Happy Death Day

Waking up after a bad night partying, Tree (Jessica Rothe) finds herself moving through her tough knit life in college only to end up dead. The problem here is that she is then caught in a time loop that sees her having to live the same day again and again until the culprit is found and it could prove more challenging than first thought.

 

Interweving plots from MEAN GIRLS, GROUNDHOG DAY and SCREAM, HAPPY DEATH DAY is an interesting premise but one made for the wrong audience. While there’s plenty of opportunity to ramp up the varieties of death and to which a classic 80’s-esque montage is accredited, the core focus of HAPPY DEATH DAY is Tree’s growth from a high school “biatch” to sensitive well natured student is bubblegum pop at its sweetest.

 

At it’s best, HAPPY DEATH DAY is a gripping inteligent thriller but at its worst, it’s nothing more than a SWEET SIXTEEN of horror movies, ditching any element of horror in favour for character development in MTV nature. While Jessica Rothe is perfectly cast in the lead, her dislikable character sees this progression from the outset and as she untangles the mystery of her murder, it’s hard not to be sided by the killer’s intentions and that righting your wrongs doesn’t necessarily erase them.

 

There’s also a number of sub plots that seem to deter from the true identity of the killer that feel even more far fetched than the idea of living in Groundhog Day and for that reason, HAPPY DEATH DAY feels like a wasted opportunity.

 

Chris Landon has had experience with the genre before, primarily reinventing the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise with THE MARKED ONES and SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE and while both are well humoured and have a teen market, both bring maintain their roots in the genre, HAPPY DEATH DAY walks too far from the track to save itself and while there are some touchng moments, the mushy centre of the film takes too much hold.

RATING



Plot: 2

Fear: 2

Gore: 2



R2/5​