On Feb. 7, 2025 the romance-horror movie “Heart Eyes” was released. I thought with the great reviews it was going to be the next “Scream” or “Halloween”, but instead, I was met with a different type of story.
Let’s start with the good. The main love interest had the looks of any Wattpad bad boy, he was funny and charismatic. The love story was cute, starting with a fun Hallmark-esque meet-cute. The two protagonists had fun banter and some sad backstory that would make any hopeless romantic root for the couple.
The killer was an interesting idea. A slasher who went around killing couples around Valentine’s Day. The costume was an amazing idea, any person with a serial killer obsession would love a slick turtleneck and black pants. The mask was terrifying and set the killer apart from other slasher films with it. It covered the whole face and had heart shaped cut outs for to see. He had a crossbow with red arrows paying homage to Cupid. The only issue was: where was the killing? And how did the motive make sense?
In the movie, the kill count is surprisingly low for a slasher film and the deaths were quick and easy. I have seen a blood tornado in “Nightmare on Elm Street” and watched a girl die by getting stuck in a car garage door in “Scream.” As someone who watches slashers regularly, this movie lost me the moment I saw there was an abnormally low kill count. We hear of them and sometimes we even hear them. But if you want a gory horror film, go all out.
This to me reads more like a romantic comedy with a bit of action rather than the slasher films I love.
A slasher would only focus so heavily on two individuals with a motive, and the motive wasn’t there. Billy Loomis wanted to ruin Sydney’s life because her mother ruined his, Chucky wanted to be human, Freddy Krueger wanted revenge for his death, the list goes on.
The movie was OK, there weren’t necessarily any bad parts to it (other than some cheesy lines they stole from Hallmark). I just wouldn’t call it a slasher or even a horror movie. It was simply a romance, with a bit of comedy and maybe three death scenes.