Psycho slasher flicks are hard to predict on the quality scale. Some viewers only care about the gore level. Others look more for novelty in the methods of dispatch; the more studious types may seek more in the plot and character vein to understand they whys of the situation. PRETTY BOY is pretty good on the first two, but weak on the third. What I didn’t know before watching was that this 2021 movie is a sequel, picking up right after the events of 2019’s BLIND. I then watched it, too, and probably would have liked this one better if I’d seen them in the correct order. But not by all that much.
The eponymous masked murderer has a fixation on a blind former starlet (Sarah French). As this one opens, he’s schlepping her body around Hollywood Hills for reasons I still don’t understand after seeing both when he comes across a Valentine’s Day party at someone’s home, and starts killing those folks.
We learn a bit about them, but not enough to care who might survive. Despite his lack of dialog, we also learn more of Pretty Boy’s backstory, which is suitably sordid, if not fully credible.
Gore junkies will be more satisfied by the sights and sounds of the slaughter, including plenty of blood and a few unique methods of offing the co-stars. The body count is higher and more visceral than in BLIND. Other plot and character details matter little.
Now that you know what to expect, make your own decision on which parts of the genre you find most motivating, and choose accordingly. That’s the best non-spoiler advice I can offer.
PRETTY BOY is available VOD and on digital platforms starting Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
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.
Filmgoers still want some romance up on the big screen in the local cinemas. As is evident in this weekend’s box office, FIFTY SHADES FREED, the last film in the ‘Fifty Shades’ trilogy, pushed the franchise over the $1 billion mark globally with a number one debut bringing in $98.1 million in overseas and $38.8 million in North America for a combined worldwide total of $136.9 million.
Need a film to watch with your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day?
While this genre isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, there’s no denying the emotional impact of these scenes that make them noteworthy. If you’re still searching for that special movie, here’s a sampling of scenes from romantic films.
Nothing says enduring love better than the story of BRAVEHEART and the Scot who gave his body and soul to his country and woman he loved. William gives Muron the thistle she had given him at his father and brothers funeral when they were children. Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but we can watch this movie all day long and twice on Sunday.
Moviegoers found the Heart of the Ocean in Best Picture winner TITANIC. While the ship and Rose and Jack were ultimately doomed, the transitional scene at the bow of the ship from hopeful beginnings to icy grave still goes down as one of the ultimate heartbreakers of all romance films.
That kiss in THE NOTEBOOK. Unrequited love is a powerful aphrodisiac in the combination of Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams – and so apparently is a rain storm.
“And they Call it Bella Notte” the enduring sweetness of the LADY AND THE TRAMP Spaghetti Kiss scene. Walt Disney’s “Best In Show”.
The kindling of their affair was played out for the world in 1963 in this passion filled scene from CLEOPATRA. The biggest scandal of the decade became one of the most intense, romantic moments when Burton literally yanks the coined necklace from an unflinching Taylor.
No list would be complete in making your super-hero hearts beat loudly without the first flight of SUPERMAN and Lois. Having us “Believe A Man Could Fly” while circling the World Trade Center left audiences with soaring feelings of pride. We still love watching the Man of Steel’s and Ms. Lane’s first date up in the clouds.
Speaking of super-heroes and Valentine’s Day, with DEADPOOL, there are so many Vanessa/Wade scenes from which to choose from. The dialogue between the two in the film is so full of romance, among other things.
Vanessa Carlysle: Well, I wanna remember us.
Wade Wilson: I swear to God, I will find you in the next life and I’m gonna boom-box “Careless Whisper” outside your window. Wham!
We had to go with the sappy “Careless Whisper” ending scene, making it required watching for l’amour.
What could be more dreamy than George Peppard pining for Audrey Hepburn as she sings “Moon River” from BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S. In true fairy tale fashion, Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly ultimately found her “rainbow’s end”.
Okay, okay…we’re saps for the ending scene too.
If there’s any lovelier way to say I Love You than with the lyrics “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face,” we’d like to hear it. An ingenious way by songwriters Lehrner and Loewe in MY FAIR LADY to get across Professor Higgins’ futile realization that he’s fallen in love with Eliza Doolittle. A smitten man who’s “grown accustomed to the trace…Of something in the air; Accustomed to her face.”
The girl. The guy. An Italian wheat field. More than 25 years later, Merchant/Ivory’s A ROOM WITH A VIEW still ranks among the best “Happily Ever After”.
GHOST. Put the pottery wheel and Unchained Melody to the side…far off to the side. The celestial kiss by Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, along with the Maurice Jarre/Alex North soundtrack, make for the tissue-filled ending and perfect Valentine’s Day film.
This scene from THE ENGLISH PATIENT is one you can feel right down to your toes.
On their third identical voyage from London to the Riviera, Joanna Wallace (Audrey Hepburn) and husband Mark (Albert Finney) explore their 12-year marriage in a series of wry and illuminating flashbacks. They reminisce about the glorious beginning of their love affair, the early years of marriage and the events that led to their subsequent infidelities. As they try to understand their relationship, they must accept how they have changed if they are to rekindle their original love. The film’s lush score, one of Henry Mancini’s finest, received a Golden Globe nomination. Audrey Hepburn also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. TWO FOR THE ROAD is arguably one of the most stylistically influential movies from the ’60s.
CASABLANCA’s “If you knew how much I loved you.” Where did that box of Kleenex go to?
WEST SIDE STORY’s tale of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet won ten Academy Awards and Leonard Bernstein’s musical is still heart-wrenching with such songs as “Somewhere” and Maria and Tony’s make-believe wedding song “One Hand, One Heart.” Yes, we’re crying.
Everyone could use a little fluff in their lives now and again, even hardened, cynical, no-nonsense movie critics who have had it up to here with chintzy romcoms. Okay, maybe especially us, the kind of people who would normally find a certain level of loathing in a film like VALENTINE’S DAY. It’s bloated. It’s lacking any kind of edge whatsoever. It’s filled to the brim with fake, Hollywood types falling in and out of love as if it doesn’t even mean anything to do so any more. It’s the type of film I generally hate, gnashing my teeth at the thought of standing one more minute with any of these characters. Imagine my shock and disbelief when, early in the film, I found myself not only enjoying myself but fully engrossed in most of the characters splashed on the screen.
It doesn’t do much good to run down a synopsis of VALENTINE’S DAY. It would take the rest of my anticipated 1000 words just to cover all the major anchors in the story. Let’s just say it takes place in one day, Valentine’s Day, and it follows a myriad of characters as they attempt to find their own sense of happiness on this day where everyone has been led to believe they should find their one true love.
The film is directed by Garry Marshall, a man who, if he ever had an edge about him, lost it roughly 30 seconds after deciding to put Rosie O’Donnell in a corset (EXIT TO EDEN for those of you wondering). He directs VALENTINE’S DAY with all the subtlety of a Cupid’s arrow straight to the forehead, and it doesn’t help that Katherine Fugate’s screenplay has all kinds of pacing and structural issues, either. Certain story lines such as Eric Dane’s NFL quarterback who may be receiving a forced retirement and Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts as strangers who meet on a flight receive short thrift. Other story lines like Ashton Kutcher’s florist with the girlfriend, played by Jessica Alba, everyone knows is way out of his league seem to meander and hang around far too long.
The problem with the plot lines that go on too long is that they are wholly predictable, almost daring the audience to thing of more creative ways for them to resolve themselves. This is particularly the case with Kutcher’s story line, which is directly connected to Jennifer Garner’s segment of a woman whose seemingly perfect boyfriend, played by Patrick Dempsey, may or may not be married. The plot line of a young boy, played by Bryce Robinson, who is dead set on getting some flowers delivered to his school is also pretty predictable, and this one even annoys you a bit. Here is a ten-year-old whose parents are absent and who is watched by his grandparents, played by Hector Elizondo and Shirley Maclaine. Yet, he seems to be free to roam Los Angeles without any sort of guardian. I don’t know. I don’t live in LA. Maybe the streets are safe for a fourth grader in Southern California. This one certainly doesn’t seem to have any problems with getting from point A to point B.
Other segments featuring Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Emma Roberts, and Queen Latifah weave in and out, and that’s only off the top of my head. You kind of get the idea that Fugate is in way over her head with this screenplay, and it shows.
Fortunately, though, the onslaught of left and right plot points also become the film’s saving grace. Most of the characters are, to a certain extent, likable and filled by equally likable actors. If, for some reason, you don’t like a certain segment of the film, you can Basque in the belief that, at any given moment, we are mere second from moving on to a completely different story line. Granted, Fugate and Marshall will make unsavory attempts at making connections here and there, an element of the film that should have been thrown in the garbage, but these are easily looked over, as well.
Much of the pairings here work from the shear presence of chemistry between the actors. Elizondo & Maclaine, Cooper & Roberts, and Biel & Foxx in particular seem to have a connection that goes beyond the individuals giving decent performances. Say what you will about Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift or the performances they give here. They made me laugh, and they both looked good doing it.
Really the only pairing in VALENTINE’S DAY with a complete lack of any kind of chemistry is Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway. Their story line is probably the most disconnected from the rest of the film, with bridges to other story lines seemingly shoe horned in for the sole benefit of keeping it included. It could have easily been cut, though, and it probably would have brought that total running time down to under two hours, as well.
The film offers a certain amount of genuine surprises, too. Dane’s story line, in particular, has not one but two twists throughout its course that caught me by surprise. The segment with Elizondo and Maclaine holds a rather daring reveal, even if the outcome is strictly Hollywood, and I say that in more ways than one.
Like a box of candy with about six too many layers, VALENTINE’S DAY is anything but nuanced. It’s obvious, Hollywood fluff that acts as a match maker without a single, creative arrow in its quiver. If you’re looking for the same thing and a whole lot more inventive and, overall, better, see LOVE, ACTUALLY. However, despite all of its drawbacks, there is a gleam in VALENTINE’S DAY’s eye that can neither be doubted nor denied. Anyone who puts down their hard-earned money to see this film are going to get precisely what they bargained for, and, sometimes, that’s enough to warrant a recommendation. If you have any doubts, stay far, far away, but, if you’re a forgiving movie goer who wants a little schmaltz with their flowers, you could pick far less appealing stems than this.
VALENTINE’S DAY comes a little early this year, February 12th to be precise, but it looks as if it could be coming even earlier for a number of our devoted readers. We have passes for the St. Louis screening of VALENTINE’S DAY a full, four days before the film’s release on Monday, February 8th at 7:00 PM.
First and foremost, this is a St. Louis screening. If you will not be in St. Louis on February 8th, please do not enter this contest.
Here is what we need from you if you do want these passes, though. The cast list for VALENTINE’S DAY is immense, too immense to list them all here, but you can check it out over on the film’s IMDB page. We want you to play matchmaker. Tell us, of all the women and men in the film’s cast, which two would you like to see fall in love with each other. Give us your best “couples” in the comments section below.
We will be picking the winners at random over the weekend and notifying via email. And, if you’re not one of the lucky ones who gets to see the film early, be sure to check out VALENTINE’S DAY when it hits theaters on February 12th.
