Heart Eyes Review

Directed By: Josh Ruben
Written By: Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy
Runtime: 97 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated R for strong violence and gore, language and some sexual content.

Olivia Holt – Ally
Mason Gooding – Jay Simmons
Gigi Zumbado – Monica
Michaela Watkins – Crystal
Devon Sawa – Detective Hobbs
Jordana Brewster – Detective Janine Shaw
Latham Gaines – Nico
Chris Parker – Tommy

Director Josh Ruben presents a uniquely fresh take on the slasher horror-thriller genre by mashing it up with a sentimental romantic comedy with the horror-rom-com Heart Eyes. Imagine a couple in a typical romantic comedy suddenly becomes the target of a typical slasher killer, and that’s the general idea. The good thing is that the strategy mostly works in Heart Eyes.

Olivia Holt makes a strong leading lady turn in Heart Eyes as Ally, a young jewelry advertising employee who just produced a massively mistimed ad campaign for her boss, Monica (Watkins), on Valentine’s Day when a cross-country serial murderer, the Heart Eyes Killer, is on the loose in Seattle. The Heart Eyes Killer has a particular modus operandi, always targeting couples and striking on Valentine’s Day. Monica brings in a charming freelance marketing pro, Jay Simmons (Gooding), to help the massively embarrassed Ally clean up her mess with the ad campaign. Ally already had an awkward meet-cute with Jay at the coffee shop earlier, and the sparks between the two are already flying.

Even though Jay and Ally aren’t a couple, Heart Eyes spies the two leaving a business dinner when Ally kisses Jay as part of a ruse after the duo runs into Ally’s ex-boyfriend, who coincidentally arrives with his new girlfriend. While Ally and Jay share a clear attraction for one another, Ally is a cynic about true love, while Jay is a desperate romantic. Heart Eyes marks Ally and Jay for a Valentine’s Day massacre unless they can overcome the odds and prove that true love isn’t a fantasy.

Ruben has fun with the comedic aspect of his slasher romp. The film earns its R-rating, but the kills are executed in an over-the-top cartoonish manner from the opening prologue until the end. Heart Eyes riffs on the conventions of rom-coms and horror thrillers while still having fun with the genres and ultimately reinforcing them. The process renders Heart Eyes as a combination of parody and pastiche. The rom-com twist to the typical slasher killer premise also provides a nice change of pace to the usual predictable sequence of events. Instead of focusing on a singular person or group of characters seeking to survive the night, the plot focuses on the main couple typically found in a romantic comedy.

Weirdly, Ally and Jay bond and fall for each other throughout this chaotic ordeal. While that’s not always unusual for the horror or thriller genres, the way it mixes in those classic rom-com elements livens up the process. It also helps that Holt and Gooding portray solid leads with great chemistry who play off one another incredibly well. The horror comedy elements allow the jokes to have more of a cutting edge than the typical rom-com, specifically when Ally and Jay take refuge in a fan with another couple at a drive-in theater.

Elsewhere, Jordana Brewster delivers a fun break against type as a Seattle detective investigating the Heart Eyes case, Detective Janine Shaw, who’s partnered with her colleague, Detective Hobbs (Sawa). The obvious joke aside, Brewster and Sawa’s presence and dynamic in this film are amusing, considering their own cinematic history as horror alums. However, Brewster is wonderfully charismatic and steals multiple scenes portraying the apparently single but still-looking Shaw.

At a relatively modest budget of around $18 million, Heart Eyes features a rough-around-the-edges style that’s at times appealing due to its horror premise. However, that roughness sometimes leads to some befuddling moments that don’t stand up to credulity, where the lower production values appear more evident. There’s a protracted sequence where the main characters become stuck in a police station. While the movie attempts to explain the lack of activity due to the holiday, it makes less sense considering the media hysteria surrounding the Heart Eyes killer.

Elsewhere, the situation that thrusts Ally and Jay together lacks development considering that Ally has to salvage her career with Jay following her mistimed marketing campaign. The convoluted setup for their terrifyingly providential encounter with Heart Eyes lacks a natural refinement. That said, once the main characters run afoul of Heart Eyes, the plot picks up, and the third act brings a lot more fun and some surprising twists to the table.

Overall, Heart Eyes provides a satisfyingly fun dynamic by mashing up two seemingly diametrically opposed cinematic genres, and it’s even more entertaining to experience in a theater with an audience ready to have a bloody good time.

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Heart Eyes is an entertainingly good time. The rom-com twist to the slasher-horror-thriller provides a refreshing change of pace. The film is not completely devoid of flaws, but it generally comes together as a bloody good time that embraces and riffs on longtime genre tropes. While it's a bit rough around the edges at times, Ruben prevents a weirdly fun romantic comedy lacking in cynicism but never loses its R-rated edge. It's a fun twist on slasher thrillers and horror comedies, mashing up the genres to create something different than the norm, like pineapple on pizza.