Maybe it’s Hinge. Maybe it’s Tinder. Maybe it’s your one–night–stand–turned–ex–situationship whose eye contact you avoid like the plague on your way to class. No matter where you place the blame, the fact remains that the 21st century is flipping the script on romance movies. Gone are the times when wholesome films like 10 Things I Hate About You and My Best Friend’s Wedding ruled the screen—modern audiences seem to have a taste for something a little bit darker these days. A taste, even, for blood.
With the turn of the century, rom–coms experienced a distinct evolution away from simply being sources of comfort and feel–good laughter. Films like Jennifer’s Body (2009), Warm Bodies (2013), and The Love Witch (2016) made the bold choice to merge romance and sexuality with blood and gore, and recent release Heart Eyes shows us that this choice is one that’s here to stay. Centered around a Valentine’s Day serial killer, the film relentlessly juxtaposes love and pain as if to highlight that the two can’t exist without the other, and, for the most part, pulls off this contrast pretty well. Despite being somewhat clichéd, Heart Eyes is a solid representation of this industry shift, finding its footing somewhere in the nebulous divide between Hallmark heartwarmer and gory slasher.
In Heart Eyes, Ally (Olivia Holt), a cynical, heartbroken workaholic, meets Jay (Mason Gooding), a sensitive soul who makes her believe in love again. If that sounds like the plot of every holiday rom–com ever made, that’s because it is. A formula as overdone as this one needs a spark of new life—or rather, in this case, new death—in order to work, and that’s exactly what the film delivers. The eponymous Heart Eyes Killer, a mask–wearing murderer who spends each Valentine’s Day targeting couples in a different city, delivers an unforgettable opening kill featuring a nauseating skull crush at a winery. His work is followed up by a horrific massacre at a drive–in, and then again with a final battle that leaves the bitter taste of blood in our heroine’s mouth.
The only problem with the kills? There simply aren’t enough of them. After such a gruesome opening sequence, Heart Eyes seems to forget that it’s half–horror movie, placing too much focus on the rom–com aspect and treating the looming threat of a serial killer as more background trivia than driving action. Ally, knowing full well that the Heart Eyes Killer is only active on Valentine’s Day and only targets couples, still chooses to go to a fancy restaurant with Jay for a “business meeting” and kisses him on the street in order to “make her ex jealous.” It’s a little hard to feel bad for her when the Heart Eyes Killer goes all Heart Eyes Killer on her after that.
But despite her unfortunate lack of common sense, or perhaps regard for her own safety, Ally manages to be likable—if a little forgettable. The vibrator on her nightstand makes us laugh as much as her terrible aim with a gun makes us groan, but she shines brightest in her relationship with Jay. The couple shares a vulnerable conversation about love in the front seat of a hippie van, just minutes before the drive–in massacre, all while the owners of said van are busy loudly celebrating Valentine’s Day in the back. A hilarious blend of heartfelt and gross makes the scene a definite standout. Jay, the endearing—if a little buffoonish—love interest, is hot and optimistic and that’s all we need from him.
The final showdown is another highlight of the film, as the audience, alongside Ally and Jay, eagerly await the true unmasking of the heart–eyed villain. A serial killer targeting lovebirds on Valentine’s Day seemed like the perfect setup to reveal a lonely single person behind a mask taking out their bitterness on happy couples, so it came as a surprise that the titular Heart Eyes Killer was actually a happy pair. Detective Jeanine Shaw (Jordana Brewster) and her husband David (Yoson An) found each other in an online chatroom years ago, and the rest has been bloody history. Their chemistry matches Ally and Jay’s in a twisted display of devotion—they kill couples together to satisfy a sick, sexual urge.
“Everybody’s got a fetish,” Detective Shaw cheekily tells us right before trying to kill Ally. The couples fight it out in an abandoned chapel, complete with a statue of Saint Valentine himself—which is a little on the nose, but sets up a great parallel for when Ally decapitates Jeanine. “Your holiday sucks,” she makes sure to tell the stone saint.
The movie wraps up the way any good rom–com does—with a proposal. One short year later, Ally and Jay make their way back to the drive–in, which seems a bit of an odd choice considering what happened the last time they were there. Ally panics when Jay takes out the box, but he’s quick to reassure her that he doesn’t want to rush into anything—he’s not asking her to marry him, he wants her to move in. Good news for Jay is that Ally does want to rush into something—she takes out her own box and proposes. They kiss. It’s cute. After all, it’s still a rom–com.
But if Heart Eyes opens like a slasher and ends like a rom–com, it struggles to define what’s in between. Its inconsistent tone, bouncing from bloody and brutal to downright sappy, makes it difficult to buy into for too long at a time. It’s not afraid to make fun of itself—but its methods of doing so don’t quite reach past “cringe” into “meta.” All in all, this was a film with an exciting premise, a strong aesthetic, and a striking villain design—and it came so close to being exceptional. It also came very close to making a compelling argument about America’s insistence on tying love to violence. Are we only trying to merge these genres because an onslaught of both true crime and sappy romance content has desensitized us to both? What does it mean that, for many of us, the promise of blood is enough to draw us back into the theaters on a holiday about love?
Whatever it is, Heart Eyes doesn’t claim to know. But that’s okay. If recent patterns are anything to go by, it certainly won’t be the last of its kind.
