Heart Eyes (2025)

Christopher Landon has made a name for himself in the past few years by figuring out fun ways to blend slasher movie tropes with other sub-genres (e.g. timeloop movies, bodyswap films). He has written with Michael Kennedy before, and this time around both are joined by Phillip Murphy to deliver a film that places some bloody kill scenes in the middle of what is essentially a standard rom-com. Josh Ruben is in the director's chair, which means it's up to him to ensure that the dialogue and set-pieces are couched in something that comes close enough to that rom-com style, but can he manage to do that?

A killer is on the loose, the Heart Eyes Killer, and they're targeting couples. This has been happening for a couple of years now, every Valentine's Day, which makes it a big problem for those in a relationship. Ally McCabe (Olivia Holt) isn't in a relationship though, so she should be safe from the killer. Her biggest worry concerns trying to keep her job. In need of major guidance, and a way to overhaul her latest ad campaign that disastrously uses romantic tragedy at the heart of it, Ally ends up forced to work with Jay Simmons (Mason Gooding), a bit of a whizz drafted in to save the day. Ally and Jay need to spend some time together to brainstorm and plan, which leads to the Heart Eyes Killer viewing them as a couple, which leads to them being pursued, even as they try to explain to those around them that they really aren't a couple.

Heart Eyes works fairly well as a slasher. The pacing is decent for most of the runtime, aside from a third act that just has one or two scenes more than necessary, the kills are entertaining and bloody, and Holt and Gooding are very appealing leads. The most pleasant surprise, however, is just how well some of the rom-com moments work. There's a great meet-cute, a fun sense of external factors ensuring that our leads are destined to pair up, and stay paired up, some very fun cute klutziness that adds some non-lethal injuries to the onscreen catalogue of pain, and even the scenes of attempted murder often show a romance blossoming under unusually difficult circumstances. There are times when it tries to be too cute though, particularly when name-checking other movies and painfully winking at viewers, but nothing is bad enough to unbalance the whole thing.

Aside from Holt and Gooding, who are absolutely as enjoyable and likeable as they need to be in their roles, the cast also includes Devon Sawa and Jordana Brewster as a pair of cops named . . . Hobbs and Shaw, Gigi Zumbado as the standard protective bestie, and Michaela Watkins as a demanding boss, as well as a number of people who make enough of an impression in their first few moments to make them plausible suspects as the killing spree starts to feel a bit more personal.

Despite the lighter touch, this is still a film aimed mainly at slasher movie fans. As long as you can enjoy the strange clash of sub-genres then you will be rewarded with some laughs, some entertaining bloodshed, and a killer working with some nicely-personalised deadly accessories.

7/10

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Shudder Saturday: A Wounded Fawn (2022)

It can be tricky when you decide to rave about a new horror movie, because there are times when it seems that a rave-worthy entry in the genre seems to come along every few weeks. We horror fans are often spoiled, despite how people may view different years and decades as particularly fertile or fallow ground, and there's often the danger of hyperbole to navigate around.

Having said that, A Wounded Fawn is absolutely superb. I would easily rank it as one of my favourite films from this year, and that means that director Travis Stevens is now three for three with the feature films he has directed (before this one we had the enjoyable Jakob's Wife and, his feature debut, Girl On The Third Floor).

Sarah Lind plays Meredith, a young woman who has decided to go away for a weekend with Bruce (played by Josh Ruben). The two will be staying in a cabin in the woods, standard middle of nowhere kinda location, and a nice time will hopefully be had by the both of them. But things start feeling off from the start, and it isn't long until Meredith suspects that she may be in mortal danger. In a strange twist, however, it isn't long until Bruce also feels the same way.

Co-written by Stevens and Nathan Faudree, this is a film that delivers some weird and wild imagery within a template that could have easily just been a dark and entertaining serial killer movie. I'm still undecided about what everything means, particularly in the very last scenes, but I know that I loved every moment, whether it was a burst of surprising bloody violence or a languid "waking dream" showing us the mythical figures who were encouraging or castigating a confused killer.

It helps that both Lind and Ruben are genuinely excellent in their roles. The former is the kind of lead who emanates so much screen presence that she can play natural without ever seeming dull, the latter is great at being just a little bit "off" until the real danger of the movie is revealed. Although mostly just a two-hander, there's also a supporting role for Malin Barr that allows her to have a bit more screentime than you might expect, and allows her to portray a character who is more than just a potential random victim.

Dialogue may be minimal for a good 2/3 of the runtime, but Faudree and Stevens do a great job of filling the film with enough to observe and dissect throughout. There are many small details that end up becoming more important as they start to recur, and viewers start to realise the value that certain characters have placed upon them, and the whole thing is an obtuse puzzle that never becomes too frustrating while we all wait to be shown the ultimate reveal/solution.

From the audio work to the practical FX moments that will make you wince, A Wounded Fawn very rarely puts a foot wrong. It's held back from being perfect by the smallest of margins, and I couldn't even put my finger on anything I viewed as a proper negative aspect. I may even adjust my rating upwards whenever I make time to rewatch it.

9/10

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Werewolves Within (2021)

A lot of people had mentioned Werewolves Within over the past few weeks so I was keen to see it. I like werewolf movies, I like a good comedy horror, I figured this would be an easy one for me to enjoy. It turned out not to be as easy as I first thought. I didn't actively dislike this film at any point, the main cast members are too likeable or fun to keep that from happening, but it wasn't ever that good. It's not that funny, and the lycanthropy is barely a part of the film. It's as if far too many people have still to discover the superb Game Of Werewolves. Or even the more recent The Wolf Of Snow Hollow.

But let's focus on this film anyway, which is the one I am reviewing today. Sam Richardson plays Finn Wheeler, a forest ranger who has been posted to the small town of Beaverfield. The town is currently divided by the people who support a pipeline being proposed by a local businessman and those against it. Meeting a postal worker, Cecily (played by Milana Vayntrub), Finn gets to accompany her on her round as she introduces him to the various residents. It's not long until a dangerous secret is revealed, and Finn is tasked with trying to keep people calm and find out what is damaging generators and looking to potentially kill people. The signs all point to a werewolf, but there's a chance that it is just one of the more eccentric locals having dived headlong into murderous madness.

Richardson and Vayntrub are both excellent in their roles here. The former has already stolen a few scenes in a couple of movies from the past year or so, the latter isn't someone I can say I have spotted in any other movies, but I'll look forward to seeing her in more after enjoying her work here. Everyone else does great work, even if I'm not going to namecheck them all here. Definite highlights include Catherine Curtin as Jeanine Sherman, the woman who owns the hotel that Finn is staying at, Wayne Duvall as the businessman, Sam Parker, and Glenn Fleshler as the gun-toting, unfriendly, Emerson.

Written by Mishna Wolff, making her feature-writing debut with a videogame adaptation that certainly doesn't feel constrained by that remit (although I am not familiar with the actual game itself), Werewolves Within is generally an amiable experience. That's about all I can say about it. The direction from Josh Ruben, who also gave horror fans the much-liked Scare Me (liked by a group of people that would not include me among them), does everything required without ever taking the material up a notch. None of the comedy is mined for bigger laughs, none of the few horror moments are made as horrific as they could be, and I found it impossible to ever really care about the mystery element. The majority of the film may be trying to create a The Beast Must Die guessing game, but what's the point in crafting that kind of curio piece if you don't even provide an updated "werewolf break"? 

Maybe people enjoy this more when they also have the game as a reference point, so feel free to add a point or two if you fall into that category, but I kept waiting for this to deliver something . . . more. It's pleasant enough for the duration, and doesn't run too long, but it's a shame that it wasn't tweaked to increase the comedy, the frights, or both. Still one to recommend, tentatively, thanks to the sterling work of everyone in the cast.

6/10

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Shudder Saturday: Scare Me (2020)

Written and directed by Josh Ruben, who also gives himself a leading role, Scare Me feels very much like a genre film written and directed by someone who gives themselves a leading role. It's a showcase piece, with the wrong person trying to get the most from it.

Ruben is Fred, a wannabe-writer who decides to spend some time in a remote cabin to kickstart his writing endeavours. In a nearby cabin is Fanny (Aya Cash), a writer who has already had no small amount of success. A power outage leads to these two people coming together, and Fanny comes up with the idea of them telling stories to one another, attempting to provide entertainment and scares.

An anthology movie with a twist, Scare Me has gone down well with some horror fans, and I really can't work out how that happened. It failed almost entirely for me, and is only saved by the wonderful turn from Cash.

Although the idea of the main characters telling, and acting out, their tales initially seems like a fun concept, with physical performances being complemented by some wonderful audio/foley work, it quickly outstays its welcome, especially when you realise that you're never going to see more. It then starts to make you wonder why this wasn't simply created as a stage play, or perhaps even some kind of immersive audio-only experience, which could have been fantastic.

Ruben isn't as good as he needs to be in his role, and he doesn't really sell any of the subtler characterisations that bubble up to the surface in time for the third act. Cash is much better, but there are instances when her acting feels as if it is working hard to underline the fact that she is acting, if you know what I mean. Chris Redd, playing a pizza delivery worker named Carlo, brings a fun energy to the proceedings, but it isn't enough to elevate the whole movie.

Of the many problems I have with this movie, the one that may be the most difficult for me to ignore is the fact that almost none of the stories delivered by the performers is remotely scary, or even very good. They are, in fact, mostly forgettable. The joy with an anthology film is that you usually don't have to wait too long to find a story you like, but Scare Me leaves viewers without any proper entertainment to go with the novel presentation.

I really wanted to enjoy this. I'd heard about the format and thought it could be a good way to deliver some traditional fare in a non-traditional way. If nothing else, it featured two people telling spooky stories by a fire on a dark night. Except it didn't. Just that simple concept would have been preferable to this (as happened with the wonderful little gem, The Devil's Business). 

Misguided rather than absolutely inept and horrible, Scare Me just felt a lot more annoying and intolerable to me because Ruben never focused on the strengths available to him. Maybe one of his future projects will be better though, and I'm not writing him off. This was certainly a different way to try to make something with certain limitations in place.

3/10

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