PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Slashers are among the favorite subgenres of most horror fans. When you add in the murder mystery elements of a whodunit, it becomes even more of an immersive and nostalgic watch. Such is the case with Heart Eyes, the newest Valentine’s Day related entry in the horror world. Let’s take a look at why this may make the perfect date night movie selection.
Heart Eyes is written slickly by Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day 2U 2019), Phillip Murphy (Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard 2021), and Michael Kennedy (Freaky 2020), and directed by Josh Ruben (Scare Me 2020). It stars Olivia Holt (Totally Killer 2023) and Mason Gooding (Scream 2022, read our blu-ray review here) as love-scorned co-workers who are forced together on a business assignment as the Heart Eyes Killer runs amok in their town against established couples.
Holt and Gooding have phenomenal timing and chemistry together, and their relationship really brews nicely as the body count starts to build. Heart Eyes really feels like the coming out party for Gooding, though the characters in general are given such fun dialogue that provides genuine laughs. Part love story and part meta commentary, this movie feels like Scream meets Cherry Falls.
Horror is experiencing a return to the 80s in the reemergence of the casual holiday-themed slashers, and Heart Eyes has the makings of a yearly watch-party flick. It’s not all witty banter though, as the jump scares and exquisite gore leave enough meat on the bone for darker genre fans. It’s simple and doesn’t try to be ‘elevated’. The diversity in this movie will help it to amass an audience of many different types of movie-goers.
The balance of Heart Eyes skews a bit more toward comedy than horror, even to a point of being over the top at times in some of its background characters. But the mystery and relationships do resolve in a very satisfying, fast paced way. It’s quite easy to see why a movie like this could end up in the hearts of viewers as one of the most fun murder mysteries of 2025.
