Heart Eyes brings back the 90s-style horror in style

In an industry dominated by algorithms and franchises, the horror genre has stayed remarkably consistent over the years.

From the days of George Romero all the way up to the modern Nosferatu remake, horror has proven time and time again it can weather any storm.

It’s no secret that cinema attendance has declined since the pandemic but horror is the one genre that will keep people coming back.

Case in point, Heart Eyes will be the film to pack out the local multiplexes.

Director Josh Ruben, who cut his teeth in the internet video trenches in the late 2000s, proves once again that having a background in comedy is fundamental to being a good horror director.

The likes of John Landis and Jordan Peele are funnymen who made the jump to horror with aplomb and Ruben continues to demonstrate that you hire a funny man to make your horror films.

Heart Eyes is in the style of the late 90s Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer horror, where characters are aware they are in a horror film and know they find themselves in a horror movie situation.

The twist with Heart Eyes is that the film also bakes a romantic comedy into the middle of it.

2023’s Godzilla Minus One notably managed to bake a Ken Loach kitchen sink drama into the middle of a Godzilla movie and Heart Eyes manages to combine the slasher movie and the romantic comedy into one.

Heart Eyes has a simple hook; a killer with heart eyes is targeting couples around Valentine’s Day and at the heart of the film you have two young people in the middle of a will-they-won’t-they.

It’s a clever mix and the film has a lot of fun with it.

The film was co-written by Christopher Landon of the Happy Death Day films (and was originally attached to direct Scream 7 in an early iteration of the script) and Heart Eyes will leave you mourning he isn’t directing a Scream film.

It is rare for a script to be among the highlights of a horror film, but Heart Eyes manages to pull it off.

If it sounds like we are damning with faint praise we really aren’t; the standard for horror movie scripts is somewhere in the cellar but the script for Heart Eyes is well above average.

The great debate in horror circles is whether the A24 slow-burn style or the classic Wes Craven style is best, and Heart Eyes is in the second camp.

The legacy of Scream still looms over the horror genre, nearly 30 years later, and Heart Eyes invites comparisons with a knowing, winking tone, a killer opening scene and a good young cast that is ready to throw down.

The film stars Mason Gooding, son of Cuba Gooding JR, and the film sees him stepping into a leading role after being a supporting character in the most recent Scream films (we promise not to keep mentioning those films for the rest of this review) and he is a chip off the old block.

Gooding is fully believable as the smooth ladies’ man who seemingly can’t hold a relationship down and is perfectly matched with Olivia Holt, a former Disney child star who has since branched out.

The chemistry between the two helps lift the film and they manage to sell both the romance and the horror elements. 

In recent years, Paramount has tried and failed to get the Friday The 13th franchise off the ground again but legal rights has put the kibosh on Jason getting his big comeback anytime soon.

In the meantime, Paramount may have found a new slasher icon in Heart Eyes.

The character lends itself to popping up in a new film in a new setting, just like Jason, Freddy and Michael in days of yore; their USP is their cowboy-style walk and playful sense of humour.

Horror hounds will be glad to know that Heart Eyes doesn’t hold back in the blood and guts department; Heart Eyes wears its slasher influences on its sleeve and has some kills that recount the glory days of the genre.

At the height of the pandemic, the Fear Street films were released on Netflix and developed an audience, however, there was a sense that these films would have played much better in a cinema setting.

Thankfully, Heart Eyes manages to correct that, and if you’re in the right mood and age demographic, the film will deliver a fun night at the movies.

For the non-horror fans who don’t know their Carpenters from their Cronenbergs, Heart Eyes is still worth a watch.

The film is about a 60-40 split between horror and romantic comedy, and you would be surprised how well the two genres match.

Heart Eyes has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments with some great one-liners and the best part of any horror film, the collective nervous laughter right before something nasty happens.

This isn’t the kind of film that plays the IFI or will be getting a Criterion Collection release; you’ll have to venture out to the local multiplex for it but this is the kind of film we have taken for granted.

Even as recently as 10 years ago, this was the kind of film that was the lifeblood of the cinema-going experience before the streaming area.

It’s all well and good for us to lavish praise on films like The Brutalist and compare it to New Hollywood, but at the end of the day, the cinema-going experience was designed with films like this in mind.

In another time, we would have written off this film as a disposable February programmer but now, in 2025, it’s something we cherish.

If they want to make four more of these movies, we’d be first in line.