The Heart Eyes killer from Screen Gems and Spyglass Media Group’s ‘Heart Eyes’. Photo: Christopher Moss.
‘Heart Eyes’ receives 6.5 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters February 7 is ‘Heart Eyes,’ directed by Josh Ruben and starring Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Gigi Zumbado, Michaela Watkins, Devon Sawa, and Jordana Brewster.
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Initial Thoughts
The Heart Eyes killer from Screen Gems and Spyglass Media Group’s ‘Heart Eyes’. Photo: Christopher Moss.
Forget “elevated” horror. The last few years have seen a new crop of self-aware horror comedies populated (in varying degrees) by likable if often socially inept protagonists, copious amounts of gore played for laughs, a smattering of pop culture references, and a deluge of ironic needle drops. Think ‘Happy Death Day,’ ‘Freaky,’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Knife,’ and now add ‘Heart Eyes’ to that list.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that two of the writers of ‘Heart Eyes’ are Christopher Landon, who directed and wrote ‘Death Day’ and ‘Freaky,’ and Michael Kennedy, who co-wrote ‘Freaky’ and penned ‘Knife.’ With director Josh Ruben (‘Werewolves Within’) at the helm, much of ‘Heart Eyes’ feels a lot in tone and aesthetic like those other films. ‘Heart Eyes’ is entertaining, with two charismatic leads at its center and a number of laughs (if no real scares), but it also feels like it adheres to a formula set down by those earlier pictures (and even going back to the likes of ‘Scream’) without adding any particularly new wrinkles.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Jordana Brewster as Detective Jeanine, director Josh Ruben, and Mason Gooding as Jay on the set of Screen Gems and Spyglass Media Group’s ‘Heart Eyes’. Photo: Christopher Moss.
If there is anything different about ‘Heart Eyes,’ it’s that the film more or less functions as a rom-com in conjunction with its slasher narrative. The latter is introduced in the opening scene, when a couple and their photographer are turned into bloody human debris by the title killer, who strikes on Valentine’s Day (a nod to slasher classics like ‘My Bloody Valentine’) and wears a pretty neat mask with two glowing hearts as eyes (which also nicely double as night-vision goggles). HEK, as the murderer is known, tends to visit various cities and slice up as many romantic couples as possible on the annual holiday for reasons that chattering heads on news programs endlessly debate.
While weary detectives Hobbs (Devon Sawa) and Shaw (Jordana Brewster) – yes, you read that rather pointless ‘Fast and Furious’ reference right – try to determine who HEK is before he lays more waste to the dating scene in Seattle, we switch to the rom-com portion of our story, in which recently single marketing exec Ally (Olivia Holt) has a meet-cute (with a bit of blood involved) in a coffee shop with the outrageously handsome, alluring Jay (Mason Gooding). But the “cute” part dissipates when Ally finds out a short time later that Jay has been hired by her boss (Michaela Watkins) to salvage a Valentine’s Day campaign launched by Ally that rather tastelessly links the holiday to dead lovers.
Jay pours on the charm despite their new circumstances, while Ally – who has some rather bitter opinions about love – wants to keep things professional even though she’s attracted to her new colleague. She slips up, however, when she spontaneously kisses Jay during a chance meeting with her ex and his new squeeze. That lip-lock, unfortunately, is also spied by the Heart Eyes Killer, who mistakes Jay and Ally for a real couple and decides to set his glowing sights on them – even as they try to convince him otherwise as they attempt to fight him and his formidable array of deadly weapons off.
(L to R) Gigi Zumbado as Monica, and Olivia Holt as Ally in Screen Gems and Spyglass Media Group’s ‘Heart Eyes’. Photo: Christopher Moss.
The plot takes a few twists and turns from there, with Jay briefly (and implausibly) considered a suspect in the killings and a few red herrings thrown into the mix. The violence is grisly but handled in glib fashion (although we’re getting a bit tired of the “camera pulls back through a bloody hole in a body” shot), designed to generate both laughs and groans of disgust, and while the movie does pick up a decent amount of energy and momentum, it develops a stop-and-start quality in its third (and fourth, sort of) acts, with a too-long sequence in a police station and a convoluted, not especially impressive climactic revelation of who’s behind HEK’s mask and what their game is.
Even if the slasher tropes feel a little threadbare, the rom-com conventions actually help pick the film up, from a “getting dressed for a date” montage to a ticking-clock pursuit in an airport. On the other hand, an extended slaughter at a drive-in feels labored (it goes on forever with HEK openly filleting people and not a cop in sight), as does the ending, a fault more on the page than in Ruben’s mostly efficient direction, which offers up some imaginative setpieces and kills earlier on.
The Cast
(L to R) Olivia Holt as Ally and Mason Gooding as Jay in Screen Gems and Spyglass Media Group’s ‘Heart Eyes’. Photo: Christopher Moss.
Singer and actress Olivia Holt rose through the Disney and Freeform ranks (doing time in Marvel series ‘Cloak and Dagger’ and ‘Runaways’) before graduating to her first slasher comedy vehicle opposite Kiernan Shipka in 2023’s ‘Totally Killer.’ The young thespian clearly has chops as she balances the many sides of the surprisingly well-written Ally. She’s terrific at the physical comedy and double-takes, while also bringing needed vulnerability and empathy to a woman whose views on love have been soured in both her childhood and adult life.
Holt has fine presence and a real spark, and importantly shares great chemistry with Gooding, who’s been a supporting player in the recent ‘Scream’ outings but hasn’t really had a chance to shine. He gets his chance here, not only playing well off Holt but bringing shades of complexity to a role that could have easily been one-dimensional. Jay’s unabashed but non-toxic romanticism has its own troubled origins, and the fact that he and Ally come to each other from extreme ends of the emotional spectrum makes the tension between them both palpable and affecting.
Gigi Zumbado blasts off like a rocket as Ally’s best friend, Monica, although her character rehashes the “brash best friend” trope that also seems to be a staple of recent horror-comedy fare. What she lacks in depth she makes up in charisma and good humor, although there could be more to the character. Meanwhile, Michaela Watkins channels a more dazed ‘Devil Wears Prada’-era Meryl Streep as Ally’s boss, and while it’s nice to see Jordana Brewster get out of the shadow of the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise, her Detective Shaw has dating and motivational problems of her own.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) Jordana Brewster as Detective Jeanine, Devon Sawa as Detective Zeke Hobbs and Mason Gooding as Jay in Screen Gems and Spyglass Media Group’s ‘Heart Eyes’. Photo: Christopher Moss.
As slasher comedies go, ‘Heart Eyes’ is a perfectly good time. The leads are effortlessly watchable and appealing, the kills channel some of the macabre fun inherent in the best of the genre, and Josh Ruben manages to maintain a consistent level of energy throughout the proceedings. Yet the tone fluctuates here and there, and the script is less sharply written than some of its predecessors and even current genre cousins like ‘Companion,’ resulting in a film with a muddled message.
If it’s a hit, however, you might expect to see those glowing heart eyes again at some point, and in the meantime we hope that the likes of Landon, Kennedy, Ruben, et al. don’t settle for formula as they further explore genre mash-ups like this.
“No couple is safe.”
When the “Heart Eyes Killer” strikes Seattle, a pair of co-workers pulling overtime on Valentine’s Day are mistaken for a couple by the elusive couple-hunting killer…. Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘Heart Eyes’?
Professional colleagues Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding) find themselves trying to outwit and outrun the Heart Eyes killer, who slaughters couples on Valentine’s Day and mistakes the pair for romantic partners.
Who is in the cast of ‘Heart Eyes’?
- Olivia Holt as Ally McCabe
- Mason Gooding as Jay Simmonds
- Gigi Zumbado as Monica
- Michaela Watkins as Crystal Cane
- Devon Sawa as Detective Zeke Hobbs
- Jordana Brewster as Detective Jeanine Shaw
Screen Gems and Spyglass Media Group’s ‘Heart Eyes’.
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