Happy Death Day Blu-ray Review
Summary: When college student Tree keeps being murdered and awakening again on the same day, she must work out who wants to kill her and stop them before her final, final end.
4.3
Groundhog Day meets Scream
Produced by Jason Blum (Split, Get Out, Whiplash), written by Scot Lobdell (various Marvel Comic titles), directed by Christopher B Landon (many Paranormal Activity movies), staring Jessica Rothe (La La Land).
Spitfire college student Theresa/Tree (Rothe) wakes up in the dorm room of Carter (Israel Broussard) with a massive hangover and an attitude to match. We follow her through her day, demonstrating she has a great deal of emotional baggage tied to the birthday she is studiously ignoring. Her day culminates in her murder, by a figure wearing a baby face mask and wielding a knife.
Spitfire college student Theresa/Tree (Rothe) wakes up in the dorm room of Carter (Israel Broussard) with a massive hangover and an attitude to match and the beginnings of a feeling that she has experienced this day before. Events from the previous day leap out at her, and she reaches the late evening with the sense that events are beginning to spiral out of control. Her day culminates in her murder, by a figure wearing a baby face mask and wielding a knife.
Spitfire college student Theresa/Tree (Rothe) wakes up in the dorm room of Carter (Israel Broussard) with a massive hangover and an attitude to match, which is quickly subsumed by a rising panic that her life is slipping from her grasp. She watches the events of the day around her unfold in rising horror, as people and conversations she has experienced before come back to her again and again. And of course, her day culminates in her murder, by a figure wearing a baby face mask and wielding a knife.
Spitfire college student Theresa/Tree (Rothe) wakes up in the dorm room of Carter (Israel Broussard) with a massive hangover and an attitude to match and begins to realise she is trapped in some sort of loop condemning her to relive the same day over and over and over, culminating in either her brutal murder at the hands of a figure wearing a baby face mask, or some other death linked to her investigation of what exactly is going on.
Two parts Groundhog Day and one part Scream, Happy Death Day is a really entertaining horror mystery movie with a twist we’ve all seen before in similar movies, but done with a great deal of heart and affection. Rothe standouts as she transforms her character’s spitefulness into a determination to find out who is killing her, and allowing us to see her true character beneath the damage wrought by her mother’s death three years before.
The direction by Landon is very good, moving from an initially calm set up, before descending into panicked visuals and editing to simulate Tree’s deteriorating mental state as she attempts to get to grips with her predicament. Lobdell’s script does nothing particularly new here, but is clever enough to allow the viewer to be drawn into the mystery of who is killing Tree, while relying heavily on the tropes of Groundhog Day.
Special mention should go to composer Bear McCreary, whose atonal score helps develop a tense atmosphere. His musical cue for the killer, a rising shriek, is deeply unsettling, and helps lift the visuals and tension to another level.
There are a lot of teen related horror movies out there in the market place. Most of them are gore for the sake of gore, and tend to leave the characterisation at the door while the viewer revels in the blood and guts flying across the screen. Happy Death Day allows us an insight into our lead character that is often rare in the genre today. Rothe is one to watch, as is this entertaining movie.
Extras: An alternate ending that was rightly canned is contained in the extras, as are a number of deleted scenes that were reworked better in the final edit of the movie. Otherwise, there are short bits that look at the potential suspects and examine the many deaths Tree experiences over the course of the film.
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