Heart Eyes – Review

Heart Eyes begins with some bloody violence, on Valentine’s Day. As this becomes a tradition nationwide with couples winding up dead on the special day in February, this year looks to be no different. Wearing a strange heart-eyed mask and killing anyone in his way, this mystery villain keeps stacking up bodies. Each year, fear strikes for anyone coupled up on the fateful evening.

As the magical February 14^th creeps up in Seattle, young working professional Ally (Holt) goes through life unable to believe in love, completely underwhelmed by relationships. Ally is career focused, and knows the most romantic stories are all doomed, and will all end miserably eventually. Romance is a farce.

She then meets a guy (Gooding) with the same obnoxious coffee order as hers, and quickly headbutts him twice. They hit it off, but things get weird when the same guy is shortly after introduced at her firm as her new one-day consultant on her advertising campaign. He suggests a dinner to talk over the job, she resists the idea of a date, even for work. Will this new pair be able to weather multiple work and serial slasher related storms?

Heart Eyes is definitely a horror slasher, but it’s a bit comically over the top with its violence and fueled with tons of jokes and good time moments. Quick witted dialogue helps relieve the stress of the mystery villain, which is a usual horror plot but always seems to work just fine for me. Adding a strong romance element to make it a valentine’s affair was an interesting challenge, but the script is solid and the director pulled off the tough balance.