While horror and comedy have long been cozy bedfellows, horror and romance have had an icier relationship. Sure, there are horny horrors like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Titane, and just about everything David Cronenberg has directed, but those are largely about sex, and not romance. And looking at how slasher films openly punish sex as an example of horror’s unease with certain kinds of wooing, the pairing of these two genres is tentative at best.
With this context, Heart Eyes already has a lengthy runway to overcome its aspiration to not only be a romantic horror comedy, but to be a horror romcom. But there are a few things working in its favour.
The film’s greatest strengths are the well-established and therefore easily satirized tropes of both the romcom and slasher subgenres, along with the strength of the writers and directors behind the film. Think of it like a volleyball bump and set, leading to a generally qualified spike. (This is the full extent of my ability to compare films to sports.)
Romcoms have a formula. That formula is so robust that films mocking that formula have practically become a subgenre unto themselves. Slasher films can make a similar stake in the world of meta films. For every Scream and Tucker and Dale vs Evil there is also a Hot Frosty and Isn’t It Romantic. Were these types of films less established, poking fun at them would be impossible. After all, how can you wink at an audience that is not in on the joke? Heart Eyes is built upon the foundation of these staid and true cinematic bones.
Heart Eyes tries its darnedest to juggle the scares with dating tropes. After a meet-cute in a Seattle coffee shop, career gal Ally (Olivia Holt) finds out that the cute stranger with her exact same latte order is the man who might be taking her job at the high-stress ad agency. Jay (Mason Gooding) somehow ends up tricking/persuading Ally to go out to dinner with him on Valentine’s Day, allegedly to get through some last-minute project. All of this adorable flirting is done with the backdrop of a Valentine’s Day murderer surfacing near Seattle for their annual killing spree that targets happy couples enjoying their saccharine day in each other’s arms and eyes.
Can you see where this is going?
Writers Michael Kennedy and Christopher Landon are no strangers to putting their own twist into horror films. Between the two of them, these gents have written Freaky, It’s a Wonderful Knife, and a critical mass of Paranormal Activity sequels. And that’s in addition to Landon directing the Happy Death Day films. Add to that pedigree the film’s director Josh Ruben. His two forays into feature film directing, Scare Me and Werewolves Within, are incredible. They have a strong voice and approach to story, while maintaining ease of digestion and legitimate frights. Ruben, Kennedy, and Landon might just have been the dream team of horror comedy. Bump, set, spike.
Although Ally and Jay are not a couple, they are then hunted by this masked killer of couples. No mind is paid by this serial lunatic to the fact that they just met and are still figuring things out. While it might not be saving the hometown newspaper, or rediscovering the meaning of Christmas, evading and fighting a textbook slasher also has a way of bringing two beautiful and single people together.
Heart Eyes toggles between romcom and slasher as it weaves its way through death tableaux and run-ins with the ex-boyfriend. With this zig-zagging of genre rules and tropes, it never quite seems to find its footing in being both things at once. When it makes fun of the stereotypical influencers in staging an Insta perfect proposal, it then asks us to root for them as they run away from the killer. The dual layers of satire and genre create a greater distance between the audience, and that distance is never quite eroded to the point of occupying its own style. I mean, it is silly to think that these two might be falling in love as they are watching gruesome murders happen all around them, but that is exactly what Heart Eyes is asking us to believe.
Where Heart Eyes does triumph is how fun and gory it can be. The rapid pace between attacks avoids the potential for any doldrums or dragging in the plot. The film hums along at a good pace for all of the territory it is trying to cover.
And the kills? They’re as disgusting, squelching, and dripping as any gorehound can dream. Though many of the deaths are telegraphed by the aforementioned genre formula, that does not take away from the inventiveness and revolting detail in the viscera sprayed across the screen. Any and all body parts are nominated for torture and destruction, and Heart Eyes does not flinch away from the action. In a nice crowded theatre, these kills are bound for cheers from an engaged audience of horror hounds.
With all of that said, overall Heart Eyes is a bit of a mixed bag. The beats are obvious at times, and the swirling genres do not always work, but the joy of watching violent death carries the film along nicely.
