Gloriously Gory Heart Eyes is an Endearingly Enchanting Romcom-Slasher Hybrid
Heart Eyes is the best romcom-slasher hybrid that I’ve ever seen. Granted, it’s also the only romcom-slasher hybrid I’ve ever seen, so there’s not a ton in the way of competition for the title. Nonetheless, director Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within) and writers Phillip Murphy (Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard), Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day 2U), and Michael Kennedy (It’s a Wonderful Knife) have knocked it out of the park with this inventively nimble crowd-pleaser. I loved pretty much every fast-paced second of it.
It’s Valentine’s Day, and the infamous “Heart Eyes” killer is making a holiday pitstop in Seattle. They’ve been slicing and dicing lovestruck romantic couples in cities throughout the U.S. every February 14 for the past few years. Now they’ve hit the Pacific Northwest intent on making this their most gruesome dismemberment spree yet. Local detectives Zeke Hobbs (Devon Sawa) and Jeanine Shaw (Jordana Brewster) are on the case, and they’re determined to be the first law enforcement officers in the country to put an end to this madman’s psychotic evil.
Ally McCabe (Olivia Holt) and Jay Simmonds (Mason Gooding) are not on a date. They’re work colleagues in the advertising industry, sharing a dinner out at a fancy restaurant to discuss how they’re best going to collaborate on a new project. But when an impromptu display of affection meant to trick Ally’s ex is misinterpreted as genuine passion by Heart Eyes, the pair suddenly become the object of this knife-wielding lunatic’s most nefarious desires.
The list of influences Ruben and company are pulling from is a long one. But it’s mostly the romantic comedies of the 1980s and ‘90s along with the slashers of the same era (pushing into the early 2000s as well) that are most at play. In my opinion, the ones with the most impact on things are 1959’s Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson and Doris Day, 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and a rough combination of a pair of Wes Craven essentials: 1996’s Scream and 2005’s Red Eye. I could also feel the influence of 2014’s wacky stab at romantic parody They Came Together with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler.
As cute as that may be, if that’s all Heart Eyes wanted to be I doubt I’d find it particularly interesting. Constant referencing and showy splashes of homage can only take you so far. Characters. Story, Performance. Presentation. These things all matter. Without them, you have nothing to hold my interest.
Airplane!, Top Secret!, The Naked Gun, and Hot Shots! still hold up all these decades later because the late, great Jim Abrahams and his frequent collaborators David Zucker and Jerry Zucker (aka ZAZ) knew you had to give audiences a reason to care as much as you did copious opportunities to laugh. While their productions were obvious scattershot parodies, they still populated them with actors who knew how to keep a straight face. They played events out more or less for real, rarely (if ever) winking back to the camera to show the audience they were in on the joke.
Let me be clear, Ruben has not made a film in the same vein as those ZAZ classics, but he’s certainly been inspired by them (along with Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and silent age titans like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin). While there’s never any doubt that this crazy, messed-up world Ally and Jay are living in is nothing more than a celluloid fantasy, the emotions they are navigating are invigoratingly authentic. The same goes for the intensely gory terrors that Heart Eyes inflict upon their victims. These elements are treated seriously and, because of this, as lovably (and grotesquely) goofy as everything that happens may be, it still manages to have surprisingly intimate resonance at the exact same time.
Ally and Jay are phenomenally well-written protagonists. It takes almost no time to understand who these two are, why their individual backstories matter, and how it is they’ve come to Valentine’s Day unattached. More than that, the pitter-patter, rat-a-tat-tat rhythms of their conversations have an old-school vitality reminiscent of Hollywood’s Golden Age. It’s all marvelous.
Considering the presence of a 1940 Howard Hawks classic at a key point in the proceedings, this was likely intentional. Whether it was or not, the two leads still have to make it work, and Holt and Gooding are up to the challenge. Not only are they a phenomenal pairing from a purely visual standpoint, but they each showcase an innate ability to comprehend exactly what Ruben is going for while also mining the unique interior complexities of their respective characters. Holt and Gooding glide their way through these proceedings with enchanting urgency, and if by some miracle they were to become the next Hudson-Day or Hanks-Ryan cinematic coupling, I’d have zero problems with that whatsoever.
Then there are those horror elements. The film goes for broke, and it feels as if nothing is out of the realm of possibility. However, much like what Craven did with the original Scream, Ruben gets that whenever the masked villain slips their blade out of its sheath, this must be treated with lethal sincerity. While humor doesn’t need to entirely vanish, if there is going to be tension, if fear is going to insidiously flood its way throughout each aisle of the theater, then death has to matter and cannot be played off as a simple joke.
There’s so much more I could talk about, not the least of which is how the picture’s sublime song soundtrack beautifully couples with the score composed by Jay Wadley (I’m Thinking of Ending Things). Editor Brett W. Bachman (Pig, Mandy) and cinematographer Stephen Murphy (No One Gets Out Alive) do outstanding work as well. And don’t get me started on the costume design, Jaindra Watson (Black Christmas) and her team killing it in that department.
But I’m going to leave things here, as I want interested viewers to see all of this madness without too much foreknowledge of what it is they’re going to experience. While I do get not everyone will jive with everything Ruben and company are attempting, that this mix of carnage, comedy, and romance will feel too strange (and maybe even too depraved) and will be too difficult for some to stomach, that was decidedly not my experience. Heart Eyes tickled my funny bone, triggered my gag reflex, and caused the hairs on my arms to stand on end. As far as I’m concerned, Valentine’s Day entertainment doesn’t get any better than that.
Film Rating: 3½ (out of 4)
