Released: 13th February
Seen: 13th May
The Holiday Slasher is an idea that basically defined the boom period of the slasher genre back in the 80s, the idea being that a producer could just pick any random holiday and make a movie around it. This simple idea led us down the rabbit hole of My Bloody Valentine, Leprechaun, Silent Night Deadly Night, Thanksgiving and about a hundred other horror films of varying quality. Of course, lately there’s been a lot less of this kind of film, mostly because every holiday was already handled by a film from the 80s, so there’s not much new territory to tread on here. If you can’t do something new though, at least do something fun, and Heart Eyes is doing something very fun.
Heart Eyes exists in a world where every Valentine’s Day, a serial killer known as the Heart Eyes Killer goes around to a new town and kills a few couples enjoying the holiday. This year, the Heart Eyes Killer has stopped off in Seattle, which is where ad designer Ally (Olivia Holt) is trying to deal with the aftermath of a bad campaign ad and being forced to work with consultant Jay (Mason Gooding). Sure, the two of them are able to get along but they aren’t actually a couple… but that won’t stop the Heart Eyes Killer from giving them a very memorable Valentine’s Day.
Heart Eyes takes the classic slasher tropes that we know and love and slams them violently inside the world of a cheesy rom-com and god damn it works. Everything here is heightened for the comedy, the colours are more saturated than most modern films would be, the jokes are more rapid fire than a standard slasher, everyone’s just a little too perfect which makes it all the more fun when a masked maniac turns up to fire a crossbow into someone’s face. It’s got the rhythms and cheery nature of a rom-com, but with a few more murders than the average rom-com has, which is always welcome. It’s also very fun to just throw in a random cool shot for no reason other than it’s cool, shots that a lot of standard slashers won’t bother with because they just want to move on, but Heart Eyes takes the time to play around and have fun which is appreciated.
That sense of fun fills every blood-soaked frame, which shouldn’t be a shock considering you have the writers of Freaky and Happy Death Day handling the script while Dropout star Josh Ruben directs and all seem like experts in making something fun. It’s kind of a dream team of creatives to make this kind of film because the film manages to keep feeling fresh even while playing around in familiar territory. Let’s be honest, everyone who is a fan of this genre has seen films that are pretty similar to Heart Eyes (particularly during the 80s and 90s when this kind of film was coming out every other week) but it takes a skilled set of hands to take something we’ve seen before and make it feel new, and this feels pretty new.
Heart Eyes doesn’t really skimp on anything, it’s got a great set of lead characters and a bunch of quick wit and it has some great kills that give it more than enough slasher cred. The kills are always a major element of this genre – as a slasher movie, you kind of live or die on how good your kills are and these are genuinely great. Once again, very over the top in several places but also just plain old fun. It’s hard not to be wildly entertained by someone getting caught in a giant wine juicer and popping like a grape because it’s so silly that you have to laugh at it. The film invites that feeling every chance it can get, it’s not afraid to substitute a laugh for a scare if the laugh is genuinely good.
Heart Eyes is a pretty easy film to love because it knows exactly what it’s doing at all times. It’s a silly slasher blended perfectly with a cheesy rom-com and bounces between those categories with alarming ease. It’s a textbook case of how much can be done by just hitting the core beats of a genre film with confidence and a little bit of style; it just works well and makes for fantastic date night viewing… depending on how much you want to see that date again.
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