Slasher movies seem to have a renewal these days, provided they have a small neat hook which adds a little thrust to the sub-genre. This new wave of slashers not Just Slasher films – These are Slasher films with a twist. Enter “Heart Eyes”, a new film that asks, “And if a Slasher film was Also A ROM-COM? “To add fuel to fire,” Heart Eyes “is also part of the” Holiday horror “sub-genre- while Christmas seems to prevail here (Even more than Halloween, curiously), there are many other holidays on the calendar to turn into days of mass murder. “Heart Eyes” uses Valentine’s Day as a backdrop, joining the two films “My Bloody Valentine” and the slasher “Slasher” Slasher “somewhat forgotten” Valentine “.

As more, “Heart Eyes” has talented people at the helm: he comes from independent horror Josh Ruben filmmakerWho made wonderful little films of fear like “Scare Me” and “Werewolves inside”, and has a co-written script (with Phillip Murphy) by Christopher Landen (the filmmaker behind excellent neo-Slashers “Happy Death” , “Happy Death Day 2U,” and “Freaky”, One of the best modern slashers) And Michael Kennedy, a writer who seems to specialize in modern slashers with a hook (he wrote the body exchange slasher “freaky”, the Christmas slasher “is a wonderful knife”, and the recent slasher Time travel Netflix “Time Cut”).

All this is promising. And indeed, “Heart Eyes” has a fun and funny script and an surprisingly elegant direction – Ruben has a good eye, and takes his time with his gunshots, even by throwing a diopther split to make good measure. To soften the agreement, “Heart Eyes” also has two charming and sympathetic tracks to Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding, who play a mismatched couple who are trying to live the night while a masked hack killer and make his way through hordes of people. There is a lot to love here. And yet … “Heart Eyes” ends up feeling slightly inert. I had fun with most of this film, but when the third act rolled and some characters started to shake up endlessly without end, I felt my glamer eyes. It also does not help that the film does not seem interested in being frightening. Regarding this horror rom-com, “Heart Eyes” is heavy on the Rom-Com and extremely light on horror.

After a bloody pronent prologue, “Heart Eyes” reveals that for two years, a serial murderer known as Heart Eyes Killer (or Hek for short) terrorized couples on Valentine’s Day. The killer, who sports a cool fetish mask with bright red eyes, people slaughtered for the first time in Boston a year, then the following year threw his heart -shaped views on Philadelphia (side note: I have Screened the film in Philadelphia, and my audience hooked and yelled at the simple mention of the city of Brother Love). Now Valentine’s Day has become again, and no one knows where the killer could end up afterwards.

In Seattle, Ally (Olivia Holt) finds herself to fear Valentine’s Day, not because of the killer of the eyes of the heart. On the one hand, she recently broke up with her boyfriend and cannot stop looking at her frequent publications on social networks with her new girlfriend. On the other hand, his marketing work for a jewelry company is in danger after its last advertising campaign – which recreates hilarious death scenes between lovers in the films – was encountered with the backlash. To save the business, his boss brought a hot freelancer named Jay (Mason Gooding) to settle things well. Jay can be easy for the eyes and extremely charming, but Ally does not want to have anything to do with this guy, fearing that he would draw his job. So when Jay insists that they have a business dinner on Valentine’s Day, Ally immediately refuses – but ends with August when it seems that she has no choice.

All of this has the brands of a standard Rom-Com. Jay and Ally even have a funny meeting in a cafe before discovering who he really is. And like so many enemy novels to lovers have taught us, it will only be a matter of time before these two crazy children fell for each other. Of course, “Heart Eyes” throws the additional wrinkle of a serial killer, who begins to track Jay and combine throughout the evening, accumulating a heavy number of bodies along the way.

The “eyes of the heart” table moments work like gangbusters, and that helps Holt and Gooding make a pair of charming tracks. They have a wonderful back and forth and a legitimate chemistry that goes very far. Gooding in particular is so fluid, funny and friendly here that I left the film wanting to see it in more things, immediately (seriously, make this guy a star). The first moments when Ally and Jay get to know each other and start to fall in love, to be interrupted by the eyes of the heart, are the best in the film. Indeed, even if I am a guy of horror, I must say that the horror elements are the least interesting things on the “eyes of the heart”. I found myself hoping that it is only a Roman like – he doesn’t really need the angle of Slasher. It certainly does not help that the film seems to be short of steam fairly quickly.

After Ally and Jay found themselves in the heart of the heart of the heart, “Heart Eyes” begins to turn his wheels. You have the impression that the filmmakers did not think it – they had a large installation (a Rom -Com Slasher) but did not know where to take it. Consequently, the story begins to sag strongly. Repetitiveness settles down: Jay and Ally move to a single place, continue, look at people being killed, repeat. To animate things, the film launches two characters of clumsy cops – The Clueless Hobbs (Devon Sawa) and the Lovelorn Shaw (Jordana Brewster), and yes, the film makes a flat joke on their names being Hobbs and Shaw, Ya Know, Like the film? (Brewster, of course, is already part of the franchise “Fast & Furious”, which adds an additional meta to the gag, but does not make it funnier).

All this is a little disappointing. I was completely charmed by the first forty minutes of “Heart Eyes” and I was delighted to have had a new photo of Slasher to kiss. But after its winning configuration, the film never finds its place again. There are funny bloody victims here and there, but I continued in the film to recover the energy of his first scenes, and that never did. Even at 97 minutes, “Heart Eyes” ends up feeling too long, as a short idea stretched for a length.

“Heart Eyes” is strong enough to have fun. The terrestrial jokes, the tracks are great, and the romance scenario is surprisingly sweet – I fully believed that Jay and Ally fell for each other, which is not an easy task (if you do not believe me, Know that there are about 100 Roma-Transflix made-for-netflix where the two leads have absolutely no chemistry together). Ruben’s management maintains everything together, and the killed will probably be illegal (intentional) laughs in the crowd.

And yet, when “Heart Eyes” reaches his final, it all seems somewhat forgettable. I’m glad the new Slasher films continue to arrive, and I give a “Heart Eyes” credit for trying to hide the novels with horror. But while the third fully awkward act of the film arrives and gives us an overly obvious answer on the identity of the Heart Eyes, the thrill is gone. However, as the counter-programming of Valentine’s Day says, “Heart Eyes” has its charms.

/ Film assessment: 6 out of 10

“Heart Eyes” opens in theaters on February 7, 2024.