“Heart Eyes” is a horror/romance movie, directed by Josh Ruben and released in Feb. 2025. It follows Ally and Jay, Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding respectively. They are forced to fight for their lives from the infamous Heart Eyes Killer, who hunts and murders couples on Valentine’s Day each year.
The movie begins with a couple whose marriage proposal is going awry, but this proposal is about to get a lot worse for the two. A masked killer, with two glowing hearts hiding his eyes, hunts the couple with deadly Cupid’s arrows. The bride-to-be runs for her life, before our introduction comes to an explosive head and the title card presents the name of the movie.
Ally, our main character, is having a bad Valentine’s Day, mourning over her ex and on the verge of losing her career. Her frantic state leads her to a very chaotic and painful introduction to our other main character, Jay.
Jay is Ally’s attractive and charismatic coworker, who was sent to help correct Ally’s detrimental mistake at work. Ally is unimpressed by Jay’s charm, but wants to be attractive to Jay regardless.
There is a shopping montage, circa early 2000s romcom, while Ally attempts to find the perfect outfit for her work meeting with Jay. Upon seeing that Jay has also dressed up for the meeting, Ally develops major heart eyes for her coworker, though she refuses to admit it due to her negative notions of romance.
An encounter puts Ally and Jay in her bedroom alone, where they bond, until they are interrupted by the Heart Eyes Killer, who has been stalking the two. The killer sends the coworkers on a chase for their life, hunting and killing others in the process.
Ally is a selfish character. She tends to be very pessimistic and projects her personal feelings on romance into her work and relationships. This juxtaposes Jay, who is charismatic and charming.
Their banter bounces off of each other in a believable, yet entertaining way. The two lead actors don’t have this undeniable chemistry that the movie sets them up to have, but the actors do a good enough job keeping the relationship quippy and cute.
We do see a softer side of Ally, as her and Jay take a moment to recuperate from their eventful night. She opens up about why she feels the way she does about romance and Jay recuperates, explaining why he is such a hopeless romantic. The romance between the two prevails over all other arcs in the film, causing these characters who should be deeply traumatized to just feel shallow.
This movie was marketed as a horror/romance movie, so it does make sense that romance plays a large part in the overall story. However, the large majority of this movie focused on the instant love between Ally and Jay, leaving the horror portion of this film to feel rushed and incomplete.
There is a B-plot, featuring two detectives following the trail of a recent murder. The detectives are the worst characters in the film, with a very small cast of characters to choose from. They are violent and unethical. Their conclusion of the Heart Eyes Killer is based on a hunch and no time was spent examining evidence or facts.
The two detectives follow the “good-cop and bad-cop” trope. While the bad cop chooses to yell and throw punches, the good cop takes to seducing the suspect and asking for his number, because she is lonely on Valentine’s Day. They refuse to take the main characters seriously and prolong the conflict, allowing more people to die.
The pacing is what suffers the most in this film. It has a runtime of an hour and thirty-seven minutes, and the majority of the film is spent on disposition and the introduction of characters we rarely see or care about.
The film enters its endgame almost as soon as the horror elements have started, relying on a twist in the last fifteen minutes to carry the ending of the movie. The killer in the movie has little screen time, taking second priority to the romance, and the reveal of the killer’s identity and motive are rushed and make no sense.
“Heart Eyes” was clearly inspired by classic horror films, such as “Scream” and “Saw.” These elements were implemented poorly, with the “Scream” inspiration being unoriginal and rushed. The Saw inspiration comes in the form of a “him or you” scene that focuses on the killer’s motive being because of a strange torture fetish.
If you enjoyed Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving” or James Wan’s “Saw”, this might be a film that you would enjoy. It isn’t as camp as “Thanksgiving” or as well performed as “Saw,” but the practical effects add a nostalgic camp feeling that is enjoyable.
This movie does nothing for the horror or romance genres and is generally uninspired. A “Heart Eyes” sequel seems unlikely, and that is probably for the best.
