If I ever run for President, I will make it a law that every holiday must have its own slasher film!

“Heart Eyes” follows a serial killer who targets couples every Valentine’s Day, and when a pair of coworkers (Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt) are mistaken as boyfriend/girlfriend, they become his next target. Gigi Zumbado, Michaela Watkins, Devon Sawa, and Jordana Brewster also star while Josh Ruben directs.

Christopher Landon, who produces and co-writes here, is one of my favorite filmmakers in the horror genre. From writing the classic “Disturbia” to directing the likes of “Happy Death Day” and “Freaky,” he has a playful but subtly sadistic approach that is a lot of fun. He was originally slated to direct the upcoming “Scream 7,” but after all the drama surrounding that film became too loud he backed out, which is a damn shame. And although he didn’t direct this his fingerprints are all over it, and Josh Ruben (who helmed the fun “Werewolves Within”) does a good job behind the camera, giving us a slasher that works just as well as a romantic comedy.

I really like Mason Gooding, I think he is the highlight of the “Scream” reboots and also flexes his charm in comedies like “Booksmart” and “I Want You Back.” Here he plays a hopeless romantic, and has some cute exchanges with Olivia Holt (herself a love cynic). After the obligatory opening kill we go probably 25 minutes before the body count picks back up, and often that would be a red flag in a slasher. But thanks to the pair’s light chemistry, you almost forget you’re watching a horror film and settle into the light V-Day romance flick (before swiftly being reminded what it is we all came for).

The kills are creative and bloody, but not gratuitous. Not that there isn’t a place in the genre for torture porn, but sometimes the best slashers simply implement one clean slice of a knife or a crossbow to the eye. I definitely felt a dumb smile creep across my face on more than one occasion, and several of the kills had the man next to me chuckling pretty hard.

The film wears its “Scream” influence on its sleeve, including a monologue by Gigi Zumbado (Holt’s best friend, who owns some of the film’s best line deliveries) that namedrops about a half-dozen classic romcoms in a very amusing way. There is also a bit of a whodunnit angle, though this is the kind of masked killer flick that is more about the journey than the destination (I guessed the killer the first time we see them, but it didn’t ruin the deranged climax for me).

“Heart Eyes” isn’t the first Valentine’s Day slasher film, but just like “Better Watch Out” or Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving” I can see it becoming a welcome new staple that I will watch every respective holiday season or so. As long as you aren’t going in expecting to see the reinvention of the genre wheel, then this is a great movie for fans of red; whether that red is coming from love or blood is in the (heart) eye of the beholder.

Critics Rating: 8/10