Filled with cliches, tropes, gore and even lighthearted romance, the 2025 film “Heart Eyes” plays out as a slasher-romcom centered around Valentine’s Day. The movie sets up with a classic showcase of the killer at their best, brutalizing a pair of newlyweds right at their wedding venue, before cutting to the main protagonist. The Heart Eyes Killer, or H.E.K., has appeared in a different city each year on Valentine’s Day, and this year, has reached Seattle. Nobody, whether they are single or coupled, is safe from their grisly acts of violence.
The movie follows Ally (Olivia Holt) who has become cynical about love, and has been facing conflict in her work life, and Jay Simmons (Mason Gooding),her accomplished “replacement.” Director Josh Ruben manages to blend the conflicting genres of horror and romance from the two characters’ initial abrasive, on Ally’s end, interactions to their trauma bonding as they become targeted by H.E.K. by a small public display of affection.
For people queasy about horror elements, turn away from the chase scenes, but turn back to the love story! The feel-good romance follows a predictable yet welcome trajectory of the first meet, a little denial to the then acceptance. Gooding, an actor from the classic slasher “Scream” movies, pairs well with Holt; the two play off the initial rivalry (mostly from Ally) well with Jay being the de-escalator to Ally’s bold personality.
With Christopher Landon as a co-writer on the project, horror fans had high expectations hoping he would bring in elements from “Happy Death Day” (2017) and “Freaky” (2020) as well as new ideas for the genre. Although “Heart Eyes” was moderately successful, it followed the standard horror film structure, sticking to well-known elements.
Although the film scores many satisfactory points in the soundtrack, storytelling and gory scenes, it struggles with a poorly characterized villain, barely visible horror and underwhelming plot twists. Unlike popular horror antagonists like Ghostface from “Scream,” Heart Eyes has no real personality. Although a full personality killer is not a requirement for a good movie, the killer in “Heart Eyes” does not offer much except for the glowing LED mask they wear to stay on theme. The “cold-blooded” killer trope does little to enhance the scene as the killer marches with no passion after the unfortunate pair.
Though far from a deal breaker, some scenes require viewers to increase their brightness if they do not watch the film in the cinema as the dim lighting takes away from the horror scenes. The plot twist is a debatable, narrative direction. The film is heavy-handed with foreshadowing, however, that can easily be ignored until the final act for the continuous action scenes.
Despite its cookie-cutter presentation, “Heart Eyes” still makes an enjoyable movie for its take on romance amidst life-threatening danger. The movie is an entertaining watch for slasher fans with plenty of bloodshed and also doubles as a romcom on top of that. Although violent, the movie does not bog the viewer down and whatever disgust felt from the ones that do is remedied by the interactions between Ally and Jay. Like other holiday movies, “Heart Eyes” is a good, 90-minute candidate for people to watch on Valentine’s Day either alone or for a date.
