In a cinematic landscape where horror and romance are rarely intertwined with one another, Heart Eyes kicks the door down and demands your attention. Directed by Josh Ruben, this cheeky, rom-com slasher hybrid manages to be both genuinely scary and surprisingly sweet. It’s a film that knows exactly what it is and has a lot of fun getting there.
Set in a moody, melancholy Seattle, the story follows Ally (Olivia Holt), a recently heartbroken pitch designer, and Jay (Mason Gooding), a brooding marketing consultant. Their budding office romance is interrupted by a masked killer targeting couples in gruesome ways.
What makes Heart Eyes work isn’t just the inventive kills or the snarky dialogue; it’s the tone. Ruben walks a fine line between satire and sincerity. The film pokes fun at the glossy, curated versions of love we sell ourselves online—but it also believes in the messy, vulnerable, real thing underneath. And that balance gives the story heart.
Holt and Gooding have the kind of chemistry that sells both the horror and the rom-com sides of the script. They’re charming and awkward in all the right ways, and when the blood starts to spill, you actually care whether they make it out alive.
Sure, it’s not perfect. The third act gets a little too clever for its own good, and there’s a twist or two that feel more like genre box-checking than real revelations. But when a film is this much fun, you forgive a little overreach.
Heart Eyes isn’t just a holiday horror movie: it’s a smart and fun film that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It understands that love can be ridiculous, terrifying, and maybe even worth dying for. Or at least fighting off a heart-eyed masked killer for.
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