Roses are red / Violets are blue / Heart Eyes is the new holiday slasher / At a theater near you

Whether it’s Halloween parties and trick or treating, Christmas magic or Valentine’s Day love, the holidays are a time for celebration and for people to enjoy the company of others. Oh, and murder. Lots of murder.

1974’s Black Christmas was one of the first memorable holiday slashers (and it spawned two remakes) with countless others in this subgenre following in its wake. Whether Halloween and its sequels or this year’s Heart Eyes, there are plenty of examples of holiday slashers to watch, as well as lessons for screenwriters to take away if they want to create a horror film with holiday elements.

Heart Eyes is a new holiday slasher about a masked serial killer who chooses couples on Valentine’s Day to murder in gruesome ways. The film focuses on two characters who meet in the most Rom-Com kind of way, and suddenly find themselves the obsession of the Heart Eyes Killer.

Let’s take a look at the who, what, where, why and when of this subgenre and how you can use these tropes and concepts to write a holiday slasher screenplay.

Who is the Killer?

It doesn’t matter if it takes place on a holiday or just any other time of the year, a slasher movie will share similar tropes and concepts. One in particular is the killer. It’s not enough to have some random weapon-wielding psychopath, there needs to be a reason they’re going on their killing spree.

Freddy Kreuger was getting back at teenagers’ parents who he felt did him wrong. My Bloody Valentine’s killer was wreaking havoc on the anniversary of the day he previously murdered 22 people, which just so happened to be Valentine’s Day.

The killer also needs a connection to the town and the people in which they’re stalking. They also need a new and creative way to commit their evil deed and a look that will scare anyone they encounter. In My Bloody Valentine they had a frightening gas mask and a pick axe and in Thanksgiving, the killer dons a John Carver mask and a pilgrim outfit – of course, Carver is the perfect serial killer name, and it works great with the theme of Thanksgiving as he was on the Mayflower and was the first governor of the Plymouth colony.

In Heart Eyes, the creepy villain has a mask with hearts for eyes and attacks his victims on Valentine’s Day. He shoots arrows (a la Cupid) and leaves the hearts of their victims on the ground inside a drawn heart. For this film, this isn’t the first year this killer has slashed up couples (this is mentioned after the 1st scene so no spoiler), which means lovers are avoiding going out so they don’t become the next victim. How the Heart Eyes Killer finds its victims is seemingly random, making the possibility of anyone being the next one even more frightening.

What Makes it a Holiday Slasher?

The obvious thing that makes a movie a holiday slasher is that it must take place around a holiday. The holiday subgenre is quite common in any number of genres. For comedies there was Garry Marshall’s three last films: Mother’s Day, New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, which followed an ensemble cast navigating their way around the celebrated holidays. Of course, there is the sci-fi action 90s blockbuster Independence Day about aliens eager to destroy the earth on summer holiday, and even the Rom-Com Lear Year that follows a hopeless romantic seeking to propose on Leap Day as Irish tradition has it, if you propose to your boyfriend on that day, they must accept.

But horror movies seem to have the edge when it comes to holiday slashers with Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day leading the pack.

Holiday movies need to have some association to that holiday. You could have Black Christmas take place any other time of the year – it’s about a serial killer targeting a college sorority, which has no Christmas elements. What makes it a holiday slasher is the idea that the girls are spending their Christmas Break on the college campus. This clears out the campus and makes them easier targets.

In Heart Eyes, the killer only attacks one day per year – Valentine’s Day. Heart Eyes does something new and fun for the holiday slasher genre; it takes a lot of romantic comedy tropes and uses them within the slasher subgenre, including meet cute moments, coincidences and romantic gestures.

Where Does it Take Place?

Slasher movies often take place in small towns, usually to keep the budgets low, where a handful of intriguing characters live. I Know What You Did Last Summer takes place in a small fishing community, Scream takes place in a small Northern California town, the original Halloween is located in a small Illinois suburb and even comedy/horror Hubie Halloween has its characters in Salem with its east coast, small town vibes.

One exception to the slasher-in-a-small-town rule was Scream VI which moved to New York City to help mix up its narrative. Heart Eyes also bucks the trend by taking place in Seattle. And yet, in a big city, the film seems small. There are relatively few characters and the locations make it feel like a Main Street community, similar to how a Hallmark movie would feel. Scream VI’s NYC location was designed to feel big, whereas Heart Eyes takes a big location and makes it feel more intimate.

Why are they Slashin’?

Rare is the slashing serial killer on a rampage for no reason, and often it will take a ride through the whole movie for the reason to be revealed. Most of the time it has to do with greed and injustice. The killer has good intentions but isn’t going about it the right way.

The Heart Eyes Killer definitely has something against love, but what is it? Despite the usual reasons, greed and injustice don’t seem to be it. But the motives behind the killer’s acts is something the screenwriter must determine early on and build the villain from there. There must be motivation behind the crimes even if the villain remains masked until the very end.

Image of Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt in 'Heart Eyes'.

When a holiday slasher should take place

“When” is the crucial component of a holiday slasher, because it takes place around a particular time of the year. In My Bloody Valentine, they kill on Valentine’s Day because that’s when the original misdeed occurred. Same with Thanksgiving, which takes place days before the holiday a year after a greedy big box store owner opened their store on Thanksgiving Night and caused a mob of customers clamoring for a free waffle iron.

It’s a Wonderful Knife follows a woman who killed a serial killer on Christmas Eve who wishes she made a different decision. She then sees what life would be like if she never took out the town’s killer. Christmas is a popular holiday to set horror movies like these because there are a lot of seasonal tropes to play off of and it goes in contrast with the warm and cozy vibes of the season.

Valentine’s Day is another popular slashing time of the year because screenwriters can play on the broken heart and revenge aspects of the holiday. Heart Eyes obviously plays on this as it takes place around Valentine’s Day as well as uses the tagline “romance is dead.”

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The holiday slasher is a popular subgenre that can inspire screenwriters to use any number of holidays in creative ways. Beyond the creepy masks, innovative death scenes and screaming characters, there needs to be a story that audiences can get behind or else they won’t be invested in what’s happening in the movie. Heart Eyes is intriguing because of its two lead characters and how they navigate their feelings for one another as they’re being chased by a serial killer. The characters aren’t even a couple, but the Heart Eyes Killer sees the potential, which makes them the target.