The following contains spoilers for Heart Eyes, now playing in theatersHeart Eyes is a surprisingly sweet rom-com underneath a grisly layer of slasher horror, which ends up setting up an unexpectedly cute ending. Heart Eyes is the third horror-comedy from Josh Ruben, and focuses on the тιтular masked serial killer who targets couples on Valentine’s Day. The film follows Heart Eyes’ latest targets, Olivia Holt’s Ally and Mason Godding’s Jay, as they try to escape the murderer and survive the night. Along the way, Heart Eyes‘ main characters also end up steadily falling in love. The film follows them as they form a deep bond amid the gore and guts.
As with many horror films that preceded it, Heart Eyes has a lot of self-aware horror fun with the specific genre quirks that it shares with franchises like Friday the 13th and Scream. This includes some fake-out reveals surrounding the true idenтιтy of the killer and why they were targeting Jay and Ally in the first place despite the pair not actually being in a relationship. Here is how the ending of Heart Eyes plays with the tropes of both genres while also making a meta-comment on the nature of horror films setting up sequels.
The Heart Eyes Killer’s True Idenтιтy Explained
Heart Eyes Has More Than One Masked Killer
The big twist in the climax of Heart Eyes reveals the true nature of the Heart Eyes killings and how multiple people have been secretly wearing the mask. Heart Eyes spends much of the film hunting down Ally and Jay, seemingly covering impossible distances with ease. This is because there are actually three Heart Eyes killers. The most prominent is Detective Shaw, who was introduced as a reasonable authority figure and one of the detectives hunting down the killer. Secretly harboring murderous desires, Shaw reveals in the climax that she helped set off Heart Eyes’ national rampage with her husband.
[Detective Shaw and her husband David] are the primary people behind Heart Eyes.
Her husband is David, who Ally briefly met earlier in the film. Shaw met David online and discovered he shared her pᴀssion for murder despite his public persona as a dorky IT worker, Shaw married David, and their romance resulted in them killing their way across America. The two of them are the primary people behind Heart Eyes. When they reached Seattle, they recruited a “fanboy” to help their slaughter. Ally and Jay discover the truth about the pair at the climax, during which they’re able to get the better of the killer couple and slay them both.
Why The Heart Eyes Killer Goes After Ally & Jay
An Impulsive Kiss And A Simple Mistake Sets Off The Entire Plot Of Heart Eyes
The Heart Eyes killer is established in the film as someone who hunts down couples as some form of twisted sport. Couples from around the country have been picked off for years on Valentine’s Day by the holiday-obsessed Heart Eyes, seemingly to fulfill the murderous desires of the married couple behind the mask. Initially, they actually have no desire to go after Ally and Jay, with neither of them actually on their radar. Their intended target is actually Ally’s ex-boyfriend, who was friends with another one of Heart Eyes’ victims.
Given the self-centered and image-obsessed nature of the couple that Heart Eyes killed in the opening sequence, this suggests that Heart Eyes’ specifically targets superficial couples who seem to be in love. While they initially seemed set to kill Ally’s ex, the pᴀssion between Ally and Jay (in reality a fake kiss Ally initiates to make her ex feel jealous) convinces them to switch targets. That simple impulse is the entire reason the rest of the film takes place, explaining why Ally and Jay are targeted by the killers even when they don’t fit the M.O. of their typical victims.
Ally & Jay’s Relationship Explained
Ally And Jay Find Romance In Some Pretty Grisly Places
Ally and Jay go through a traditional rom-com arc in Heart Eyes, which provides the film with its emotional core and throughline. The movie goes through the motions of many rom-com tropes, such as the accidental meet-cute and unexpected conflict of interest. Initially, the pair seem to have an attraction for one another, but Ally’s defensive nature and Jay’s almost confrontational charms put one another on their back foot. This continues even as they try to escape Heart Eyes, with Jay mistaking Ally’s attempts to escape Heart Eyes as her abandoning him to her fate.
As the film progresses, Jay and Ally steadily open up to one another more. Their relationship takes a huge turn while they’re hiding at a drive-in movie theater, at which point both characters open up about their vulnerabilities. The two cement their relationship in the climax when they prove willing to fight and even kill to save one another. This leads to the final moments of the film, which confirm the Ally and Jay continue a happy romance together and even get engaged a year after the events of Heart Eyes.
What Heart Eyes’ Ending & Post-Credits Mean For A Sequel
Heart Eyes Pokes Fun At Horror Movies That Set Up Sequels
Initially, the mid-credits scene of Heart Eyes seems to set up a potential follow-up film. Someone calls Ally and speaks through a voice modifier, similar to how Heart Eyes reached out to her earlier in the climax of the film. However, this clear sequel tease is then up-ended with the reveal that it’s just a joke from Ally’s best friend Monica, who had been largely absent for the second act of the film. Monica is revealed to have been taking pictures of their engagement and teases her friend even after being hung up on.
Heart Eyes is the third horror comedy from director Josh Ruben, with his other films Scare Me and Werewolves Within also poking fun at the genre.
This gag suggests that there is no secret Heart Eyes killer left to target Ally and Jay. Throughout the entire film, Heart Eyes is a fun subversion of horror tropes and beats, with several gags poking fun at the ridiculous nature of the genre. The best gag poking fun at the typical slasher format is this fake-out in the post-credits, which takes a typical kind of horror movie sequel tease and turn it into another joke. This beat seems to indicate that there is no planned sequel for Heart Eyes being seeded in the film’s ending and post-credits scene.
The Real Meaning Of Heart Eyes
Love Might Be Scary, But It’s Worth Fighting (And Dying) For
Heart Eyes is having a lot of fun with its genre mashup, with the rom-com tropes bumping up surprisingly well against the darker slasher film surrounding them. Ally and Jay both ultimately learn the importance of opening up to someone else in a relationship, with their initial quirks and flaws giving way to more vulnerable and reliable people. Ally and Jay steadily fall in love over the course of the evening, proving willing to fight for one another against nearly impossible odds if it means staying together (and alive). This reflects the film’s views on romance.
Heart Eyes reinforces this theme by highlighting how so much romance can be a surface-level attraction or a shared pᴀssion that can curdle into something monstrous. The only relationship that’s focused on in Heart Eyes and indicated to be a healthy romance is the one that develops between Ally and Jay. Even then, their initial flirtations are shown to be extensions of their flaws. By opening up and being willing to be vulnerable with one another, Ally and Jay are able to come together and become strong enough to survive Heart Eyes.
