‘Heart Eyes’ Review: A Romantic Comedy Slasher That Works Fine in 2 Out of 3 of Its Genres

Heart Eyes isn’t great, but it’s fun enough if you don’t expect too much.

Magic Symbol: Thorn Rune
Heart Eyes was released in theaters in North America on February 7, 2025.

Table of Contents

What is Heart Eyes About?

Heart Eyes (2025)
Lots of the movie’s initial exposition is told to the audience through news clips.

Heart Eyes blends the romance, comedy, and slasher genres to create a silly and bloody Valentine’s Day horror movie.

For the past few years, the Heart Eyes Killer (sometimes referred to as HEK) has slaughtered couples on Valentine’s Day. The killer picks a different city each year, and this year Heart Eyes is in Seattle. Also in Seattle is Ally, an advertising specialist who is having a very bad Valentine’s Day. Her recent campaign is a disaster, and her boss brings in a marketing genius, Jay, to help her quickly come up with a new idea. Ally, who is recently single, resents Jay’s presence, but when a “work” dinner gets mistaken by Heart Eyes for a date, Ally and Jay forced to get closer to each other when they become the killer’s next targets.

Heart Eyes was directed by Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within). It was written by Christopher Landon (Freaky, Happy Death Day 2U), Phillip Murphy (Hitman’s Bodyguard’s Wife), and Michael Kennedy (Freaky, It’s a Wonderful Knife). Olivia Holt (Totally Killer) and Mason Gooding (Scream 5-7) star as Olivia and Jay. Also appearing in featured roles are Devon Sawa (Final Destination, Chucky), Jordana Brewster (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning), and Gigi Zumbado (Run Sweetheart Run).

Heart Eyes Review

Heart Eyes (2025)
Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding carry the movie well.

Heart Eyes is meant to be a crowd-pleaser. It’s a light comedy, with a cute romantic plot, and some gory slasher-style action. It sounds like a perfect movie for Valentine’s Day, and for some people it might be just that. But a more cynical view might see Heart Eyes as an attempt from a studio to make what they think people want, at the expense of true emotion and heart. Like a movie made by committee, based on a checklist of expected tropes and plot points. This reviewer leans towards the cynical side, though maybe not completely. Heart Eyes is fun enough, but many of its elements fall flat.

Take, for instance, the comedy. The comedy is set up as one-third of the enjoyment of Heart Eyes (along with romance and slashing), but nearly none of the jokes worked for me. Comedy is supremely subjective, so take this critique as you will, but Heart Eyes just isn’t very funny. Some examples of the kind of “jokes” in Heart Eyes include saying the titles of movies, naming characters after a movie and then having people point it out and dwell on it for a few seconds, vomiting on a dead body, and having a character say they’ll kill someone, but they’re only joking (but are they, but no, but maybe, etc.). It feels like a writers’ room tossed out ideas for humor, but they didn’t ever refine them before writing the script.

Heart Eyes (2025)
Heart Eyes seems to pay tribute the scene in Hot Fuzz (2007) where Nicholas Angel and a woman exchange insults by answering clues to a crossword puzzle, but Heart Eyes doesn’t do the joke nearly as well.

The romance side of the movie is fine. It’s rarely ever particularly compelling since the plot makes it necessary to have a shadow of doubt obscuring Jay’s intentions for part of the story, but the love story is charming enough. It hits the expected story beats—an absurdly coincidental meet cute, an awkward encounter that pulls Ally and Jay closer to each other, a last-minute decision about love—but it’s all perfectly fine. Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding are fun to watch, and they have good chemistry together.

As for the slasher part of Heart Eyes, it’s about 50/50. The slasher violence is a lot of fun, and the gore looks good. It’s not as bloody as, say, a Terrifier movie, but it’s on the gorier side of mass-appeal slasher offerings. The Heart Eyes killer also looks pretty good. Where the slashing stumbles is the plot.

Heart Eyes (2025)
The Heart Eyes mask looks good, but I’m pretty sure shining red lights into your own eyes wouldn’t help you see in the dark like the movie suggests.

Heart Eyes takes the form of a whodunit slasher, but we don’t get to know enough characters to make the mystery terribly interesting. And when the killer’s identity is revealed, it’s not very satisfying even if you’ve already guessed who it is. Also, just like how the romance plot threads feel completely familiar, so too do the slasher plot threads. The killer is already in the house, the wrong person is accused of the crimes, the heroes decide to fight back even if it means sacrificing themselves, etc. The checklist of slasher tropes is in full effect, even when the implementation of a trope doesn’t make sense (which happens relatively often).

This might sound like a scathing review. But honestly, despite my complaints, I had a decent time with Heart Eyes. I didn’t laugh, but the absurd romance and the bloody kills are all I need to have a good time. I like slasher movies even when they’re not great, and Heart Eyes definitely falls into the “not great” category for me.

Heart Eyes Rating and Recommendation

Heart Eyes (2025)
Heart Eyes is worth seeing in a theater with friends (or a loved one).

Star Rating: 3 out of 5

The writing in Heart Eyes is lacking, but the romance is silly and charming, and the slasher kills are gory and fun. Don’t expect every joke to land, but do expect to have a pretty good time.

Heart Eyes is currently playing exclusively in theaters

Further Reading

Meet The Author

Chris has a degree in film studies at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo, Japan. He is a renowned expert on horror cinema.