Heart Eyes Parent Guide
The silliness keeps this slasher flick moving right along.
Parent Movie Review
For the past few years, the Heart Eyes Killer has been all anybody could talk about during the Valentine’s season. Moving from town to town, the murderer waits for the sappiest day of the year and starts butchering happy couples – and then vanishes, only to turn up somewhere else the next year.
This year, ground zero is Seattle. Ally (Olivia Holt) isn’t overly worried. She broke up with her boyfriend weeks ago, and she hasn’t made any romantic plans this February. A chance encounter with Jay (Mason Gooding), puts her in a little more jeopardy – he is pretty charming – but they work together, and she isn’t interested. Unfortunately, old HEK doesn’t seem to have a firm grip on the facts, and Ally and Jay are soon running for their lives across every romantic hotspot in town, leaving blood, bodies, and weirdly good chemistry behind them.
Rom-coms and slashers mix better than you might think. They’re both very trope-heavy genres, and this movie is a bizarre ball pit containing elements from both. I think it works better with a slightly heavier rom-com mix, just because the slasher elements are a little too silly to take seriously on their own. There are a few moments where the film tries to focus more on the scares and it feels like a mistake every time, exhausting the fun that the movie needs to keep all its goofiness in the air.
This flick being a slasher, it comes with content concerns. The two biggest issues are violence and profanity, unsurprisingly, with some particularly grisly on-screen ends for the film’s more irritating characters. Within the first ten minutes, various characters get to be stabbed in the head, repeatedly shot with a crossbow, and completely mulched in an industrial press. There are another 80 minutes of movie after that, and while it never quite catches up to the dizzying heights of the industrial press, there are plenty of stabbings to keep the film thoroughly blood-drenched. Along with the aforementioned profanity (40+ f-bombs), and a rather prolonged (but mostly off-screen) sexual encounter between some background characters which features no nudity and is played entirely for comedy.
This movie has it all – annoying slasher characters dying horrifically, ridiculous rom-com meet-cutes, gallons of blood – who could ask for anything more? I don’t expect this goofy Hallmark Holiday-style homicide spree to have any trouble making its money back this Valentine’s Day weekend – just not from family audiences.
Directed by Josh Ruben. Starring Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Jordana Brewster. Running time: 90 minutes. Theatrical release February 7, 2025. Updated February 7, 2025
Heart Eyes
Rating & Content Info
Why is Heart Eyes rated R? Heart Eyes is rated R by the MPAA for strong violence and gore, language and some sexual content.
Violence: Characters are stabbed, shot, impaled, crushed, and generally mutilated.
Sexual Content: Characters are mostly heard but also occasionally seen having sex in the back of a van. There are a few sexual references.
Profanity: The script contains 43 sexual expletives, a dozen scatological curses, and occasional use of mild profanities and terms of deity.
Alcohol / Drug Use: Adult characters are briefly seen drinking socially.
Page last updated February 7, 2025
Home Video
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Other holiday-themed murders can be found in films like My Bloody Valentine, Black Christmas, and of course, the big daddy of seasonally themed slasher flicks, Halloween and its many sequels, reboots, and crossovers. Director Josh Ruben previously directed Werewolves Within. If you like your slasher with a side of comedy, try Happy Death Day, Happy Death Day 2 U, Freaky, Ready or Not, or Bodies Bodies Bodies.