Josh Ruben’s Heart Eyes melds the slasher and romance in ways that are designed to be disruptive and overtly eye-catching. It wants to give the viewer a giddy, breathless time at the movies without fussing too much about stray tangents of the serial killer’s other victims. Only one murder gets dispensed in the prologue right away, so that the film can then swerve into its central, hastily developed love story between two heartbroken people, one turned cynical and distant and the other still desperately idealistic and hopeful in love returning.

The V-Day slasher is the driving engine of the film. Can the lovers be safe while a maniacal killer is on the loose, targeting them as the sorry victims? The motivations take forever to skid in but serial killer dramas don’t really demand it as a constant prerequisite. Yet the writing doesn’t favour the film to...