‘Happy Death Day’ Review

Happy Death Day

Happy Death Day is a horror film produced by Jason Blum through his Blumhouse Productions banner. The film stars Jessica Rothe as Theresa “Tree” Gelbman, a college student who is murdered on her birthday. Tree relives the day over and over again and eventually decides to find out who the killer is so she can stop her death. Happy Death Day is essentially Groundhog Day with a slasher element. The writers were able to craft a unique story from this premise and it turned out well enough. In addition, the film doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is great because absurd things occur and viewers are just expected to roll with it. A good example of this is the mascot of Tree’s school, Bayfield University, which is a baby. I’m pretty sure the writers chose this just so the killer could wear a creepy baby mask! Jessica Rothe does a decent job as Tree and is believable in her role as a stuck-up sorority girl. The viewers can tell Tree has been damaged by some unknown event, but the film does a good job building up to the reveal of what happened in her past. The other actors did well enough in their roles, but they were pretty much background characters throughout the film. Israel Broussard, who plays Carter Davis, gets more screen time than any of the other background characters due to the fact that he plays a major part in the events of Tree’s repeating day. The director does a good job adjusting the angle of filming during each day to give viewers a different take as the repeated events unfold. There is a point in the film where the writers begin to introduce a very interesting element about the effects of the time loop on Tree, but it is then quickly pushed to the side. If this element were developed more, then it would have made for a great change of pace in the film. The film also has some redundant situations that I felt were unnecessary to the plot. Redundancy in a film about a time loop is necessary, but I felt that they could have explored more situations pertaining to Tree instead of what they used. Lastly, the film does not do a good job at hiding who the killer is. If you pay attention you can figure out who did it by the third time she relives her day. They try to throw in some red herrings and other things to throw you off, but it doesn’t work because they explain one key thing about the killer’s motives early in the film that negates the other possible killers. I give Happy Death Day a Decent 7.5/10. Hopefully, Blumhouse continues to pump out these horror gems.

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