This post contains major spoilers for “Heart Eyes.”
One part rom-com, one part slasher movie, all bloody good fun, “Heart Eyes” is in many ways the perfect Valentine’s Day entertainment. It’s got a masked killer themed around the holiday, a genuinely fun “will they, won’t they” romance at the center of it between Olivia Holt’s Ally and Mason Gooding’s Jay, and it plays expertly with two well-trodden genres. Credit to director Josh Ruben, who previously helmed the acclaimed video game movie “Werewolves Within,” and screenwriters Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon (“Happy Death Day”), and Michael Kennedy (“Freaky”).
/Film’s Chris Evangelista called “Heart Eyes” a “stylish and sweet” ride in his review, and the fun doesn’t stop when the credits roll either, as the flick included a pretty fun post-credits scene that plays with a very common slasher movie trope. The film centers on a serial killer who has been labeled by the media as the “Heart Eyes Killer.” The mysterious murderer has wreaked havoc on Valentine’s Day for several years in a row, stalking and murdering happy couples.
By the end of the film, after a couple of false moments of feeling safe, Ally and Jay do finally manage to subdue the killer, with the reveal of just who it is behind the mask. The killer meets a grizzly end, as does their twisted, romantic accomplice. But as horror fans know, even when a slasher villain appears to be dead, they’re rarely ever actually dead. That’s where the credits scene comes in.
Heart Eyes knows what kind of movie it is – even during the credits scene
Pretty late into the credits, a scene kicks in that takes place at the drive-in theater where Ally and Jay survived the Heart Eyes Killer’s slaughter. Mirroring the opening scene, Ally gets a creepy phone call with a voice very much like the one we heard from the killer earlier in the film. It turns out it’s just her pal Monica (Gigi Zumbado), who was on hand to take pictures of her engagement to Jay. This is very much like the opening of the movie when the all-too-cute couple gets slaughtered, as does their photographer.
When the camera cuts to Monica, it feels like there is going to be some sort of reveal, as if this is all setting the stage for “Heart Eyes 2” when we learn that somehow, the killer survived, or that they had another accomplice out there that we didn’t know about. None of that happens. Instead, it’s just a fun little tag that plays with our collective expectations.
This is not a Michael Myers situation where he miraculously survives over and over again. That’s what made the ending of “Halloween Ends” so surprising because they actually ended the damn thing. Slasher fans are accustomed to Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, Chucky, or any other killer that generates enough money to warrant a sequel living to fight another day, improbable though it may be. That’s what makes this scene stand out.
It’s not necessarily essential viewing in the way that the credits scene in “Kong: Skull Island,” for example, was hugely consequential and set the table for “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” It’s just one last bit of self-aware humor that helps put a button on the proceedings. Ruben crafted a very effective love letter to both rom-coms and slashers. This is a movie that knows precisely what it is, right until the final, extra scene.
“Heart Eyes” is in theaters now.
