31 Days to Scare ~ Happy Death Day
The Facts:
Synopsis: A college student relives the day of her murder with both its unexceptional details and terrifying end until she discovers her killer’s identity.
Stars: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews, Charles Aitken
Director: Christopher Landon
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 96 minutes
Trailer Review: Here
TMMM Score: (2/10)
Review: This movie stinks!
31 Days to Scare ~ Happy Death Day
The Facts:
Synopsis: A college student relives the day of her murder with both its unexceptional details and terrifying end until she discovers her killer’s identity.
Stars: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews, Charles Aitken
Director: Christopher Landon
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 96 minutes
Trailer Review: Here
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review: This is a new classic!
31 Days to Scare ~ Happy Death Day
The Facts:
Synopsis: A college student relives the day of her murder with both its unexceptional details and terrifying end until she discovers her killer’s identity.
Stars: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews, Charles Aitken
Director: Christopher Landon
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 96 minutes
Trailer Review: Here
TMMM Score: (6/10)
Review: I’ll probably get put into some movie critic jail (with a suspended sentence) for giving a marginal thumbs up to Happy Death Day…but this is one of the far more harmless offerings in the increasingly profitable low-impact horror genre. It’s aimed squarely at the sleepover crowd, teen-ish tweens that like their scares bloodless and more than a tad bitchy. In that respect, the movie delivers in spades but hardcore horror fans looking for the rebirth of the masked-killer slasher film are bound to leave the theater ready to slice and dice the filmmakers.
With a premise so much stolen from Groundhog Day that a character actually references it late into proceedings, there’s a certain goodwill charm to Happy Death Day that kept me from rolling my eyes so hard I fell out of my seat. Tree (Jessica Rothe, La La Land, who possesses a great scream but poor line readings) is a bratty college co-ed who wakes up from a night of partying in the dorm room of an underclassman (Israel Broussard, The Bling Ring) so clueless he boasts of folding her clothes and is disappointed she doesn’t remember his name. As she takes the walk of shame back to her sorority house she wanders through the quad barely noticing car alarms going off, a lip-locked couple getting soaked by sprinklers, or a tired pledge fainting from a frat hazing. She also bumps into a random admirer and runs into her queen bee sorority frenemy (a hilarious Rachel Matthews) before crash landing on her bed, much to the wonderment of her timid roomie (Ruby Modine) ready to present Tree with her birthday cupcake
As Tree’s day goes on, we come to see she’s having an affair with her married teacher and avoiding her dad who wants to take her out for her birthday. None of that really matters, though, because later that evening when she’s on her way to another frat party she’s chased down and killed by someone wearing a mask depicting the school mascot. And then she wakes up in the same dorm room to live it all over again and subsequently dies at the hands of the baby-faced killer. And then she wakes up again…and again…and again…each time resulting in her death. Pretty soon she’s making use of her multiple lives and crossing possible suspects off her list, a sequence set to music that gives the film an unusually welcome comic diversion. Every time she comes back, though, the effects of her ‘deaths’ start to show so it’s a race against seemingly endless time to find out who wants her dead and why. The mystery isn’t quite as simple to solve as you may think; there are enough red herrings to feed a small village and the final solution (or is it solutions?) goes down easy.
Though it tries to join the ranks of college-set slasher films like Happy Birthday to Me and The House on Sorority Row, the problem I had with the movie is likely the exact reason it may do some decent business this upcoming Friday the 13th weekend, it’s just not scary enough is totally risk averse. While competently made by director Christopher Landon (Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse) from a fitfully interesting script by Scott Lobdell (X-Men: Days of Future Past), I got the impression it was intended to be bloodier (there’s almost no blood at all in the film) but was toned down to cash in on a particular target audience. Originally titled Half to Death (what?), I wouldn’t be shocked to see an uncut version of Happy Death Day pop up on BluRay but at the end of the day this feels like a watered down Long Island Ice Tea…there’s a faint taste of booze but not enough to have much effect.
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