Heart Eyes

I was not sold on Heart Eyes when I saw the trailer. It would be more accurate to say I was out on Heart Eyes. It looked dumb and cliche, a cash-grab throwback to the days of holiday-themed slashers. But then I started hearing the horror community say this was better than expected, and I was curious. My track record with movies that come out with low expectations and get embraced by the horror community hasn't been great (Longlegs, Barbarian), but this was a slasher, not some high-minded attempt at Horror As Art. And then I saw Christopher Landon was attached to it as a writer/producer, and I was on board. I adore Landon's talent for taking comedy movies premises like time loops (Groundhog Day) and body swapping (Freaky Friday) and throwing them in a blender with a slasher movie. A rom-com slasher? Sure, I'm in. Heart Eyes isn't just When Harry & Sally Met Jason, though. It's more of a throwback to the screwball romantic comedies of the 30's and 40's. Think It Happened One Night or Libeled Lady; a pair of completely mismatched people are thrust together because of circumstance, bicker a lot, and despite their best efforts and posturing, end up falling in love. Only in this case, the screwball situation they're thrust into is that there is a serial killer that pops up every year on Valentine's Day in a different major American city and murders couples. The killer has seen our protagonists, Ally and Jay, and targets them. Horror-comedies are a lot trickier to pull off than a straight horror. There's a precise balance to be found; too much of one element can leave the other feeling underbaked and unwanted. It also has to know when to shift gears, when to let one of the elements take over the wheel, and when to blend them. Heart Eyes has to balance, blend, and shift between three elements; horror, comedy, and romance. I was surprised to find that it not only succeeds, it does so while going for a hard R rating on the horror. When it pushes the horror to the forefront, Heart Eyes pulls no punches in the violence and gore, which is a marked difference from Landon's Happy Death Day movies, which were regrettably neutered for a PG-13 rating. If you're here for the horror, you won't walk away unfulfilled. Neither will the romance and comedy fans, which both get their time to shine, both intertwined and straight-up on their own. There really is a sweet romantic story being told in Heart Eyes, about two broken people who have unique personal histories that shape their view of love and give them understandable motivations for how they approach it. A screwball romantic movie is only as good as its leads (ditto a horror movie), and in that case, Heart Eyes does a pretty good job. Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding have a natural, believable chemistry. I'm not the biggest fan of Gooding individually -- he has a somewhat bland, 2000's CW teen drama aura -- but paired together, they work. I wanted to see these two overcome their issues and end up together. Their comedic timing is excellent, and they're believable as the protagonists. And most importantly, they're able to juggle the balls of this movie and switch between the tones on a moment's notice. The build-up to the first time they come across the killer and the sudden change in tone is a perfect example (I won't give anything away, it's too charming to spoil). On the flip side of this, a slasher movie is only as good as its villain. They have to have a presence and a style and a look, and the Heart Eyes Killer does that. It's very much a human killer, but the look is sinister, and the movement and ruthlessness is straight out of the best Friday The 13th sequels. Think Final Chapter's angrier Jason and you'll have the picture. That being said, though, there are some flaws worth pointing out. Yes, there's some convenient plot contrivances that creak like an old door, and yes there's some Idiot Plot moments. The motivation of the killer is highly divisive; personally, I liked it, but I get why some people don't. However, the biggest fumble is the mystery aspect of the killer. A slasher movie needs to stick the landing if it's going to use a whodunit aspect to the killer; there has to be logical red herrings, and bread crumbs dropped throughout the course of the movie that the viewer can think back on and pick up on in a rewatch. It's why the reveal in the first Scream is so satisfying and the mystery in the original Friday The 13th isn't; once you know it's Billy and Stu, you can piece it together, whereas Mrs. Voorhees is dropped into the viewer's lap at random. I'm not getting into spoilers, but suffice to say the reveal is so puzzling and so much of an anti-climax, the movie actually calls it out in dialogue. I appreciate it being self-aware, and the final fight is great, but it doesn't change the fact that the mystery's payoff is a like a wet firecracker. There's also the issue that the movie tries to pull off a plot twist with about 20 minutes left that requires you to not pay attention to clocks or run time. It is painfully obvious, and Heart Eyes moves forward with no shame whatsoever. It's clunky and annoying. Even with those flaws, I still had way more fun with Heart Eyes than I expected when I first saw the trailer. Somehow, Landon has struck again, taking a movie template that has no business being within the same ZIP code as a slasher movie and blended them together without doing either a disservice. Comedy fans will find plenty to laugh about. Romance fans will find a sweet, enjoyable, touching story of star-crossed lovers. And slasher fans will be bathing in gore and dead bodies (and what CGI is used isn't a distraction!). Despite a creaky third act and disappointing killer reveal, Heart Eyes still managed to win me over.