Originally intended to be published in Wildcat Weekly on March 14, 2025 but never was!
Heart Eyes is simultaneously a slasher horror film and a romantic comedy. That’s not a joke. Imagine Scream or Halloween mixed with Sleepless in Seattle or You’ve Got Mail, and you’ve got the gist. It’s funny, it’s bloody, and it’s full of twists, but it’s also earnest and sweet. Like Happy Death Day before it, Heart Eyes walks the line between horror and comedy without stumbling once.
It’s Valentine’s Day in Seattle. Ally (Olivia Holt) works in advertising, but her latest campaign bombs, so her company hires Jay (Mason Gooding) to clean up the mess. Meanwhile, a serial killer nicknamed Heart Eyes, who preys on couples every February, appears in town to begin another spree. When Ally and Jay meet for dinner to discuss work, Ally resents him and resists his charms…until her ex-boyfriend appears, leading to a kiss that catches Heart Eyes’ attention. Soon, Ally and Jay are on the run, stalked by a seemingly supernatural killer while also negotiating the magnetic pull between them.
Weird though the genre mash-up is, I’m convinced Heart Eyes only works because of that mash-up. Neither the killer story nor the rom-com is especially interesting on its own. We’ve seen inventive kills at drive-in theaters before; we’ve smiled as enemies warm to each other on a steady trajectory toward one another’s arms. If Heart Eyes were either of those things alone, there’d be nothing to see here.
Instead, familiar story beats weave through one another to create something fresh. The killer forces Ally and Jay together, revealing strengths and idiosyncrasies that soften their rivalry; that growing chemistry then ratchets up the stakes with Heart Eyes because each slash threatens their newfound affection. And across a succinct 97-minute film, these two stories make every minute engaging—there’s no time to drag when a killer forces the couple to race between set pieces, never lingering in any one scene, setting, or conversation.
I realize that Heart Eyes won’t win every viewer’s affection. By its very nature, many will find it off-putting: squeamish viewers may struggle with the gore while horror buffs might resent Ally and Jay batting eyes between kills. But I found Heart Eyes winning in every facet. Holt and Gooding deliver believable chemistry while trading barbs, the killer feels monstrous and imposing even while outsmarted by our central couple, and against all odds, the unlikely genre swirl satisfies both my horror and rom-com proclivities.
Marrying I Know What You Did Last Summer with When Harry Met Sally sounds like a disaster, but Heart Eyes kills with both parts.
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