Warning: Minor SPOILERS for Heart Eyes.Recent slasher Heart Eyes has been compared to a number of movies since its release, but it sadly makes little use of its most intriguing tie to the Scream franchise. Largely because of Heart Eyes’ ending, the movie has been ᴀssociated more with Scream than with practically any other horror film. This connection is only strengthened by the presence of the recent Scream trilogy’s Mason Gooding as a major character in Heart Eyes’ cast.
The Scream comparisons certainly make sense, even though Heart Eyes’ Jason Voorhees inspirations are much more readily visible in the killer’s design. But there isn’t much talk about what Heart Eyes takes from Scream 2. There’s one particularly notable connection between the two movies that seems as if it should receive some recognition, but perhaps part of the reason it largely goes unmentioned is that the movie itself fails to make much use of one plot point that could have contributed greatly to the film’s tension.
Heart Eyes And Scream 2 Both Involve The Killer’s Mask Being Merchandised
The Release Of Stab Was Crucial To Scream 2’s Opening Scene
The opening of Scream 2 focuses on the release of Stab, an in-universe adaptation of the first film’s events, and it’s established that the universe is so macabre that fans are actually celebrating Ghostface’s fame by attending the premiere in costume. Stab‘s merchandising is directly responsible for Ghostface getting away with the sequel’s first murder, but it also plays a big role in the franchise overall. Not only do subsequent films continue referencing the Stab movies, but a handful of Ghostface killers in the Scream franchise tie their motives to Stab‘s success.
Heart Eyes establishes that the Heart Eyes Killer has achieved similar fame, despite lacking a movie adaptation. Abby is jump-scared by a prankster in a HEK mask in her first scene, and a featured extra during the drive-in sequence mistakes the real HEK for a costumed fan. The movie never actually addresses how many witnesses have survived HEK’s attacks for the mask to have become this popular, but the Heart Eyes Killer’s mask design is admittedly incredible enough that it’s believable somebody would want one. Unfortunately, this also leads to a missed opportunity.
Heart Eyes Could Have Used Fake HEK Masks To Build More Tension
The Drive-In Scene Provided The Perfect Opportunity
It’s odd that anyone at the drive-in would’ve thought it ordinary to wear horror cosplay at a showing of His Girl Friday. But since at least one person did, this raises the question of why there wasn’t significantly more of that. Having more people in HEK masks could have significantly raised the tension of the scene in the same fashion as Scream 2‘s opening. And since the audience wouldn’t necessarily know which is the real killer without Heart Eyes’ night vision lighting up his mask, the tension would potentially be even greater.
The likeliest explanation for why this route wasn’t taken is simply that the filmmakers couldn’t justify it with the drive-in screening a rom-com, but that wasn’t necessary for the film to maintain its Valentine’s Day theme. Paramount not only played a role in the international distribution of Heart Eyes, but also solely distributed 1981’s My Bloody Valentine. That doesn’t actually mean getting the rights to the film would have been a cakewalk, but it definitely could have improved the scene in a major way by giving the drive-in’s audience more reason to arrive in properly threatening attire.
