For many people, the perfect Valentine’s Day date movie is a horror one. For others, it is a rom-com. So naturally someone decided to make a movie that combined them, HEART EYES.
Directed by Josh Ruben from a script written by Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy, HEART EYES focuses on the “Heart Eyes Killer,” a serial killer who murders couples on Valentine’s Day, who pops up suddenly in various cities. The silent killer wears a mask with glowing red, heart-shaped eyes as he stalks and kills couples in love, in a variety of gory and creative ways. How the police, or the media that reports breathlessly on every attack, know he wears this heart-eyed mask isn’t clear, since everyone who sees him, not just the romantic couple, gets murdered. But logic isn’t the aim in this Valentine’s Day-themed popcorn movie.
HEART EYES isn’t very scary and it isn’t very romantic, but it does try to have a bit of fun, of the silly, gory type, with both the horror movie and rom-com genres, and it does have some nice special effects. How much you enjoy this holiday-themed popcorn offering will depend on how much you love movies that pile on genre tropes and references, some of which are clever and others less so. Still, there should be an audience for this genre hybrid, particularly for those who do love seeing how many tropes from each genre it can cram in. And, boy, does it try.
The main focus of other story are a pair of co-workers, played by Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding. They just met, don’t really like each other, and certainly aren’t a couple, but who the killer mistakes them for one. It’s the ultimate meet-cute twist, mixed with the horror movie trope of strangers thrown together who have to find a way to survive.
The movie opens with a gory murder, of a couple at a winery for an overly-planned marriage proposal, complete with camera man hidden in the bushes to capture the moment. But the carefully staged and scripted romantic moment is interrupted by the appearance of our colorful wordless killer, with his knives and his un-cupid-like arrows.
With news reports of the killer all over the TV, Ally McCabe (Olivia Holt) pitches her latest advertising campaign to her hypercritical boss. But Ally is still getting over her break-up with her boyfriend, and her campaign is more romantic tragedy – think Romeo and Juliet – than romance. Not going to sell much perfume with that.
She doesn’t lose her job but her boss does bring in a specialist contractor to revamp the ad campaign. Handsome and charming, Jay Simmonds (Mason Gooding) wants to meet with his new co-worker Ally to discuss the work – over dinner. Ally resents him and resists the meeting but, of course, he persuades her. He arrives late at the restaurant, and then seems more interested in her than the work, or maybe it just seems that way to the broken-hearted Ally. She is put off by the over-friendly approach of this outsider who is essentially taking her job.
The meeting doesn’t go well, and to make things worse, when they leave the restaurant early, they runs into her ex and his new girlfriend. To cope, she pretends her new co-worker is her new boyfriend. Unfortunately, the Heart Eyes Killer is lurking nearby.
So now the two co-workers, who just met, find themselves on the run and continually repeating they aren’t a couple. A team of homicide detectives, who just happen to be named Hobbs and Shaw, played by Devon Sawa and Jordana Brewster respectively, add a surprising amount of tongue-in-cheek fun to the mix. Gigi Zumbado plays Olivia Holt’s character’s best friend, and their conversations, often by phone, allow Holt’s character to discuss her shifting feelings.
HEART EYES leans more into the comedy than any real romance or scares, although it is plenty gory. Again, how much enjoyment you get depends on how much you like piling on the tropes of both genres. Director Ruben also adds a little fun with the music choices, one of the best parts of the movie, along with the fine horror effects.
The problem is that both the film’s horror and romance are a bit too predictable, stiff even, despite the movie’s well-crafted special effects. The attacks rarely take you by surprise and even jump scares are rare. Another problem is that there is no detectable romantic chemistry between the stars, as attractive as each may be. In fact, there is more chemistry between the police detective couple than between the not-a-couple leads. With a little more originality in the horror parts and maybe different casting for the romantic part, this horror/rom-com might have been more of a SHAWN OF THE DEAD romp classic.
Rom-com/horror movie hybrid HEART EYES isn’t non-stop hilarious, nor it is very scary or romantic, but it is kind of fun, as a bit of light, popcorn holiday entertainment. Those who will enjoy it most are fans who love movies that play around with both genres’ formulaic elements.
HEART EYES opens in theaters on Friday, Feb. 7.
RATING: 2 out of 4 stars
