HEART EYES: Valentine’s Day Is No Longer Safe

When it comes to horror movies set in and around the holidays, nearly all of them are already locked down with one large franchise or another. Halloween, Christmas, and Thanksgiving all have pretty solid horror entries that take place during that time of year, even Valentine’s Day has had a few films that tried to give it a shot. If you look at the pantheon of holiday-based horror movies though, I think we can all agree that the last one, Valentine’s Day, has had the weakest showings. With Heart Eyes, the latest horror slasher attempting to ruin a night for loving couples, there’s only one question that remains: Will it be the exception to the rule that it is impossible to make a decent horror movie set on Valentine’s Day…or will it be just another failed attempt?

Heart Eyes was written by Philip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy. The film, directed by Josh Ruben (Scare Me and Werewolves Within), attempts to take what is some people’s favorite holiday (and some very lonely people’s least favorite) and turn it into a blood-soaked rom-com with heavy slasher vibes. In this, the film very much succeeds. About thirty minutes into the runtime I was picking up extremely strong Scream vibes, and that is in no way a bad thing. Instead of Ghostface we get The Heart Eyes Killer (H.E.K. for short, the media loves abbreviation), and the first thing I noticed was their variety of weapons. We had knives, of course (there’s always knives), but we also got to see them using a crossbow and throwing knives, as well as a very gnarly looking machete- the panel will always award points for original kills in a slasher flick. The end of that opening scene, well, that’s all I’ll say.

The film stars Olivia Holt (Kickin’ It on the Disney Channel) and Mason Gooding (Ballers) as a couple of ad writers with an identical coffee order who after an awkward first meeting end up having to work together in more ways than one. There is, after all, an ad campaign that really needs fixing and — of course — a serial killer on the loose that they should probably stop. Padding out the cast, as a pair of detectives and definitely no strangers to the genre, are Devon Sawa and Jordana Brewster, both of whom really help to elevate the film. It was fun seeing those two together in a horror project.

It’s All About The Music

The film opens to a country song in the middle of a wine vineyard while a “loving” couple attempt to capture, on camera, the perfect proposal (even if they have to run it back and do it again). Honestly, the immediate dig at Valentine’s Day and all of its Instagram “put on a show” trappings made me want to root for this movie. Very soon (very, very soon) after that we got our first look at H.E.K. and it was made clear that although this was a slasher set on yet another holiday, they were going to get creative with it. The first scene alone introduced us to the killers entire tool kit as well as giving us quite an explosive close to the scene (if you know, you know, if you don’t, you need to). From there the filmmakers show us a media montage that gives us quickly the rundown of the years of murders perpetrated by The Heart Eyes Killer on previous Valentine’s Days in various cities across America. This isn’t your standard slasher film killer, then; they like to get around.

Music plays a big part in this movie, setting the tone with one decent needle drop after another and the cinematography really shines with bright colors in dark areas. Everything is juxtaposed against something else in really interesting ways. It was visually and audibly a fun film to watch. The film was tightly edited, only running about 97 minutes, and with the story the director wanted to tell, nothing really ever drags. It starts, takes off, and moves along so that we are never bored.

It Takes Two, Baby

Everyone in this movie was paired off in one way or another, our two heroes (if we can call them heroes as opposed to two clumsy, forced-together lovers who rise to the occasion) to our detectives Hobbs and Shaw (no, not like the movie they’ve never heard of) to even the killer, everything came in pairs. It is a movie about Valentine’s Day, after all, and nobody wants to be alone. Holt and Gooding both give good performances; they were believable in their roles with neither of them taking from the other. Nothing groundbreaking to see but they serviced the story well. The real stars for me were Sawa and Brewster, the detectives Hobbs and Shaw. Both of them came in and clearly had a good time, with familiar horror territory and a new world for both of them to play in and eat up scenery. Their dynamic had me laughing and even if Sawa didn’t get enough screen time, he is what cemented this movie for me. He was just a delight to watch.

Heart Eyes is an ode to holiday horror-slasher films of the past, coming into a space that has been left vacant for a while and solidly planting their flag. The film was fast paced, bloody, funny, and even a little romantic. Kind of all the things you would need from a horror film set on Valentine’s Day. I don’t really know what more I could have asked for besides maybe a more clear-cut path to a sequel (I have many theories on how they could still do a few more of these gems), though not every movie needs one. This is a film I would recommend to any fan of the slasher genre, especially if they were into the Scream franchise or something similar. For every holiday there is usually one horror movie that stands above the rest as the go-to for viewing and for Valentine’s Day, I think, that film is Heart Eyes.