Heart Eyes — a bloody valentine: full movie blog.
Valentine’s Day and slasher movies have always had a weird chemistry — Hallmark romance meets Friday the 13th bloodbath — and Heart Eyes (2025) leans into that collision with gleeful relish. Directed by Josh Ruben and produced by Christopher Landon’s crew, the film is a gooey mash-up: rom-com odd-couple banter married to over-the-top slasher set-pieces. It doesn’t aim to reinvent the wheel; it wants you to laugh, cringe, and maybe squeal. Here’s everything you need: who’s in it, who the movie centers on, how it performed at the box office, what niche it fills, and a deep look at why it lands (and where it trips).
Quick facts (need-to-know)
Title: Heart Eyes (2025) — directed by Josh Ruben.
Writers / Producers: Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, Michael Kennedy (writers); Landon among the producers.
Runtime: 97 minutes.
Budget: reported $18 million.
Domestic gross: ≈ $30.4M; Worldwide: ≈ $33.0M (box office through theatrical run).
How many cast members — and who are the principals?
If you’re just skimming: the movie is driven by a tight core cast of around a dozen named players, with a handful of smaller roles rounding out the body count (literal and figurative). The principal credited players most audiences will recognize are:
- Olivia Holt as Ally McCabe — the film’s female lead, a pitch designer whose ill-timed “doomed couples” ad gets her into hot water.
- Mason Gooding as Jay Simmonds — Ally’s consulting advertising partner; they’re forced to work together and are mistaken for a couple.
- Gigi Zumbado as Monica, Ally’s friend.
- Michaela Watkins as Crystal Cane, their ruthless boss.
- Devon Sawa as Det. Zeke Hobbs and Jordana Brewster as Det. Jeanine Shaw — the cops on the case.
- Yoson An, Bronwyn Bradley, James Gaylyn, and several others fill out the supporting roles and victims.
If you include every credited extra, cameo and named minor character (waitstaff, cops, victims), the full credits push beyond 20 names — but the story concentrates on Ally and Jay, with the rest orbiting their “will they/won’t they” night of terror.
Who is the “means character” / main character of Heart Eyes?
The movie’s viewpoint rests mainly on Ally McCabe (Olivia Holt). She’s the one who faces professional humiliation, personal embarrassment, and the immediate threat of being targeted by the titular serial killer. Jay is the co-lead and the film’s rom-com foil — his chemistry with Ally is the emotional engine — but Ally’s choices, reactions, and growth (from anxious PR pro to battered survivor) are the closest thing the film has to a central arc.
Box collection — how did it perform?
This is a mid-budget horror rom-com, and it performed solidly relative to its costs:
- Budget: $18M. Worldwide gross: about $33M — so it roughly doubled its production budget in theatrical receipts (not counting marketing, ancillary/digital sales, and streaming windows).
- Opening: Heart Eyes opened at $8.3M in its first weekend (Feb 7, 2025), finishing as the #2 film of the frame behind Dog Man. It then enjoyed an unusual second-week boost over Valentine’s weekend (rare for horror), showing it managed to capture some seasonal audience interest.
Financially, the movie wasn’t a blockbuster, but for a modestly budgeted genre piece it delivered a tidy return and strong theater interest during its target holiday window. Critics’ and audience reactions were mixed-to-positive, giving it decent legs relative to its peers.
The niche — where does Heart Eyes live?
Heart Eyes lives in the rom-com + slasher hybrid niche. Think rom-com beats (workplace friction, obvious chemistry, screwball banter) crossbred with the tropes of a Valentine-Day serial killer slasher (masked killer, gory set pieces, whodunit elements). It’s a deliberate marriage of two historically opposed tastes: sentimentality and splatter. That niche attracts viewers who want horror with heart (literal and figurative) — and audiences who like horror that knows how to wink. The film joins a small but growing subgenre of “horror comedies with romantic cores” rather than straight horror or straight rom-com.
Deep details — story, craft, themes, and reception
The set-up: romantic sparks and killer marks.
Heart Eyes opens in contemporary Seattle, where a mysterious “Heart Eyes Killer” on Valentine’s Day has been targeting couples. Ally (Olivia Holt) is a creative writer at a jewelry company who’s just seen her relationship with Collin end. After Ally pens a commercial about doomed couples, her boss forces her to work with consultant Jay on a Valentine’s pitch — and because the world loves an awkward meet-cute, sparks and friction ensue. Unfortunately for them, the killer mistakes the two coworkers for a real couple. What follows is a single-night survival romp as Ally and Jay dodge a masked, heart-eyed murderer, try to prove their innocence, and—of course—figure out whether they belong together.
Tone & craft: slick rom-com beats with gleeful gore.
Josh Ruben’s direction leans into contrast. The film opens with flirty, upbeat rom-com energy — quippy lines, awkward closeness, workplace tension — and repeatedly undercuts those moments with sudden, graphic violence. That tonal flip is the movie’s signature technique: it keeps you off-balance in a way that’s both playful and unsettling. Production design leans Valentine-pink one moment, neon-red the next; the killer’s heart-shaped glowing mask is intentionally absurd and scarifying in equal measure. The cinematography is brisk, editing rapid during chases and delightfully patient for awkward romantic beats.
Performances: chemistry saves structural thinness.
Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding have unforced chemistry — they sell the “we’re not a couple but we look like one” premise and anchor the film emotionally. Holt carries the film with a believable mixture of snark, fear, and survival instinct; Gooding’s affable charm offsets the mayhem. Michaela Watkins is deliciously cold as the corporate boss, and Devon Sawa brings genre gravitas in the detective role. The supporting cast fills out the victim roster and investigative scaffolding without much digging; these actors do exactly what the script needs: provide stakes and body count. Critics noted that even when the screenplay leans “thin,” strong performances keep the movie watchable.
Themes: performative romance, social optics, and media spectacle.
Under the slasher squall, Heart Eyes nods at a few sharper comedic and cultural ideas. It satirizes modern performative romance (dating as a PR pitch), how social optics can complicate consent and identity, and how viral sensationalism amplifies violence into spectacle. The notion that a killer targets “couples” is the most literal of the film’s metaphors: it’s an absurd exaggeration of how societal expectations about pairing up can feel violent to some. That layer gives the movie a little extra bite beyond blood and punchlines.
Set pieces & the killer’s gimmick.
The killer’s luminous heart-eyes mask is both meme-ready and creepy; Ruben stages several effective set pieces where rom-com banter and slasher choreography collide. There’s a wine-country ambush, a spa attack, and a chaotic showdown in a drive-in — each one built to oscillate between humor and horror. Critics praised particular sequences for inventiveness (and for the movie’s willingness to embrace gore, not merely tease it). If you go for the film’s pleasures, you go for these moments: quick, bloody, and oddly funny.
Reception: critics and audiences.
Reviews skewed mixed-to-positive. Many critics appreciated the genre mash-up and the performances while faulting the screenplay for predictability or thin surprise. On Rotten Tomatoes the consensus praises the film’s ability to blend rom-com sweetness with slasher nastiness. Audiences gave it a “B–” CinemaScore — not ecstatic but not hostile either — which aligns with box office that was decent for its scale and holiday timing. The film’s Valentine’s Day context helped draw a built-in audience despite the competition.
What works — and what doesn’t.
Works: the chemistry at the center, the tonal dexterity, the visual concept (killer with glowing heart eyes), and the holiday timing. The film is honest about its brief: it wants to be fun, occasionally gross, and oddly romantic. Doesn’t work: if you want a fully surprising whodunit or a deeply original screenplay — the plot beats rest on familiar slasher tropes and the villain’s identity and motive hit several expected notes. At roughly 97 minutes it’s lean; some viewers wanted more depth to the satirical bits.
Final verdict of Heart Eyes.
If you enjoy horror comedies with heart (and literal heart eyes), Heart Eyes delivers a polished seasonal thrill: it’s gory when it wants to be, silly when it wants to be, and surprisingly tender in places. Go if you like rom-com chemistry mashed with slasher set pieces and don’t need every twist to surprise you. Skip it if you want a tightly plotted mystery or a serious deconstruction of the rom-com form. Either way, it’s a valentine with fangs — and that’s often enough.
