If you’re one of the lucky ones, you’ve got a sweetheart. And if you’ve got a sweetheart, come Valentine’s Day, you get chocolates. Now if you get one of those Russell Stover Whitman Samplers, you’ve got a choice to make. But if you’re like me, you only have these once a year at best. Hard to tell which are which. You can’t be sure what you’ll end up with in your mouth. Could be coconut. Not completely atrocious, but not for me. Could be caramel. Awesome! Satisfying. A fine pick. Could also be one of those caramels with nuts in ‘em. Not nearly as awesome. Sort of confusing. Weird aftertaste. But you could luck out, and you could grab one of those chocolate butter creams. Funky, unexpected, not something you might have chosen if you knew about it ahead of time only by the name. Or you could even get one that’s dark chocolate with vanilla cream, which for my money is the best one in the bunch. Perfect mix of chocolate and non-chocolate flavors, ideal texture, not a taste readily available in any other candy bar you’d be able to get any other day of the year.
That’s HEART EYES. A terrific surprise, even when you’re already expecting to be surprised.
Look, it’s an imperfect metaphor, because of course you can eat Valentine’s chocolates whether or not you have a sweetheart; and yeah, you could eat them any time of year if you really insist on it; and sure, you can eat more than just one at a time, if you’re gonna over-indulge. And let’s be honest, this metaphor is probably taking a hundred words to do what Forrest Gump did in only about a dozen. But Tom Hanks or no Tom Hanks, that movie isn’t as great as you remember, and its lasting legacies are only your dumbest friend’s “Forrest voice” and a really bizarre idea for a casual-dining restaurant chain that continues to delight tourists who come from far and wide to enjoy garlic bread appetizers with the obvious theme of Sally Field.
HEART EYES is destined for a cooler legacy. It’s the latest from filmmaker Josh Ruben, who made the likable SCARE ME and maybe even-more-likable WEREWOLVES WITHIN, but who seriously levels-up here with a hybrid horror-comedy that may be more one than the other, but which is so relentlessly charming and entertaining that it is entirely irresistible.
Beginning with a script from Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy, HEART EYES has a killer premise: A masked murderer in the style of holiday-murder hall-of-famers Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees goes after loving couples every year on Valentine’s Day, and this year sets sights on Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding). Only problem: Ally and Jay aren’t a couple, but coworkers, who only just met, and in fact, she’s worried he’s going to take her job. But if there’s one thing we know about holiday killers, they’re not gonna stop.
The premise is funny to begin with, but that still doesn’t even hint at how non-stop funny the movie is. The filmmakers have expertly welded the romantic-comedy framework onto the horror-movie mechanism. Olivia Holt was affecting in series like Cloak & Dagger and Cruel Summer and she was a capable comedienne in TOTALLY KILLER, while Mason Gooding did the comedy thing in BOOKSMART and became a Scream King with FALL and SCREAMs V and VI. Both actors have diverse sets of skills that make them formidable players in this genre-blender. As winning as they are in the rom-com aspects, they’re also able to sell the terror and suspense of the situation believably.
HEART EYES is also blessed with a couple of ringers, in genre VIP Devon Sawa and superstar Jordana Brewster, as Detectives Hobbs and Shaw (think about it), who are trying to catch the Heart Eyes Killer and start to suspect that it could be Jay. I trust I don’t need to explain to Daily Grindhouse readers what Devon Sawa brings to the horror genre, having gone from IDLE HANDS and FINAL DESTINATION to a whole slew of recent titles, maybe most happily the dearly beloved Chucky TV series. But it’s Jordana Brewster who emerges as this film’s stealth scene-stealer. I’ve been a fan for maybe obvious reasons since THE FACULTY, and she did straight horror in 2006’s THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING, but between this movie and her recent turn on Elsbeth, Jordana Brewster is becoming a sneakily deft character actor to watch. That’s right, I watch Elsbeth. I’m 76 years old. Get off my lawn.
HEART EYES is an unstoppable entertainment machine, prettily shot in poppy colors and stark night scenes by Stephen Murphy (Atlanta and Mr. & Mrs. Smith) and crisply edited by Brett W. Bachman (PIG and MANDY), with purposeful orchestration by director Josh Ruben. One element here that I particularly enjoyed was the way the movie plays with the trope of the best friend. In romantic comedies, the best friend is usually the one with the best lines, the trusty support to the romantic lead. Gigi Zumbado, as Monica, would be welcome in any romantic comedy. But in horror movies, the best friend arrives with different expectations. That’s the one you’ve got to worry about. Set aside the rare possibility that the best friend could be a villain in disguise, and more often than not, they don’t make it to the end. If this is a horror movie and Olivia Holt is presumably the final girl, then what does that make Gigi Zumbado? This is where rom-com meets slasher. I was so worried for Monica! But I’m not going to tell you what happens. I want you to find out for yourself.
If I have any “criticism” of HEART EYES, it’s that it’s doing two genres at once, impressively, but ultimately, it’s more one than the other, by which I mean that no matter how gory it gets — and this movie gets plenty gory — at heart, it’s a romantic comedy. This movie is way more fun than it is scary. Is that a bad thing? I kinda love the fact that I, hardly a romantic comedy guy, was bamboozled into seeing a romantic comedy. And it’s a terrific one, by the way. Really one of the best romantic comedies that I’ve seen in a long time, not that I see too many. What breaks my heart a little is that lots of people who might love this movie the most might never give it a chance, since on the surface, it’s got all the trappings of a slasher. Romantic-comedy fans might avoid it like Randy Meeks should’ve avoided that van (RIP), but if they do, they’ll miss something pretty terrific.
This is an instant cult movie and a real pleasure that I hope will only grow more in esteem as home audiences discover it. I don’t want to oversell it, because that’s a curse on any movie, but I went in feeling pretty sure I was going to like it, and left surprised at how much I did. Even enjoying Josh Ruben’s previous movies as much as I had (not to mention the many recent horror films from the screenwriters), I was still caught off-guard at how much I enjoyed this one. I loved the two leads and I was impressed by the Heart Eyes Killer’s design: Unique, memorable, almost so obvious it’s amazing that nobody has done it before, but just perfect.
There are ways this film could become a series, and I wouldn’t mind seeing these characters and that mask again, but even if it remains a one-off, I’m sure I’ll enjoy revisiting it. HEART EYES is a nice surprise. It’s like candy.
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Tags: Brett W. Bachman, Christopher Landon, Devon Sawa, Gigi Zumbado, Holidays, Horror, Jay Wadley, Jordana Brewster, Josh Ruben, Mason Gooding, Michael Kennedy, Michaela Watkins, Olivia Holt, Phillip Murphy, Stephen Murphy, Valentine's Day, Yoson An
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