PopHorror Let's Get Scared
From Halloween to Thanksgiving to Silent Night, Deadly Night, holiday themed horror films are often some of the best the genre has to offer. In that vein, Valentine’s Day has a few horror gems already ssociated with it, including My Bloody Valentine (the original and the remake and 2001’s Valentine. Does the new holiday themed slasher Heart Eyes continue the bloody tradition?
Read on for a spoiler free review!
Heart Eyes 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…
Josh Ruben directed the film from a screenplay by Phillip Murphy and Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy. It stars Jordana Brewster, Devon Sawa, and Olivia Holt.
Check out the red band teaser below!
Love At First Sight
I first caught the teaser trailer for Heart Eyes back in 2024 when I went to see Heretic (which was great, by the way), and I was hooked. I knew I had to go see it. A friend and I went to the theater this past opening weekend and we were not disappointed. Director Josh Ruben has done some great horror stuff in the past. Ruben’s Scare Me and Werewolves Within (both streaming on Shudder) were tons of fun, so I knew this script was in great hands. I was also impressed with the cast they assembled, which features horror mainstays Jordana Brewster and Devon Sawa and the lovely and talented Olivia Holt, who had a memorable turn in 2023’s Totally Killer.
Funny Face, I Love You
I was not prepared for how much fun this was going to be! The opening scene sets the tone perfectly. A couple is going through what appears to be a storybook engagement ceremony. As they try to make everything just perfect and capture it for posterity, their big moment is interrupted by a masked maniac who rains blood on their parade. The whole opening sequence had me in stitches with both the comedy and the gore. It was all so deliciously quirky, I couldn’t stop grinning.
Once the potential wedding is, uh, canceled, the story picks up with advertising guru Ally (Holt), whose latest ad campaign is floundering due to its unfortunate association with the Heart Eyes killings. Enter Jay Simmons (Mason Gooding), a freelance fixer who arrives to pull the firm’s reputation out of the fire and help Ally fix her failing campaign. The two meet to discuss the problem and soon find themselves targeted by the killer, who it seems must think they are a couple, and thus worthy of execution.
Be Mine
As the killer sets his heart eyes on Ally and Jay, the audience is treated to a fun filled ride of twists and turns. The two leads have great chemisty and it’s fun to watch them learn to appreciate each other as they run from the imminent danger. What’s interesting about this film is that while it is 100% a holiday slasher, it is also, at its core, a romantic comedy. It’s an interesting dichotomy that makes this film play out differentlly than your standard holiday horror cautionary tale.
The killer design is cool with fun gadgets and gimickry. If you’re a gore hound, I think you’ll find it sufficiently messy. They could have thrown in an extra kill or two in the middle, in my opinion, but the stuff you do see is top notch. The killer reveal and that backstory are not 100% bulletproof if you insist on being the nitpicking type, but overall I think it works as well or better than most films of this type, and you should just roll with it.
Heart Eyes – Final Thoughts
Holiday slasher. Romantic comedy. Cool killer. Great cast. It’s all very clever, with snappy dialogue, appropriate physical comedy, and a bit of self-referential Hollywood humor that all mixes together in a nice, heart shaped package. I can’t overstate how much fun I had with this from beginning to end. I will happily put Heart Eyes in my Valentine’s Day horror rotation for years to come.
Will we get a sequel? Maybe! A good first step toward making that sequel happen would be getting out to see this one in the theater. It’s very much worth seeing on the big screen. Original, modestly budgeted horror is always worth your moviegoing dollar.
Heart Eyes is in theaters now, released on February 7th, 2025.
