What do you get when you mix Nora Ephron with Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers? The combination might seem antithetical, but it works scarily well in director Josh Ruben‘s sweet, funny, terrifying rom-com/slasher movie mash-up, “Heart Eyes.”
Working from an inventive script by Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy, Ruben somehow deftly satisfies fans of both “Sleepless in Seattle” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” An iconic new horror villain is born in the form of the movie’s Heart Eyes Killer, a slasher who stalks young lovers each Valentine’s Day.
Ruben, as he explained to IndieWire, wanted the movie’s two sides to be equally strong so that the horror would deepen the romance made all the more terrifying because of our investment in the two young lovers (Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding) fleeing from the Heart Eyes Killer. In studying films of both genres, he quickly realized that the common thread was the importance of music. “You look at a movie like John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween,’ and it’s wall-to-wall score,” Ruben told IndieWire. “Without the score, it would be something completely different.”
Ruben found something similar in the comedies he referenced while preparing “Heart Eyes.” “Then, you look at something like ‘Father of the Bride’ and see what Alan Silvestri brings to that, or what [Marc Shaiman] brings to ‘Sleepless in Seattle,’ and it’s always beautiful and orchestral,” he said. “It’s a bit sugary, but it never winks.”
Ruben wanted something heartfelt like Silvestri and Shaiman’s work that could slide into shrieking strings and assaultive percussion when necessary, hence his choice of composer, Jay Wadley. “I knew Jay could deliver something as romantic and vulnerable as Silvestri, but I also knew that having worked with M. Night Shyamalan, he could ratchet it into something horrifying.”
If Holt and Gooding provide the movie’s romantic heart, the terror and gore come courtesy of a slasher as immediately memorable as the “Friday the 13th” sequels’ Jason — an appropriate reference point given Ruben’s key influence on the movie as a whole. “Weirdly, it was ‘Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives,” Ruben said. “It’s got blue moonlight, it’s got falling leaves, it’s as dreadful as it is silly.” While Ruben didn’t want “Heart Eyes” to be silly, he did want to “lull the audience into complacency” with the Nora Ephron-esque elements before going in for the kill.
The killer himself started with the mask, which Ruben knew would be the greatest subject of scrutiny in the film. “The very minimal slasher description in the script was something to the effect of ‘a twisted version of the heart eyes emoji,’” Ruben said. “So then you go to legends like Tony Gardner and Bryan Christensen, who’ve worked on everything from Chuck Russell’s ‘The Blob’ to ‘Darkman’ and the ‘Chucky’ series and say, ‘What’s your take on the most twisted version of the heart eyes emoji?’”
Keeping Freddy Krueger in mind as an influence, Ruben wanted the Heart Eyes Killer’s mask to look like it was made in a workshop, with asymmetrical eyes and imperfect metallic rims that give the villain a slightly sad, puppy dog look without undermining the terror. “And then Chris Landon said, ‘What about age?’” Ruben said. “The more you can age this thing, the more terrifying it becomes because you look at it and go, ‘What the hell has that thing seen before? Where has it been?’ So we talked about oxidized blood and this Joker-like smear across the mouth, and that kind of put it over the edge for us.”
For the killer’s physicality, Ruben went back to his primary influence. “I told stuntman Alex McColl to watch ‘Jason Lives,’” he said. “I said, ‘Bring whatever you want to it, but you’ll get the idea.’” Ruben also told McColl to emulate Michael Myers’ classic head-cock at key moments, a tip of the hat not only to John Carpenter but all the other movies Ruben loves that were influenced by “Halloween” and its monster. “That simple, iconic head cock, everybody does it. Even in ‘Kiss the Girls,’ it was great.”
During the mixing process, Ruben also revisited his beloved “Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives” when it played on the big screen at a revival house, and he brought a couple of his collaborators along. “I took my editor and producer to see it, and they went, ‘Did you just rip everything in this movie off?’” Ruben laughed, acknowledging that “Heart Eyes” is not just a love story, but a love letter to all his favorite movies.
“Wes Craven is in my blood. I’m a ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ kid. I’m a ‘Jaws’ kid. But ‘Jason Lives’ was the one I kept going back to,” the filmmaker said.
“Heart Eyes” opens in theaters Friday, February 7.
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