Ally (Olivia Holt) is in a rut.
She is still climbing out of the wreckage of a past relationship, and her job is in jeopardy from a failed project.
Complicating matters further, a handsome stranger (Mason Gooding) has joined her company and seems to have eyes for her.
Is he after her job? Or her heart?
This confusion might prove fatal:
There is a serial killer called Heart Eyes on the loose, and they seem to think these two have something…
A mix of romantic comedy and slasher horror movie, Heart Eyes benefits from one thing too many movies fail to find: chemistry.
Not in terms of the way it mashed up the genres, but the central romance.
Frankly, I wanted to like it more.
It jiggles both genres rather efficiently, but it feels a shade rushed as a romance.
However what the movie gets right is the casting of the leads.
Whatever issues the film has in terms of pacing, the chemistry between the main actors - the way they handle the stakes of the situation, and the dynamics of their growing attraction - helps the movie.
I am not that familiar with either Olivia Holt nor Mason Gooding, but I spent the first half of the movie enjoying the way they ran through the opening moves of a romantic comedy.
What was appealing about the movie is how straightforward it is. It is not trying to reinvent the wheel.
Holt is the working woman still hung up on her ex. Gooding is the potential work rival who might be a new chance at love.
It is so familiar yet these early scenes (including a makeover montage and an eccentric best friend, played delightfully by Gigi Zumbado) made me nostalgic for the romantic comedies of old.
The film is unapologetic and plays these scenes without irony. It feels like the people making the movie actually care about making this part of the movie work.
It was almost frustrating when the movie became more of a chase movie.
As a slasher movie, it is also pretty familiar - the infusion of another genre feels like a new coat of paint rather than something more de-constructive.
That is the movie in a nutshell.
There is no magic X factor unlocked by the combination, but it is also not a disaster.
It is just a fairly functional slasher with a little more attention to the shared leads.
It could have been more, but as is, it is solid - if a bit forgettable.
Hopefully it gives someone the bright idea to cast these actors in an actual romantic movie.
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