Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    EA Sports Madden NFL 26 Head Coach But Why Tho 5

    Dear EA Sports, Why Can’t I Make A Hot Coach?

    08/14/2025
    Blade in Marvel Rivals Season 3.5

    Blade Can Shut Down The Other Team In Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 If You Know How

    08/08/2025
    John Cena and Cody Rhodes during Summerslam 2025

    The SummerSlam 2025 Main Event Was A Fever Dream We All Needed

    08/08/2025
    Street Fighter 6 Sagat

    Sagat Brings Depth And Approachability To ‘Street Fighter 6’

    08/07/2025
    Battlefield 6 Classes - Support trailer image

    Battlefield 6 Really Wants You To Play Support (But Knows You Won’t)

    07/31/2025
  • Indie Games
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Apple TV+
But Why Tho?
Home » Film » REVIEW: ‘Heart Eyes’ Is For The Lovers And The Haters

REVIEW: ‘Heart Eyes’ Is For The Lovers And The Haters

Prabhjot BainsBy Prabhjot Bains02/06/20255 Mins Read
Heart Eyes (2025)
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

The thought of Valentine’s Day conjures a fuzzy warmth or a vitriolic disdain. It’s one of those contentious holidays, reduced to a commercial gimmick or embraced as a singular occasion to celebrate that special someone. The films that typically accompany the so-called Hallmark holiday almost always fall into one of these two fervent camps— as complementary or counterprogramming. Josh Ruben’s Heart Eyes (2025) is the rare antidote to those opposing sentiments, packing in the lovey-dovey schmaltz of a Lifetime romance and the over-the-top gore of a satisfying slasher.

Whether moviegoers seek a warm embrace or a cold bludgeoning, Heart Eyes (2025) offers both as a loveable mashup that consistently fuses its two genres with a complimentary sleight of hand. Ruben’s film works as both a romantic comedy and a horror experience, armed with laugh-out-loud gags and tense sequences that are both cynical and thoroughly romantic. Above all else, it’s a film that knows how to keep love in the air while splattering heaps of blood on the ground.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

After beginning with a marriage proposal that quickly transforms into a gruesome opening right at home in the Scream films, Heart Eyes (2025) shifts its focus to Ally (Olivia Holt), who works in advertising for a jewelry brand. Her latest Valentine’s campaign centered around the famous adage “Till death do us part,” leaves a sour taste in the wake of a series of brutal killings by the infamous “Heart Eyes” killer—a masked murderer who targets couples on Valentine’s Day—resulting in her company bringing on skilled freelancer Jay (Mason Gooding), a practical walking Adonis.

Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding have great chemistry in Heart Eyes (2025).

Heart Eyes 2025 But Why Tho 4

Jay has an obvious crush on the crestfallen Ally, whose feelings of professional and romantic anguish are exacerbated by her ex’s social media posts with his new beau. Armed with an aura that radiates charisma, confidence, and impossibly good sex, he struggles to break through Ally’s hardened and disillusioned outlook.

For her, love is a cheap trick, guaranteed to end in sorrow or, worse yet, death. Yet, when the two bump into Ally’s ex, an impromptu kiss makes them the perfect targets for a Valentine’s Day killing spree; as they attempt to evade the clutches of the killer, their budding, innate chemistry makes it difficult to prove to their assailant they are, in fact, not together.

Deftly alternating from fashion montages to painfully slow decapitations, Heart Eyes (2025) perfectly tows the line between its two conflicting genres, weaponizing their tropes, gimmicks, and cliches in a manner that’s both winkingly self-aware and loveably stupid. For all its bloodletting, Ruben’s film is an incredibly giving experience, knowing when to lean into its campy, corny rom-com dialogue (“These muscles are not for violence, they’re for cuddling!”) and when to commence the gnarly butchery.

From vibrators making their way into jump scares to two smooching lovers being made one with a tire iron, the film becomes a comical playground for connoisseurs and detractors of its dual genres. Ruben cements a cutesy rom-com that slyly teeters on the edge of gore, transforming even the most tired motifs into endearing qualities, rendering trite dialogue like “I didn’t know murder was a love language” into a cheesy thing of beauty.

The camerawork evokes the flat, overlit filmmaking of the Hallmark channel.

Heart Eyes 2025 But Why Tho 5

This quality would be negative in any other film but is reworked into a purposeful choice, allowing the romance to bask in its ardent corniness and the sudden bouts of violence to be made much more visceral. This dichotomy allows Heart Eyes (2025) to repeatedly tap into a perverse sense of pleasure, relishing its clean, crisp, and idyllic version of romance and its guttural, graphic takedown. The film is acutely made for all the lovers and the haters.

Yet, Heart Eyes (2025) has its share of witticisms. Using its self-aware clichés as a springboard, Holt and Gooding’s chemistry brims with great will-they-won’t-they energy, as their clashing romantic outlooks relish the opportunity for some great one-liners (“Prince Charming? You’d probably find him f***ing your sister”) and a few rounds of charming and sexually suggestive hijinks

At the heart of the film lies its memorable masked maniac. Armed with neon-red heart eyes, a jet-black coat, and slick leather gloves, the slasher villain leaves a fashionable, bloodstained impression, especially when the time comes to dispatch a group of starstruck lovers.

As sickly sweet as Ruben’s film can be, it offers a whole serving of ridiculous, pulpy, and ingeniously designed kills—the greatest of which cleverly uses the myth of St. Valentine himself. Be it the humble knife or an electric grape crusher, the film always ensures another resourceful, gloriously ghastly death around the corner. Stitched together from the best parts of its various influences, Heart Eyes (2025) is a complete genre vehicle that abounds in resounding laughter and slaughter.

Heart Eyes (2025) is in theaters on February 7, 2025.

Heart Eyes (2025)
  • 7.5/10
    Rating - 7.5/10
7.5/10

TL;DR

Stitched together from the best parts of its various influences, Heart Eyes (2025) is a complete genre vehicle that abounds in resounding laughter and slaughter.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleMadden NFL 25: Get Unlimited Access with EA Play
Next Article REVIEW: ‘Blue Box’ Episode 18 — “I Know”
Prabhjot Bains
  • X (Twitter)
  • Instagram

Prabhjot Bains is a Toronto-based film writer and critic who has structured his love of the medium around three indisputable truths- the 1970s were the best decade for American cinema, Tom Cruise is the greatest sprinter of all time, and you better not talk about fight club. His first and only love is cinema and he will jump at the chance to argue why his movie opinion is much better than yours. His film interests are diverse, as his love of Hollywood is only matched by his affinity for international cinema. You can reach Prabhjot on Instagram and Twitter @prabhjotbains96. Prabhjot's work can also be found at Exclaim! Tilt Magazine and The Hollywood Handle.

Related Posts

Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa in The Map That Leads to You
8.0

REVIEW: ‘The Map That Leads To You’ Is YA Romance Done Right

08/19/2025
Lurker promotional still from MUBI

REVIEW: ‘Lurker’ Probes The Intoxication Of Fame

08/19/2025
The Knife (2025) promotional still
7.0

REVIEW: ‘The Knife’ Is Simple And Too Much At The Same Time

08/17/2025
Still from Shin Godzilla
8.5

REVIEW: ‘Shin Godzilla’ Is More Relevant Than Ever

08/16/2025
Fixed promotional key art from Netflix Animation
6.0

REVIEW: ‘Fixed’ Is Top-Notch Animation But Bottom Of The Barrel Comedy

08/15/2025
Denzel Washington Highest 2 Lowest
7.0

REVIEW: ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Has A Ton Of Fun Missing It’s Own Points

08/15/2025

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
Still from Shin Godzilla
8.5
Film

REVIEW: ‘Shin Godzilla’ Is More Relevant Than Ever

By Sarah Musnicky08/16/2025Updated:08/17/2025

It is understandable how Shin Godzilla succeeded at the box office nearly a decade ago. The strength of its story still stands today.

Botanical Bliss Update Palia But Why Tho 5 News

Palia’s New Botanical Bliss Update Brings New Flora, Decorations, And Quest Mechanic

By Matt Donahue08/18/2025Updated:08/18/2025

The Botanical Bliss update adds new event, more plushes, and a host of quality-of-life improvements and more to celebrate 2 years of Palia.

BOOTS Netflix First Look promotional images News

First Look at Coming-of-Age Story BOOTS, Coming to Netflix This October

By But Why Tho?08/17/2025

Netflix is reporting for duty this fall with the new eight-episode series BOOTS, a comedic drama starring Miles Heizer and Vera Farmiga

Nuestra Magia Secret Lair Art Interviews

EXCLUSIVE: How The ‘Nuestra Magia’ Secret Lair Found Its Identity And Raised Over $1M

By Kate Sánchez08/15/2025Updated:08/15/2025

We spoke with Ovidio Cartagena about Magic: The Gathering’s Nuestra Magia Secret Lair drop, its impact, and the real treasure within.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here