Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt star in the new horror rom-com Heart Eyes, and if you think you read that mix of genres wrong, you did not. Gooding credits horror franchise Scream, which he’s been a part of since 2022, for making a film like Heart Eyes possible. He also gave an update on Neve Campbell’s highly anticipated return.
Scream 7 has had a lot of casting shake-ups with Jenna Ortega’s departure and Melissa Barrera’s firing. Original star Matthew Lillard will return. But the biggest news to delight the fandom is that Campbell will return after a salary dispute kept her from appearing in Scream VI. The latest installment will be directed by Kevin Williamson.
“You hit the nail on the head with Neve Campbell coming back,” Gooding told Yahoo Entertainment when asked how he felt about casting shake-ups. “That’s always the thing at the forefront of my mind, considering how I grew up with her work. Not just in Scream, but The Craft as well. I think it’s also incredibly meaningful to me to know that Kevin [Williamson] is at the helm, considering not only his relationship to Wes [Craven], but to Neve, as the creator of [her character] Sydney.”
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Craven, who died in 2015, directed the first four Scream films. Williamson wrote the original, and Scream 7 is the first movie he’s directed since Teaching Mrs. Tingle in 1999.
“Watching them collaborate is a dream come true in a lot of ways,” Gooding, son of Cuba Gooding Jr., said. “It’s nice that from the foundational groundwork they laid in 1996, we have movies like Heart Eyes that can push genre norms and create tropes within the guidelines that Scream originated, which in and of itself was satirical and calling out tropes and dynamics of slasher films that had kind of gotten to a specific point in the ’90s. I owe it to them, and I’m grateful for them in more ways than I can count.”
Heart Eyes is about a serial killer who murders couples on Valentine’s Day. Gooding and Holt play co-workers who are accidentally targeted by the “Heart Eyes Killer” when they appear to be on a date. The killer isn’t entirely wrong as the two clearly have chemistry.
Gooding is loving his time in the horror genre and said he could make these films “for the rest of my life.”
“I think horror just has some of the best fans,” he said. “I think if you were to round up all genre fans in a room, horror fans are coming out on top in this Squid Game, battle royale of genres. I just feel like the fan base is so dedicated and committed to the lifeblood and heart of the genre that it makes it so exciting to be a part of any installment in any facet. It’s nice that Heart Eyes gets to reach several different other genres, but the fact that it stays true to the horror roots, is really exciting for me.”
Heart Eyes is in theaters now.
