“Heart Eyes”, in theaters this weekend, is a one-of-a-kind performance.
It is a slasher movie that is just as much a romantic comedy and vice versa. It is not trying to be any of these things, it just is. Stars Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt have genuine chemistry, so when their meeting interest is interrupted by the heartwife, a serial killer who has stalked couples for several years, you will anchor for their continued survival, not least for what you want to see their relationship flower. It’s strange to call a movie with so much Arterial spray Sweet, but it’s really sweet.
And the film feels like even more of an achievement because it maintains the properties and charm from its director Josh Ruben, who makes his studio film debut. Ruben is a veteran from college humor, online comedy website, and his two features, “scare me” and video game adaptation “werewolves in”, showed an idiosyncratic humor along with an unpleasant ability to mix scary with laughter. “Heart Eyes” may be his best movie yet. You can imagine finding it in a video store when you are 12 and stay up all night and watch it at your friend’s sleep – screaming, laughing and has the time in your life.
“Honestly, I had a lot of freedom,” Ruben said. “All these films, even my first movie, my little Sundance movie, is political. You must be diplomatic. You must be cooperative. Where you have to draw the line is, I sacrifice my artistic stamp? “On” heart eyes “no one told him to get more coverage. Or to shoot for more options. The biggest conversation (he is quick to say that it “was not even a battle”) was over his use of the blue moonlight – and to a lesser extent lens flares.
Blue Moonlight was crucial to Ruben because it has been in everything from “jaws” to “come out” and “surely the films that inspired” heart eyes “, especially” Friday the 13 13Th: Jason lives. “” It’s a massive influence for me next to “my best friend’s wedding,” Ruben said. The question still remained. “Visually there was some conversation in that respect, which, which, Does the light need to be so blue? “Said Ruben. “Heart Eyes” is shot in New Zealand, with Ruben who took over large parts of the crew from Universal’s “Wolf Man.”
“Honestly, I could do my own thing. You have to let a filmmaker bring their vision, otherwise you will do something homogeneous, it’s forgetful and that’s not how these guys worked. I’m super, super grateful. I hope it always goes like this, Ruben said. “My producer was like,“ You know, they’re not always like this, right? It won’t always be like this. “And it was like,” Well, I guess, I have to do another. “
While horror the stuff was quite second nature for Ruben, he admitted that the Rom-Come elements were more unknown to him. “Where I got a little terrified they were sincere Rom-com stuff. I searched, as, How do I do how do I do something in that kind of romantic world? How do I make female friendship? How do I make an appointment cute? “Said Ruben. When he fought for the job, he talked about his love for “Titanic”, “My Best Friend’s Wedding”, “The Bodyguard” and “Defend your life.” He was drawn to movies that he used to watch that were “as heartbreaking as they were genuine, because they were cute and fun.” (He thinks this is what won him the gig.)
Ruben also came to another epiphane that would shape “heart eyes.” “I realized that the review (of these films) was the spectacle. And you have to find people who have chemistry, ”Ruben said. “Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt met and they agreed, and they agreed in a way that their electricity only flies from the screen. That is the best case for making a ROM-COM. “He instructed his production designer, a veteran of James Cameron’s” Avatar “movies, that” there should be a little pink or red in every frame. ” There are references to “Slepeless in Seattle” and “Ghost.” And when there is a brutal murder, there will be a lot of red in the frame.
The nature of Heart Eyes Killer – his trench rock, the tailor -made mask and his various tools – is a reference to “Darkman”, Sam Raimi’s classic from 1990 who played Liam Neeson as a scientist who gets angry after being brutal scar. “I have tried to make a” Darkman “movie for about 150 years. I’m obsessed with that horror hero movie, ”said Ruben. When “heart eyes” came around, he realized that it could be his opportunity to pay tribute to his beloved “Darkman.” “Being able to take in a piece of my horror hero brain that I was really excited about,” Ruben said. He also loved Jason’s tool belt from “Jason Lives.” An important question drove him: “How can we explore it and make it fun and make it a Halloween costume you want years and year and year from now?”
When it comes to his “Darkman” taking, he said he has posted it before and not hopeful that he will get it, but he loved that “you have a horror superhero.” “The fact that you have a character that can play other characters and that has melt prosthesis and super strength and also in itself get angry in the intestines in a city. There is only so much opportunity. And I think we need fun horror and joy, ”Ruben. Hi, we would Greenlight it.
At “Heart Eyes” he worked from a concept by Phillip Murphy who was revised by the authors Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy, who wrote the latest Slasher favorite “Freaky.” When Ruben came on board, he said, he brought his “irrevers.” He remembered that pitching on “werewolves within” and quoted “shaking” and “arachnophobia” as references. With “heart eyes” he wanted to make an iconic slasher. “Let’s give them light eyes. Let’s give them extendable arrows, ”recalls Ruben. “Let’s give them fun, tactile stuff, while making heart eyes into a kinky, sexual, in itself erotic killer, as Valentine’s psychopath should be. You just try to bring your stamp that way.”
Since this is 2025 and all horror movies that make their budget back are almost guaranteed to a sequel, Ruben said he has started to think of a second “heart eyes” movie – and not just because a carnage at a spa was written but never filmed (It is eventually referred in the last movie but never seen). “You can probably imagine that heart eyes can crash all Rome-com scenarios. You can take all Rom-com that has ever existed and just undermine the matter with a psychopathic, kinky murderer who comes in and just destroy everyone’s day. Valentine’s Day, Public Suggestions, PDA, it’s all unsurpassing, ”Ruben said. “There is too much pressure around having to cooperate. I am very lucky to have married my best friend. But not everyone has that kind of privilege. And then they rub it on the face. If you didn’t find anyone, you sometimes just want to squeeze your eyes out. “
Gooding’s character repeatedly refers to a wedding he must go to. It is easy to imagine that he is going there, taking Holt and running into his old Nemesis The Heart Eyes Killer. “I would love to hear them sing,” says a little prayer for you, “but you look across the room and you are, Are they red eyes?“Said Ruben.
