Year of Release: 2017
Director: Christopher Landon
Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Charles Aitken, Laura Clifton, Jason Bayle, Rachel Matthews, Phi Vu, Tenea Intriago, Ramsey Anderson, Jimmy Gonzales
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
Watch it on Amazon Prime
Synopsis and Review
Christopher Landon who has had a prolific career as a writer, started his feature directorial career with "Burning Palms" in 2010, and has consistently been directing low to mid level budgeted films that have become quite successful (a lot of them in association with Jason Blum's "Blumhouse Productions"). "Happy Death Day" follows the story of Tree Gelbman, who wakes up in the dorm room of Carter Davis, a classmate of hers, after an evening of what appears to be hard partying. It's her birthday, she hardly remembers Carter, and she rapidly leaves, in the direction of her sorority house. Her roommate Spengler gives her a celebratory cupcake, which she dismisses. She's late for class, where she meets her married professor, Gregory. They're having a fling, much to the suspicion of his trusting wife. That evening on her way to a party, Tree is murdered by a figure wearing a mask. She immediately wakes up, once again on Carter's bed, and relives her day much like what had just happened. However she avoids the tunnel and does reach the party. Her illusion of safety is shattered, when the killer traces her location and once again kills her. Once again she wakes up in Carter's bed, and she realizes she's repeating her birthday over and over again. She eventually explains to Carter what is happening, and he suggests that she takes advantage of the loop to figure out who is the killer.
Harold Ramis' modern classic "Groundhog Day" has created its own sub genre in the comedy domain. "Happy Death Day" takes the premise of the time loop and places it squarely in the slasher genre, creating an interesting variation of the original theme, mixing elements of comedy with elements of the horror genre. This time around the perpetual victim has an opportunity to uncover who is her killer, in the process getting to learn more about herself, and what got her in that predicament to begin with. Sadly though, whereas in Harold Ramis' film we got to learn more about Phil Connors/Bill Murray as the narrative progressed, in this feature Christopher Landon doesn't give us much in terms of who Tree actually is, aside from eventually providing a reconciliation scene with her father, whom she alienated after her mother's death (also, apparently screenwriters don't even try to come up with credible people's names anymore, I'm expecting Petal, Bush, and Leaf to soon make their way into unfortunate characters' names). "Happy Death Day" manages to hold the audience's attention since it has two great things going for it: firstly, the creative team has realized this is nothing but a slick B-movie, and secondly, they've smartly held off any pretension at bay, peppered the feature with a few influences ranging from Michael Lehmann's "Heathers" to Mark Waters' "Mean Girls", and didn't take anything very seriously. This somewhat unpretentious approach works in the film's favor, and also allows for the performers to inhabit these rather undeveloped characters with some charm. Jessica Rothe does a good job inhabiting the lead character, and has solid support from Israel Broussard and Rachel Matthews. The production team is competent, including Bear McCreary's score, Toby Oliver's cinematography, and Cece De Stefano's production design. It's a watchable and mildly entertaining feature.
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