There’s often a willingness to overcategorize middling slashers as horror comedies. However, balancing true horror with legitimate laughs is far more challenging. However, Heart Eyes pulls off the rare combo. Not only does it deliver legitimate laughs, easily showcasing itself as one of the funniest studio films in recent memory, but it’s got a mean streak few films possess. With plenty of gore and slasher frights, it’s an early standout for horror in 2025.
Heart Eyes — The Plot
Every Valentine’s Day, a masked killer known as the Heart Eyes Killer stalks couples in major cities. As a new killing spree starts up in Seattle, young ad executive Ally (Olivia Holt) kicks off a troubling ad campaign. Her boss (Michaela Watkins) brings in Jay (Mason Gooding), a freelance advertising specialist, to help right the course. As Ally and Jay find themselves at odds with each other, they become hunted by the infamous killer. To survive the night, they might have to get more intimate than they imagined.
Slick Comedic Writing Makes Heart Eyes an Instant Rewatch Candidate
Directed by Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within, Scare Me), the comedy was always going to be on point. After all, Ruben is a CollegeHumor alum and a consistent presence on Dropout’s litany of improv shows. Many moments contain that improvisational feel, but plenty of scripted beats send up the rom-com genre. Written by Philip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy, Heart Eyes has the pedigree to thrive as a comedy. However, both Landon and Kennedy have directed successful horror comedies of note (Freak and It’s a Wonderful Knife, respectively). Their knowledge rubs off on Ruben, but the young director maximizes the screenplay’s humor.
There are plenty of one-liners that hit our audience throughout the screening. However, perhaps most surprisingly, the background vocals generated a non-stop train of humor. Even when the characters are forced to admit their flaws and holdups to each other, we hear the sounds of an intimate couple consistently pierce the silence. Even when Heart Eyes puts its killer into a crowd, the background actors generate laughs thanks to visual and audio humor. Ruben and his screenwriters wisely move us between a dozen setpieces, and at each step, they throw everything at the wall to get the audience excited to see something new.
Even beyond the horror and general joke writing, Heart Eyes works as a rom-com pastiche. They pull moments directly from recent hit comedies and capitalize on the audience’s familiarity with the subgenre. They do not stop at celebrating the eras of Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan either. Even recent Apatow comedies and Ryan Gosling joke machines are canonized by Heart Eyes. By layering in the rom-com parody, Ruben builds a legitimate romance and can still lampoon its silliest devices.
Ruben Showcases Visual Surprises
Throughout Heart Eyes, there are moments that the horror flick could cheap its way through a scene. Instead, Ruben pushes the visuals of Heart Eyes. There’s a split-diopter shot at a moment of extreme tension that’s easily one of the best examples of blocking for a studio horror film since Nope. Heart Eyes uses a lingering camera to gin up the tension while choosing wide angles to highlight the stunt work at play. Ruben even gets laughs out of pure visuals, including a sex toy and a lonely serial killer waiting on a swing set.
Additionally, Ruben pushes the limit on the gore. Heads explode, weapons pierce through the body, and guts are spilled. The blood and viscera surprises, but Ruben knows the exact moments to display his shocking imagery. Again, Ruben uses most of these to shock but is not above using the gore to generate a laugh or two. Ruben shows his talent best during a police station sequence, which plays on strobe-like lighting and visual misdirects.
The Cast Shines From Top to Bottom
Another huge win for Heart Eyes comes from the ensemble. Gooding dominates the screen with incredible charm and perfect comedic timing. The Scream actor has been on the rise, but Heart Eyes proves he can lead a movie in ways his other work has not. Jordana Brewster surprises as a cop, breaking out of her Fast and the Furious persona to showcase new sides of herself. Devon Sawa is a perfect fit as an irritated cop and has excellent chemistry with both Brewster and Gooding. A pair of scenes with Watkins are incredible and stand out as some of the funniest scenes in the whole movie.
Gigi Zumbado steals the show early, delivering a dozen jokes in a limited time. She helps connect us to Olivia Holt, who unfortunately draws the short straw in terms of character. Holt’s Ally is written like a very basic white girl, and unfortunately, it continues to be one of the problems of Heart Eyes. While the movie even acknowledges her plucky annoyances, Holt has very little to play.
Is Heart Eyes worth watching?
It’s genuinely hard to imagine we’ll get many better horror comedies in 2025. Blame Ruben for almost certainly delivering the high bar of the year in this regard. Watch this in a theater to get an ideal comedic crowd experience, and let the horror fans join you as they cheer on the bloodlust. It’s a perfect time for a movie like Heart Eyes to marry two of our most popular genres, and it’s even crazier that it’s executed on such a high level.
Check out Heart Eyes in theaters starting on February 6. Sony distributes.
Heart Eyes Review — An Incredible Melding of Rom-Coms and Slashers
