Heart Eyes

by Mike McGranaghan

Heart Eyes is like if someone unleashed Jason Voorhees on a ‘90s-era Julia Roberts rom-com. The movie intentionally embraces all the cliches of the genre, right up to the heroine’s climactic race to the airport to declare her love to a departing paramour, then interrupts them with occasional gory murders. It’s an interesting way of dissecting both romantic comedies and slasher flicks, as it essentially uses one to comment on the other.

Ally (Olivia Holt) is a broken-hearted resident of Seattle who works at an ad agency. She’s on the verge of losing her job, thanks to a disastrous campaign she designed. The boss brings in freelancer Jay (Mason Gooding) to fix it. Not so coincidentally, he’s the handsome guy she had a quirky meet-cute with at a local coffee shop earlier in the day. They go to dinner on Valentine’s Day to discuss the project, only to discover there’s undeniable chemistry between them.

Meanwhile, a masked psycho known as the Heart Eyes Killer continues his annual tradition of murdering couples on Feb. 14. The psycho mistakes Ally and Jay for an actual couple and starts stalking them. Two cops (Jordana Brewster and Devon Sawa) make an effort to capture him before he slays too many innocent people.

Heart Eyes plays all the rom-com conventions to the hilt. Plot developments, dialogue, and characterization are designed to be familiar to audiences. Holt and Gooding still manage to generate a believable spark, allowing the attraction between their characters to work, even with the purposefully superficial tone. The approach is absolutely necessary because it lulls us into their romance. That makes the Heart Eyes Killer’s murders jolting when they arrive. Humorously, Ally and Jay handle being pursued by a deranged slasher just as typical rom-com characters would, i.e. through comic bickering and uncontrollable flirting.

Director Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within) gives the film a fast pace and a slick visual style. He also takes care to make the kills as gruesome as possible. They nicely juxtapose the lovey-dovey stuff. Much of the appeal comes from watching rom-com conventions and slasher tropes bump up against each other. A deft touch is needed to pull that off, and Ruben has it.

The performers are clearly in on the joke, and across the board they deliver exactly what’s required. Michaela Watkins is a hoot as Ally’s snooty boss, and Devon Sawa cleverly spoofs the macho cop stereotype. Perhaps the most unexpected performance comes from Brewster, who turns her character into a real weirdo – an unlucky-in-love loser who’s not above hitting on a murder suspect. The supporting players ably back up the romantic tension Holt and Gooding create.

Clearly, you won’t find a lot of substance or depth in Heart Eyes. It’s also ridiculously easy to figure out who’s behind the mask by using Roger Ebert’s famous Law of Economy of Characters. Regardless, the film is a great deal of twisted fun as it mashes together two diametrically opposed cinematic genres. I had a bloody good time watching it.

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