For a genre that can sometimes feel stagnant, Heart Eyes injects new life with its playful cynicism and clever concept.
For the final entry in my Halloween Fifteen for 2025, I decided to close things out with Heart Eyes — a movie I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did. Directed by Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within), this film takes an ambitious swing by mashing up romantic comedy tropes with full-on slasher horror. And against all odds, it mostly works.
The story centers on Ally (Olivia Holt), an advertising executive who launches a jewelry campaign built around the theme of “doomed romantic couples.” Unfortunately, the campaign lands right as a Valentine’s Day serial killer known as “Heart Eyes” resumes their killing spree. Bad timing, to say the least. Her boss, desperate to salvage the company’s image, pairs her up with a new creative lead, Jay (Mason Gooding), to rework the campaign. Naturally, sparks fly between the two as they attempt to avoid both a PR disaster and an actual serial killer.
What makes Heart Eyes stand out is how unashamedly it embraces both genres. It’s not just a horror movie with a romantic subplot, or a rom-com with a few jump scares — it’s both all the way through. The film keeps the hallmarks of each: meet-cutes, misunderstandings, and banter on one side; brutal kills, gore, and masked menace on the other. The combination shouldn’t work, but Ruben and the writing team lean into the absurdity and have fun with it.
The chemistry between Gooding and Holt goes a long way toward selling the film’s rom-com half. They genuinely click, and their flirtatious back-and-forth gives the movie some heart amid all the mayhem. At the same time, the horror sequences deliver plenty of blood and inventive kills, with a few moments that feel like they could’ve been lifted straight from a Scream or Happy Death Day entry (which makes sense, given Christopher Landon’s involvement).
It’s not a scary film — the jump scares are mild, and the tone leans more toward self-aware and satirical than terrifying. Still, it’s gloriously dumb in the best possible way: energetic, funny, and entertaining from start to finish. For a genre that can sometimes feel stagnant, Heart Eyes injects new life with its playful cynicism and clever concept.
I went into this one expecting it to be the weakest entry in this year’s lineup, but it ended up being one of the most enjoyable surprises. It’s the kind of movie that would make a perfect Valentine’s Day double feature with something like My Bloody Valentine.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
