Heart Eyes (2025)
Directed by Josh Ruben
When the "Heart Eyes Killer" strikes Seattle, a pair of co-workers pulling overtime on Valentine's Day are mistaken for a couple by the elusive couple-hunting killer. Now, they must spend the most romantic night of the year running for their lives.
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48 films that influenced Heart Eyes
What critics say influenced Heart Eyes
The horror here, very much of the Scream variety, including lengthy villain-sourced exposition packed into the climax…
…this isn’t your regular post-Scream slasher…
La película no logra decidir si quiere ser Scream o 10 Things I Hate About You, y en ese vaivén tonal se diluye la identidad de la película.
“What’s your favorite scary movie set on Valentine’s Day?” the ghostfaced killer of Scream might croak into a voice modulator if he was feeling a little romantic as well as homicidal.
Any audience member who has seen a “Scream” film knows to look out for unusual characters that could potentially be involved, but “Heart Eyes” doesn’t seem particularly interested in masking its twist.
…whipped up a tasty cocktail of “Scream” and “10 Things I Hate About You.”
Freddie Krueger of “A Nightmare on Elm Street,”…
Ruben's direction clearly draws inspiration from classic slashers like Psycho and Halloween…
Between the tried-and-true Halloween classics (Halloween, Trick ‘r Treat)…
Ruben’s direction effortlessly channels the haunting tension of classics like Halloween and Friday the 13th…
We already have Jason and Michael Myers delivering their stoney silence…
Michael Myers of “Halloween,”…
Ruben blends the blood and gore of a slasher film, such as Psycho and Halloween, with the comedic elements of the Scream series and Happy Death Day.
…an idea that's obviously already been played with before in movies like "My Bloody Valentine" and "Valentine,"…
…while it’s designed to match the looks of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and the foe from My Bloody Valentine…
…you can likely count the number of Valentine’s Day-specific slasher movies on your hand (this includes 1981’s My Bloody Valentine and 2001’s Valentine)…
…a new contender arrives to steal the holiday mantle from My Bloody Valentine…
I will undoubtedly be double-featuring it with My Bloody Valentine during Cupid’s annual hunting season.
We’ve seen the Valentine’s Day killer before in My Bloody Valentine (MBV) and with the exception of glowing red hearts for eyes, Heart Eyes emulates the same sinister archetype as MBV’s Harry Warden.
It isn’t until recently that the genre began to rely more on horror elements, as seen in Ready or Not (2019). Heart Eyes does the same, cementing itself in the rom-com sphere but emphasizing the thrills, with the comedy being hit or miss.
Ready or Not is now looking at one of the more influential, if not easily imitatable films of the last decade or so; a super-violent, super-hip comedy-thriller that took the gory shocks from 80’s slasher movies and repositioned them around a clever narrative that was far more than just a group of bland teenagers being massacred.
…not to mention other accomplished horror comedies like HAPPY DEATH DAY, READY OR NOT, and THE HUNT…
Similarly, Heart Eyes’ structure and pacing resemble the horror/comedy bounce found in the Scream franchise and Ready or Not, with self-aware jokes, eye-popping jump scares, paired with grounded, mostly sensible sequences where the victims are not total dinguses.
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La película no logra decidir si quiere ser Scream o 10 Things I Hate About You, y en ese vaivén tonal se diluye la identidad de la película.
…whipped up a tasty cocktail of “Scream” and “10 Things I Hate About You.”
It's a bit like Scream meets 10 Things I Hate About You, as the dueling protagonists slowly fall in love when they are tossed headfirst into a high-stakes horror movie neither one of them asked to be in.
…an idea that's obviously already been played with before in movies like "My Bloody Valentine" and "Valentine,"…
Think of it closer to 2009’s My Bloody Valentine 3D as opposed to 2001’s Valentine.
…you can likely count the number of Valentine’s Day-specific slasher movies on your hand (this includes 1981’s My Bloody Valentine and 2001’s Valentine)…
…taking a swing at an “Urban Legend”-meets-“Scream” vibe…
…when she admits to liking His Girl Friday, interwoven into the movie at one point for meta rom-com reference…
(It certainly doesn’t help either of them that in a sequence at a drive-in, we’re shown clips of Rosalind Russell in “His Girl Friday,” and the comparison is devastating.)
A massacre sequence set at a drive-in cinema screening Howard Hawks’ screwball romance His Girl Friday (1940) nails the film’s status as a reflexive hall of mirrors…
…a crazed drive-in movie theater (that is ironically showing the classic rom-com “His Girl Friday,” which may have been an influence on Ruben).
There are also some nice touches, including references to His Girl Friday…
There is also a lovely reference to a classic remarriage comedy, “His Girl Friday” (1940), which will hopefully inspire young moviegoers to check out an old movie.
Eli Roth’s 2023 horror movie, Thanksgiving, was a surprise success, both as a contemporary slasher and satisfying grindhouse callback…
In 2023 we received the Pilgrim in the form of the long awaited Thanksgiving feature…
Hot on the heels of Eli Roth’s blood-soaked “Thanksgiving,” another holiday-themed slasher makes its way onto the scene with the aptly timed “Heart Eyes”…
Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving (now poised to become a franchise)…
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…classic rom-coms that trend lean, like Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally…
Sleepless in Seattle would be a fitting title for this film as well, as it finds the city’s citizens on high alert for the Heart Eyes Killer, who creeps up every Valentine’s Day to terrorize couples in a new spot on the United States map.
Over the course of Valentine’s Day, they slowly begin to share a rivalrous romance similar to Ryan and Hanks’s in You’ve Got Mail.
…while injecting the ironic charm of Scream and Happy Death Day…
…not to mention other accomplished horror comedies like HAPPY DEATH DAY, READY OR NOT, and THE HUNT…
Ruben blends the blood and gore of a slasher film, such as Psycho and Halloween, with the comedic elements of the Scream series and Happy Death Day.
Still, as with Happy Death Day and Freaky, there’s fun to be found in the gory fusion at play.
…but also written such witty parodies as Freaky and Happy Death Day…
Christopher Landon is the filmmaker behind Happy Death Day.
Still, as with Happy Death Day and Freaky, there’s fun to be found in the gory fusion at play.
Freaky writing team Christopher Landon…
Also, he’s behind Freaky…
Kennedy collaborated with Landon for the first time with “Freaky” (2020)…
…a writing team of Phillip Murphy (Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard), Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy (Freaky)…
…it’s co-scripted by some of the writers behind the likes of Freaky and Happy Death Day 2U…