Heart Eyes 2: Josh Ruben’s Valentine’s Day Slasher Returning for Blood-Soaked Sequel
Imbuing the most romantic day of the year with hack and slash horror energy, the Heart Eyes franchise co-created by Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day) and directed by Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within) is just getting started.
If you think about it, the horror sub-genre of slasher movies centered around the most romantic day of the year is surprisingly small.
The amount of films that show up to the doorstep with flowers, chocolates, and a blood-soaked weapon—like My Bloody Valentine and Cupid—can pretty much be counted on one hand.
Filmmaker Josh Ruben (Scare Me, Werewolves Within) is looking to change all that with a sequel to his gory Valentine's Day offering, Heart Eyes, which made quite a splash (of viscera) when it hit theaters last year.
Co-written by Happy Death Day mastermind Christopher Landon, the film follows a pair of advertising professionals (played by Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding), who find themselves mistaken for young lovers by the Heart Eyes Killer, a masked maniac obsessed with tearing couples apart—quite literally.
“With Heart Eyes, I was excited to return to the horror movies I love—Freddy, Jason, Get Out—to give audiences the theatrical fun and jump scares we love,” Ruben said in the official production notes. “It’s the story of two people who are ostensibly not meant for each other, who trauma bond while being chased by a slasher through the streets of Seattle.”
The first movie, which holds a fresh 78 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, grossed $33 million worldwide against an $18 million budget.
Is Heart Eyes getting a sequel?
Yes! Per Dread Central, a sequel script is already in place, with Ruben returning to direct.
"You could replicate the structure of any great rom-com, from His Girl Friday to Defending Your Life, and you could drop Heart Eyes into the center of that story, and have him flash and slash about," the filmmaker told Variety in February 2025. "That’s what’s exciting about this: There’s an opportunity that we could have whoever the filmmaker was—certainly, I’d be interested—genuinely trying to create or replicate that rom-com, or the feeling of a Bridget Jones or Love Actually or what have you, but actually have those people terrified by this psychopathic killer."
He went on to add that the concept has the "potential for a long life," and there's nothing Hollywood studios love more than a long-running horror franchise made on a modest budget.
"Then the trick becomes: How can we balance all of the fun new toys and gore with a story about two people falling in love, or even on the outs, that you actually care about emotionally?" Ruben explained. "That’s the real success of this film. If it’s landing with anyone, it’s landing because these two have chemistry, and really the whole ensemble does. That’s going to be the trick. If you don’t have that, I think you’re dead in the water."
Heart Eyes is currently streaming on Netflix.
