When Harry meets Sally meets SCREAM…..

You can tell that director Josh Ruben loves Jason Lives, the fan favourite sequel of the Friday the 13th franchise and the one entry that Ruben used as a blueprint for the heartbeat of HEART EYES. “It was the one that stuck with me ever since I was a kid,” he said in a recent interview and its the affection he has for it that has created one of the most enjoyable slashers in recent years.

While the SCREAM meta humour is in full force – just listen to that cool Hobbs & Shaw gag – tonally this is everything that a good old fashioned Jason Vorhees film used to be. Brutal kills, an unstoppable masked killer and a need not to scare, but to entertain and boy, it does with abundance. The only plot vice separating it from being a Camp Crystal campfire story, is the affectionate love story through out it, with a young couple who from the off, you’ll not only want them to survive, but get together and have their very own happy every after, once they’ve witnessed a massive bloodbath of course.

They typical opening kill sequence suggests a gore-porn fest, where are introduced to the Heart Eyes Killer – HEK for short- a maniac who for the last few Valentine days, has been striking fear among loved ones, by brutally slaughtering those found in an embrace, before disappearing in the shadows and then waiting another twelve months to strike again. The set-piece to kick off proceedings, is quite an homage to the SAW franchise – death by GRAPE CRUSHER!, but surprisingly straight after, the film settles on basically telling us of a blossoming love story between Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding).

Like an A-Z of all rom-coms, they accidently bump into each other at a coffee shop, flirt, a sparkling chemistry reignites, before Ally finds out later in work that Jay is the new guy in the office, who just happens to also be taking over her marketing project which, of course she has worked so hard on, but the results have been less than impressive for demanding “wearing Parada” boss (Michaela Watkins).

Jay, suggests going out for a meal to smooth things over, despite it being Valentines Day as, hey they are not a couple, so they won’t be killed, but the HEK killer does not know this and soon, after a delightful exchange in Ally’s Bedroom, they find the masked fiend in the wardrobe, waiting to strike.

An intensive thrill ride begins as the couple – sorry they are not a couple – try to survive the night from this relentless bogeyman armed with a cross-bow, knife and everything else, in what is one of the strongest creations in Slash for a long time.

Police officers and horror veterans Devon Sawa and Jordana Brewster turn up to try and save the day, there are some creative set-pieces that include a merry go round, that just aid with the flow and we even get an obligatory 90’s mask reveal that brings more laughs with the response.

While there are some twists and turns most fans will see a mile off, HEART EYES delivers the best rom-com slasher since a miner picked up a pickaxe and started to kill, way back in 1981.

Definitely a bloody valentine you will cherish….

4 HATCHETS OUT OF 5