When horror-comedy Heart Eyes kicks off with a ghoulishly hilarious pre-credits sequence, it’s immediately clear that it’s going to deliver on the gore. But the setting – a wedding proposal at sunset on a Washington State vineyard on Valentine’s Day – is the clue this isn’t your regular post-Scream slasher. The masked Heart Eyes Killer only kills couples, and only on the most romantic day of the year. Now they’ve set their neon-rimmed gaze on Ally (Holt, Totally Killer) and Jay (Gooding, Scream), two advertising execs that the killer mistakes for a couple but who actually can’t stand each other. Yet there’s nothing like being chased by a maniac with an armory of nifty devices of death to make you give that office hottie a second, blushing gaze …
Between the cunningly meta Scare Me and endearingly goofy lycanthropic whodunnit Werewolves Within (as well as his performance as a serial killer getting his comeuppance in satirical slasher A Wounded Fawn), director Josh Ruben has proven that he is more than adept at the tightrope of horror comedy. Yet what sets up Heart Eyes for surprising greatness is the script, credited to Phillip Murphy (Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard) and Freaky writing team Christopher Landon (Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Happy Death Day 2U) and Michael Kennedy (It’s a Wonderful Knife). The key is that it’s not a horror film with a rom-com awkwardly stapled onto the side. Heart Eyes is a rock-solid, charming, and hilarious rom-com with a deliciously gory slasher comedy elegantly layered over it.
Turn off the blood cannon and what you have is a classic opposites-attract meet-cute as Ally and Jay sprint around Seattle (well, New Zealand filling in for Seattle as some kind of Anytown, USA) being consistently mad at each other. There’s a different version of this script where they’re in a feud with a taxi driver and there’s a subplot about parking tickets, or they’re just trapped in the office all night trying to make their advertising campaign work. That comes down to the simple, easy energy of Gooding and Holt – a little bit The Lady Eve, a little bit The Shop Around the Corner – that is so effective that, in those moments when they’re not running for their lives, you’re not desperately looking for the killer to come into view and break the awkward tension. Add in Gigi Zumbado Tone-Deaf) as Ally’s lewdly encouraging work buddy, and Michaela Watkins (Paint, Sword of Trust) as their nightmare of a boss to ramp up the office comedy aspects, and it’s “peanut butter in the chocolate” filmmaking of the best, most rewarding kind, and that’s not a raspberry swirl in the mix, which makes it all the more bloodily delicious.
But the horror side has to work as well, and it’s not just down to Ruben’s grisly creativity. Seemingly aware that they couldn’t crush everything from a horror film and a rom-com into one script, the writers trim the inessentials. There’s no cavalcade of red herrings or subplots that go nowhere – again, a seeming influence of classic rom-coms that trend lean, like Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally.
Quick warning: Alongside the shocks, scares, laughs, and heartwarming tears here in plentiful supply, there’s one extra emotion that a lot of Austinites will share, as Ruben sneaks in an in-story, on-screen homage to the late Scott Wampler, Scott Wampler, a mainstay of online film journalism and cohost of The Kingcast. If you hear a little gasp at your screening, don’t worry – it’s just a perfect in-joke. The rest of them gags? Broad, sharp, hysterical, witty, and perfect for everyone who likes their Valentine’s hearts with candy or carved, still beating out of their chest.
This article appears in February 7 • 2025.
