The new slasherHeart Eyeshit some impressive box office milestones, thanks to its self-aware flirtation with the history of slashers and some of the most iconic rom-com tropes. DirectorJosh Ruben’s slasher-wrapped-in-a-rom-com follows the Heart Eyes killer, a masked murderer that targets a different town every Valentine’s Day. This time around he’ssleepless in Seattle. Protagonists Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding) have a meet cute at a coffee shop where they have the same order and an abundance of chemistry, then the inverse when it’s revealed that Jay is the “consumer cupid” her advertising firm has called in to clean up her mess of a Valentine’s jewelry campaign.There are thrills and kills from point A to point B. And spoiler alert: Ally and Jayareendgame.
Somewhat ironically, a film that ribs both romantic comedies and slasher horror makes Ally — and her relationship with Jay — more dynamic and dimensional than what both genres typically offer. With the slightest twist of the gender roles that both cherished genres ascribe, Ally is the hesitant misanthrope and Jay is the eager-to-please romanticist. Through plot twists and narrative turns, it’s Ally who saves Jay from repeated distress and confronts her own reasonable and fleshed-out fears about love. It makesHeart Eyes' ending, while still silly and sweet,a welcome change to the stigma around women proposing to men. And it resonates all the more because the audience sees each bloody leap of faith on the way there.
‘Heart Eyes’ Makes Ally a Fully Rounded Character
Amidst creative kills andromance hallmarks, Ally in particular is incredibly well-developed.The audience sees Ally fairly quickly through the eyes of not only Jay but also her friends and employers.Before Ally and Jay come to blows at a Valentine’s Day work meeting, long before she ever opens up to him, it’s clear that just below the surface of her bitter boundaries and cynical rebuttals is someone as wounded as they are hyper-independent. Ally self-sabotaged her last relationship – and presumably every relationship before it – a byproduct of losing her father so suddenly. As she later reveals to Jay between the moans of the horny hippies in the back of a van they’re hiding in, Ally’s mother and father had a perfect marriage, but when her father died, her mother was never the same.
Letting Ally have a backstory bigger than a busy career woman sidesteps therom-comsin of making its lead woman seem overdramatic and hysterical just so a charming and chill male lead can fix her. But it doesn’t let her off the hook for her behavior either. In true romantic comedy tradition, she’s called out by her friend about it. Her friend, Monica (Gigi Zumbado), is not some cookie-cutter pro-monogamy housewife or else an equally messy, far more awkward version of Ally’s own psychological makeup. Where Ally is closed off, Monica is open-minded, toeing the line between being a “sugar baby” and finding herself in love with a rich, old man. In short, women are people, even among the silliness and brutality ofHeart Eyes. The film dodges a major flaw in too many romantic comedies. InHeart Eyes,a woman’s relationship with or refusal to engage in romance isn’t marked as something to be cured by marriage.
‘Heart Eyes’ Packs Plenty of Subtle Subversion
The film’s first proposal – and opening kill – examines the heteronormative archetypes that so often accompany relationships when couples center on the shiny veneer of romantic “content.” A woman in a sweater and hat combination typically reserved for lofty Pinterest boards mouths the words of her boyfriend’s proposal speech becauseshewrote it. The moment is about a proposal she has long-imagined in its aesthetic perfection, instead of celebrating reaching this milestone with her partner. As she bites into a strawberry to discover a ring, she scolds her partner, “What the hell? I told you not to put it in my food.” Her oafish fiancé’s phone goes off, revealing a photographer hidden in the woods to capture it all. He didn’t get the shot.
They proceed to speed run the proposal to ensure the photo guy gets it this time, but no luck: the Heart Eyes killer has taken him out. HEK’s next shot is fired as she goes full bridezilla (fiancé-zilla?) into the photographer’s voicemail. It makes for a hilariously jarring opening kill, butit also positions these manufactured, Instagram-forward unions as the antithesis of what romance should be. Like the burnouts and skeptics of early slashers, passive-aggressive “this goofball” relationships are valid prey the audience enjoys seeing tormented.
Olivia Holt Compares Her ‘Heart Eyes’ Role to This Cherished Character in a Classic Rom-Com
We’ll give you a hint; Holt really vibed with the character’s “neurotic energy.”
ButHeart Eyesisn’t limiting itself to homage or ribs to the point of abandoning its own story and central characters. The film’sending returns torom-comgoods after all the slaughter, with Ally and Jay’s proposal at the very drive-in where they killed the Heart Eyes Killer (well, sort of). It does so with a rarely seen setup here in the advanced year of 2025 —Ally proposes to Jay. In a brilliant re-direct, Jay produces a small ring box, prefacing, “Don’t freak out,” with sincere patience, acknowledging that Ally is less likely to leap into things. But the ring box isn’t holding a ring. It’s holding a key. Jay, who had to learn to slow down and give space in contrast to Ally’s hyper-independence and cynicism, wants Ally to move in after “the best year of [his] life.”
‘Heart Eyes’ Ally Joins A Roster Of Stigma Breakers
Women proposing to men isn’t entirely unheard ofin popular media.OnFriends,Monica famously proposed to Chandler, and Phoebe later proposes to Mike after she ruins two of his attempted proposals. Lorelai Gilmore proposes to Luke in the Season 5 cliffhanger finale ofGilmore GirlsandSex and the City’s Miranda proposes toSteve. But with rom coms likeLeap Yearframing a woman taking initiative in her relationship as a borderline cosmic event, it’s not a bad idea to recontextualize the gesture. In fact, women pointedly cite social expectations – including what they see in media and popular culture – as the thing that holds them back from proposing to their partners.A recent survey by Zola, an online wedding planning and registry site, found thatsocietal pressure is why 67% of women feel they can’t proposeto the men they love. The stigma needs to be broken.
It’s estimated only 1-2% of women in heterosexual relationships pop the question, despite otherwise eschewing rigid gender roles in other ways. Couples are increasingly ditching things like the father giving away the daughter, bouquet tosses, garter removals, and separate bachelor and bachelorette parties in favor of a more equal – and let’s face it, less demeaning – special day. In this modern age, men and women are looking for their equal in a partnership and don’t believe that gender roles should define a proposal, wedding day, or the relationship itself.
Heart Eyesisn’t offering any empty gesture of girl power. Ally’s proposal is deeply meaningful in the context of the film itself, showing that her connection to Jay is secure enough to not just stop running but to start building a future together. This echoes a particular rom-com gem,Runaway Bride,the second film thatJulia RobertsandRichard Gereooze chemistry all over. Ally’s now complete romantic arc validates Jay’s character growth as a partner who normally pushes too hard, for too much. Without self-congratulatory fanfare or unnecessary exposition,Heart Eyeslightly flips the gender script and Ally’s proposal drives it home. “I don’t want a key. I want you,” she tells Jay, producing her own ring box. The film closes with Jay misquoting a now-cliché line from perhaps the OG rom-com,Pride and Prejudice, “Yes. Yes. A million times yes.”
Heart Eyes
In Heart Eyes, two co-workers working late on Valentine’s Day are mistaken for a couple by the infamous Heart Eyes Killer. Directed by Josh Ruben and written by Michael Kennedy and Christopher Landon, the film stars Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt.
