The Valentine's Day-themed slasher has already set the bar extremely high for horror comedy in 2025 based on its overwhelmingly positive reviews. Starring Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt, the latest from director Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within) centers around two co-workers stalked by a killer in a truly memorable mask who famously kills couples around Valentine's Day. After being mistaken for a couple by the killer, the two co-workers must spend the night dodging the killer while discovering that there may be more sparks between them than they realized.

Horror comedies traditionally don't earn much acclaim from critics, either because they aren't funny enough, scary enough, or both. Based on early reviews, Heart Eyes, which hits theaters on February 7th, appears to avoid most of the pitfalls of the horror comedy subgenre, as its Rotten Tomatoes score is already off the charts. Valentine's Day has remained a popular temporal setting for slasher movies over the years, but if critics are to be believed, Heart Eyes might be among the very best to embrace the theme.

: a silly concept intended to make fun of both romantic comedies and slasher movies at the same time. The mask of the killer at its center is quite literally a grimy, neon representation of the "heart eyes" emoji, so the stage is set for the movie to be sort of meta right from the jump. It follows up on that concept in earnest, leaning into its inspiration from similar concepts like the Scream franchise.

While that concept can come across as cheesy or silly if it's not done well, . It manages to mine legitimate heart out of the budding romance at its center, the thrills of a quality slasher movie, and the laughs of a top-flight rom-com all at once while never losing its self-awareness.

With its Valentine's Day setting and emoji-faced killer,. According to critics, it does this with aplomb right from its brutal opening sequence. In the process of playing out a burgeoning romance, Heart Eyes critiques the typical ridiculous character interactions that are seen in rom-coms, and are usually forgiven due to the nature of the genre. Heart Eyes explores how two real people would interact in the situation as opposed to the idyllic, and oftentimes silly, dynamic of a rom-com.

that builds throughout the course of the movie. On the contrary, it enhances the romance because it becomes easier to identify with the characters at its center. The laughs at the expense of romantic clichés effortlessly give way to the heartfelt connection between the two leads, thanks in no small part to the sizzling chemistry between them.

Neither rom-coms nor horror movies have a history of exceptional critical reception, oftentimes because the tropes of each genre have been beaten into the ground at this point. However, Heart Eyes has managed very high scores because . Its meta nature has a lot to do with it; while horror and rom-com movies lean on tropes and clichés, Heart Eyes criticizes them as a replacement for relying on them.

As a result, that elicits both the terror of a good slasher movie and the warm glow of a heartwarming romance. They don't always blend perfectly, but then again, that's sort of the point. Holding up the two genres, which in many ways are the direct inverse of each other, side-by-side creates some much-needed balance.

Critics agree that for whatever Heart Eyes might be as far as a meta satirical commentary or a genre mash-up, . Especially when romance and comedy are introduced into the mix, the horror elements of a horror comedy often wind up feeling forgotten. In the scramble to hit so many notes, the monsters, slashers, or whatever nefarious cause of death is at a horror comedy's center can be overshadowed, and relegated to obligatory box-checking.

That doesn't seem to be the case at all with Heart Eyes. Many critics singled out the movie's copious gore in a complimentary fashion, applauding alongside the likes of Art the Clown (Terrifier) and John Carver (Thanksgiving). The comedy and romance elements do nothing to stanch the flow of blood throughout the movie's runtime.

Among horror movies, slasher movies in particular can fall into the trap of simply embracing the scares, moving from one bloody scene to the next with little story or character development in between. Heart Eyes does not seem to have that problem, as . The twists and turns of the narrative never cross into the realm of being predictable to the point of monotony, and it does a great job of making sure that the audience cares about its protagonists as the bodies pile up around them.

The foundational concept acts as a bit of evidence. The Heart Eyes killer is already two years into his reign of Valentine's Day violence by the time the movie picks up with its two leads, which yields a cast that is aware of what they're up against (for the most part). While not unique in slasher movies, that idea is a rarity, as . While Heart Eyes is not without exposition, especially towards the end of the movie, it's far more forgivable given how well-earned the finale feels.

Just as the horror of a horror comedy can be lost in the comedy, the opposite seems to happen just as often. In trying to balance both genres, the jokes and visual gags can feel halfhearted or lost entirely as a movie progresses, but Heart Eyes doesn't seem to suffer from that issue. While it isn't necessarily loaded with knee-slappers or witty banter like the most-celebrated comedies, .

Without a doubt, the meta nature of Heart Eyes plays a key role in how the movie stays funny despite its slasher-iffic proceedings. Some of the best jokes land when a character calls out a cliché, whether it's dialogue-related or a quirk of the situation that they find themselves in. from many of its contemporary horror comedies. Director Josh Ruben has proven himself to be a master at this, as his last movie, Werewolves Within, was similarly funny throughout.

It's no surprise that, as a holiday-themed slasher, Heart Eyes leans into that holiday theme when presenting the grisly murders of its killer. Without spoiling them, , which is impressive given how many creative ways the human body has been destroyed by movie killers over the years. Heart Eyes' creativity is just the latest in an ongoing modern trend of next-level holiday-themed kills. In just the last three years, horror fans have been treated to the innovative brutality of Thanksgiving, the Christmas-themed Terrifier 3, and now Heart Eyes.

One of the near-universal points of praise from the first few dozen critics to review Heart Eyes is . The son of Cuba Gooding, Jr., Mason Gooding already has plenty of horror street cred for his role as Chad Meeks-Martin in Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023). Holt, on the other hand, is more well-known for her TV roles, particularly as the superhero Dagger in the Freeform Marvel series Cloak and Dagger.

The two stars manage to manufacture a believable blossoming romance all while fleeing in terror from a maniacal slasher. While the script and dialogue deserves their kudos, . They really feel like two co-workers who are discovering their own feelings in real time, and their compatibility gives Heart Eyes an unexpectedly heartfelt romantic layer when all the blood and guts are wiped away.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes