written by Juan Ayala
I think the most accurate description of Happy Death Day is “Groundhog Day meets Scream”.
After a night of drunken partying, Tree (Jessica Rothe)
wakes up in the dorm room of a fellow college student, Carter (Israel
Broussard), whose name she doesn’t remember. After some rude remarks and she
goes through her day, we learn that Tree isn’t a very nice person. She insults
and blows off Tim, a seemingly nice guy she went on a single date with, and when
her roommate finds out it’s her birthday, which Tree has tried to keep a
secret, she is more upset and annoyed about it than grateful. Tree heads to class,
taught by a handsome British professor and we find out that he is having an
affair with her. The two are nearly caught when professor Butler’s wife
interrupts Tree’s steamy visit to Butler’s office. Later that night, Tree is
stalked on her way to a party by a knife-wielding baby face-masked psychopath,
who chases her down and fatally stabs her.
Tree wakes up back in the dorm room thinking she just had a bad
dream. Her entire day plays out the same way and she brushes the coincidences
off as déjà vu. On her way to the party, she takes a different route and walks
in to her surprise party. When she goes upstairs to hookup with a guy, the
masked ‘Baby Face’ shows up and kills Tree again. Tree is once again awoken in
Carter’s dorm room and starts to panic and she’s reliving the same day over again
and always ends up getting killed.
I’ll avoid redundancies: Carter tells Tree to try and figure
out who it is that’s killing her before they actually do it and maybe she’ll be
able to stop the ‘time loop’. We learn a lot about Tree during all of this,
including that she and her late mother share the same birthday, and she keeps
it a secret in order to avoid celebrating a day she used to share with her
mother. She reunites with her father, who she’s blown off in every ‘day’ we
see, and comes to terms with her mother’s death.
I won’t give away the ending as I really want everyone to
see this movie! It isn’t overtly graphic as some horror movies tend to be
nowadays and there are plenty of laughs along with the rather whacky premise. I
think it’s safe to say that Jessica Rothe is this generation’s Scream Queen.
From the b*tchy attitude, her sarcastic remarks and her emotional, terrified
performances throughout, Rothe is outstanding. A character you started off
really not liking, you end up rooting for by the end of the movie. Rothe’s
co-star, Israel Broussard,, is charming and loveable in his performance as the
nice guy who got lucky, Carter. He grows to care for a girl he just met and he
isn’t the typical jock or jerk-turn-love interest we usually see.
The cast is rounded out by Rachel Matthews as Tree’s
sorority sister Danielle, Ruby Modine as Tree’s roommate Lori, Caleb Spillyards
as Tim, Tree’s hunky but clingy one night stander, Charles Aitken as professor
Gregory Butler and Phi Vu as Carter’s roommate Ryan. Happy Death Day was written and directed by Christopher Landon who
also wrote Paranormal Activity 2, 3, 4 and
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
as well as Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
and Viral. The film was also
produced by Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, who also produced some of the
most recent horror hits including Get
Out, Split, The Purge: Election Year and Hush.
Happy Death Day is
now in theatres! Catch it while you can, folks. This is a must-see for all
classic horror fans: a slasher film with laughs and a great twist.
Did you see Happy Death Day? What did you think? Let's talk! leave your thoughts in the comments below!