What to know:
- Over $400,000 has already been traded on Heart Eyes’ Rotten Tomatoes score market, with predictions ranging from 64.6 to 89.1.
- Valentine’s Day horror movies are a mixed bag with critics – Historically, horror films tied to the holiday have had inconsistent critical reception.
- Director Josh Ruben has a strong track record – His previous films, Werewolves Within and Scare Me, both received Certified Fresh scores (86 and 84 respectively).
Will Heart Eyes get critics falling in love with the movie or disappointed? It’s hard to tell with horror/thriller movies. They are often hit or miss.
Heart Eyes is being released in theaters on Feb. 7, 2025. Kalshi bettors are already betting over $400,000 on the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score market. So far, the highest predicted score was 89.1 and the lowest was 64.6
Interestingly, while the range is fairly wide, the bettors have been forecasting a Fresh score from the beginning when it was launched on Jan. 16, 2025. Before betting on Heart Eyes, let’s look into what it is about, how Valentine’s Day horror movies perform on Rotten Tomatoes, and early critical reception.
What is ‘Heart Eyes’?
Heart Eyes is a horror/thriller film directed by Josh Ruben and written by Christopher Landon, Phillip Murphy, and Michael Kennedy. This is a Valentine’s Day-themed film perfectly timed for the upcoming lovers’ holiday.
For the past several years, the “Heart Eyes Killer” has wreaked havoc on Valentine’s Day by stalking and murdering romantic couples. This Valentine’s Day, no couple is safe…
The film’s cast features Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Gigi Zumbado, Michaela Watkins, Devon Sawa, and Jordana Brewster. The film was shot in New Zealand last June and was acquired by Screen Gems for distribution in North America.
Critical reception of Valentine’s Day horror movies
There are hundreds of horror movies released every year. While there may be changes in what kind of horror movies are preferred, there is always an appetite for the genre.
Here is a collection of Valentine’s Day horror movies and their respective Rotten Tomatoes scores.
| Movie | Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Score |
| Midnight Peepshow (2022) | 86% |
| Cupid (2020) | N/A (3 Rotten Reviews) |
| Lonely Hearts (2019) | N/A |
| Valentine DayZ (2017) | N/A |
| Holidays (2016) | 50% |
| My Bloody Valentine (2009) | 62% |
| Valentine (2001) | 11% |
| My Bloody Valentine (1981) | 58% |
All of these movies were horror films released near Valentine’s Day or are directly about the holiday. Unfortunately, the data is a bit unclear in this case. Of the eight movies, three of them did not receive enough reviews to receive a Rotten Tomatoes score.
Of the ones that did, only two of the films are Fressh, and the other three are Rotten – this includes a rare and abysmal score of 11. The only thing we can take away from these reviews is that a love theme is not enough for critics to fall in love with a movie.
And more broadly, horror movies do not perform consistently with critics. There are critic darlings like the recent Nosferatu and The Substance, but there are hundreds more with worse scores.
We can also look at director Josh Ruben’s past critical reception. He’s only directed two other feature-length films – Werewolves Within (2021) and Scare Me (2020). The former has a score of 86 and the latter has an 84.
Both of these movies are horror films or have horror aspects and are Certified Fresh. This is a very strong indicator for Heart Eyes.
Early reviews of ‘Heart Eyes’
So far, Heart Eyes has 48 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and an impressive score of 90. Only five of the 48 reviews are Rotten.
Eleven Top Critics have already written reviews for this film and all but one are Fresh. Frank Scheck’s The Hollywood Reporter writes that the film was “there’s no shortage of inventive carnage on display, enough to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty gore hounds.”
But he also says the film was “too familiar to prove very interesting.” While IGN’s A. A. Dowd says the film is “a cute, but not especially clever, Scream gloss.”
HEART EYES knows exactly what it is, a solid B-horror movie that’s satirical and exposes so many of the old, tired clichés of the genre (from romantic comedies as well). Add some cheesy dialog, gore, & a few imaginative kills; it makes for an entertaining slasher that’s pure fun pic.twitter.com/rEKg2mrBy5
— Tony Mosello (@MoselloATC) January 31, 2025
While Heart Eyes may not be the greatest horror film ever made, it seems to have struck the right balance of satire, gore, and entertainment. Now the question is — will audiences fall for it just as critics have?
