like Friday the 13th or Halloween, however, you should be warned that Heart Eyes doesn’t really have anything to add to the genre.

By the same token, if you are a die-hard romantic comedy fan, obviously the gore and violence that comes with the slasher genre might turn you off of this film. There’s a very niche middle ground between the two that Heart Eyes is aiming for, and I’d argue that it hits it dead on. If you aren’t someone in the middle ground, though, it might be tough for me to recommend this one. If you are in that middle ground, especially if you’re in a relationship, Heart Eyes might be the perfect Valentine’s Day movie you never knew you needed.