Heart Eyes (2025)

February 20, 2025 7:33 AM

[TRAILER] Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding) have a meet cute at a coffee shop, then find out they're being paired together for a big ad campaign at work, right at Valentine's Day. He's a romantic and she's been hurt before. Can they meet in the middle to capitalize on their obvious chemistry? Oh yeah, and also, they're being stalked by the Heart Eyes Killer, a masked serial killer who brutally (and I mean brutally) murders happy couples. A cheeky hybrid of romcoms and slasher movies from comedian and director Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within).

Starring Gigi Zumbado, Michaela Watkins, Devon Sawa, Jordana Brewster.

Directed by Josh Ruben. Written by Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, Michael Kennedy. Produced by Christopher Landon, Greg Gilreath, Adam Hendricks for Spyglass Media Group, Divide/Conquer. Cinematography by Stephen Murphy. Edited by Brett W. Bachman. Music by Jay Wadley.

81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now playing in US theaters. You can follow the JustWatch listing to find out when it hits streaming in your country/on your favorite services.

posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total)

The thing to know about this movie is that it's not just a hybrid of romcoms and slashers, it is a sincere version of each genre at the same time. There is no parody or snark about the romcom half and there are no pulled punches and there is no jokiness about the slasher part.

What this means is that if you do not sincerely enjoy stuff like say, You've Got Mail or While You Were Sleeping, you will not like this. It has an actual meet-cute. It has a trying-on-outfits-for-the-big-date-montage. It has a rushing-to-the-airport-to-declare-your-love scene. It's not being arch about things, it's really a romcom.

However, neither is it kidding about being a slasher. So if you aren't the kind of person who can cheer for a well done kill, who can laugh your ass off at an over-the-top decapitation, this is also not for you.

If, however, you can stand comfortably on that weird Venn diagram overlap, this is a fun, fun little movie. It's not a "great film." It's not brilliant or earth-shattering or anything. But it set itself a weird little challenge that should not really work (mass market romcom while also being a big budget theatrical-style slasher) and it absolutely nails that small pleasure.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:39 AM on February 20 [4 favorites]

Also, for those of you who enjoy new variations on "Chekhov's _______" this film has "Chekhov's metal straw."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:44 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]

I cannot wait for this to hit streaming services. The drive-in near my house is closed for the winter, and I'm so spoiled by said drive-in that I can't bring myself to sit in a regular theater with noisy, germy, stinky people.
posted by maryellenreads at 5:11 PM on February 20

noisy, germy, stinky people

Title of your first low budget horror
posted by ginger.beef at 6:33 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]

So I finally saw this tonight. While I really enjoyed the opening and some other moments, overall I found it just ok.
posted by miss-lapin at 12:09 AM on March 15