Finally, after weeks of being promised horror by various marketing campaigns, Heart Eyes delivers. This delightful slasher/rom-com combo delivers on all fronts, hitting the highlights for both genres.   Horror-comedy is a usually tough genre for me, but Josh Ruben made Werewolves Within, so I was pretty confident going in. 

• Directed By: Josh Ruben
• Written By: Phillip Murphy Christopher Landon. Michael Kennedy
• Starring: Olivia Holt Mason Gooding

Spoiler Free Review

My main issue with horror-comedy usually comes down to balance; horror relies on tension, comedy breaks that.  Timing these two elements is everything, and highly subjective.   Heart Eyes further complicates things by throwing romance into the mix, adding the requirement for ample space to be devoted to character development.  

Happily, Heart Eyes manages this balancing act carefully.  From an opening that establishes horror with one of the more inventive kills, to the leading couple Ally and Jay’s bloodier that average “meet-cute”, Heart Eyesknows its core genre is horror.  It never lingers too long on its romantic plot before returning to the kills. 

Bad Romance

Like all good rom-coms, Heart Eyes devotes enough time to establishing leading lady Ally’s issues with romance. She’s a perfect mismatch with Jay, a die-hard romantic who’s been brought in to fix work problems.  All their personal issues are complicated by the arrival of traveling serial killer Heart Eyes to their city, Seattle.  Heart Eyes has shown up every Valentine’s Day for the past few years, to kill couples and anyone else who gets in his way.  After a series of romantically funny misunderstandings, Heart Eyes picks Ally and Jay as his next target.   

Making one good movie is hard enough, but combining a charming romantic comedy with a tense slasher seems like an impossible task.  Heart Eyes succeeds on both by keeping the romantic comedy elements framed through the lens of the horror world. Not visually; these scenes have a beautiful rosy, pink glow that contrasts the cold blue tint of the world shown during the police investigation.  In terms of extremes however, personalities are pushed to levels that would be out of place in any other setting, except one where getting murdered on Valentine’s Day is a possibility. For example, Ally’s boss is the perfect caricature of the tough boss, death threats included.  

Quality over Quantity

From their initial meeting, to early conflict and heartfelt conversations, Heart Eyes delivers on its twisted form of a rom-com.  It molds its slasher elements around these, focusing on the core pair instead of a whittling down a larger cast.  The death toll is significant, mostly due to Heart Eyes ending up in target-rich environments. For the most part, they avoid creating any obvious slasher-bait characters.  This also gives the movie room to fully develop Ally and Jay outside the context of their gradually forming relationship. The downside might be never fully feeling like Ally and Jay are in any real danger, since they’re probably going to make it to the 3rd act.

They are characters worth spending time with. Jay is sweet and wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s overly earnest, and maybe a bit white-knighty. Ally is cynical and defensive, and most importantly, jaded when it comes to love. So much so, that self-preservation is her number one priority. 

 It’s a classic romantic pairing made better with the complication of Heart Eyes.  After all, nothing tests a new relationship, romantic or otherwise, like adding a machete-wielding maniac into the mix.  Heart Eyes works because it’s not a romantic comedy, it’s a romantic comedy in a horror world.  Even if all the jokes don’t land, there’s a kill coming right around the corner to distract you from any awkwardness. 

Heart Eyes is a lot of things; mostly, it’s just fun. The actors are well cast and have great chemistry and Heart Eyes himself is appropriately menacing.  There’s a lot of love for the genres, all of them, even as they poke at the standards and conventions. 

And that’s really what Heart Eyes is about: love, and how far to go for a happy ending.  

Final Thoughts:

Heart Eyes is just what I was looking for: a fun, bloody horror movie. It may be dressed up for the holidays, but at heart, it’s about the kills, including some light beheading.  You can’t put a woman in a grape press and then make claims to the contrary.  The jokes don’t always land, and the killer’s motivation could use further exploration, but I left feeling the love. 

Heart Eyes in now playing in theaters

Check out my other recent horror movie reviews:

• Companion
• Presence