Happy Death Day is a 2017 American slasher film directed by Christopher B. Landon, written by Scott Lobdell and starring Jessica Rothe and Israel Broussard. The film was produced by Jason Blum through his Blumhouse Productions banner. It follows a college student who is murdered on her birthday and begins reliving the day over and over again; at that point, she sets out to find the killer and stop her death.
The film was released on October 13, 2017, by Universal Pictures. It has grossed $39 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews, with critics deeming the film entertaining while acknowledging the familiar premise, as well as praising Rothe's performance and describing it as Groundhog Day meets Scream.
Theresa "Tree" Gelbman wakes up on her birthday on Monday, September 18th in the dorm room of classmate Carter Davis after a drunken romp the previous evening. Tree goes through the day being self-centred, dismissive and condescending to her fellow classmates and previous hook-ups, ignoring her father's invite to a restaurant, throwing away a birthday cupcake given to her by her roommate Lori, and having an affair with her professor Gregory Butler. That night, while going to a party, Tree is lured into a tunnel where she is murdered by a hooded figure wearing a mask of the campus mascot.
Tree wakes up the next morning back in Carter's bed with the previous day's events repeating. Unnerved, she relives the day and avoids the tunnel, instead returning to her sorority house for a surprise party. However, while hooking up with her classmate Nick, the masked killer murders him before killing Tree once more. Tree realizes she's in a time loop and tries to avoid her death by barricading herself in her room. However she is murdered again when the killer hides in her bathroom.
During the next loop, she relays her story to Carter, who suggests that she take advantage of the loop in order to figure out who her killer is. She spends the next loops trailing several suspected classmates, all of which end in her murder as she is stalking her current suspect.
On the next loop after being bludgeoned by a baseball bat from her previous death, Tree passes out shortly after waking up. She awakens in the hospital where she learns she has retained damage from her other murders and is growing weaker. Tree escapes the hospital room only to be chased by her killer until she manages to flee in her car. While driving, she is pulled over by a police officer and volunteers to be arrested in order to be spared. However the killer runs down the officer and sets her car on fire, burning Tree to death and sending her through another loop.
Waking up in Carter's bed again, Tree convinces Carter of her predicament by showing that she holds knowledge of the day's events. Tree admits to Carter she doesn't like who she's become; she's also grown distant from her father ever since her mother passed away three years ago and that they had shared the same birthday. Tree catches a local news report on John Tombs, a serial killer who is being held in the hospital on her campus. Concluding that Tombs is her killer, Tree rushes to the hospital to warn of his escape. Tombs breaks free and is about to kill Tree but is saved by Carter. Unfortunately, Carter has his neck snapped by Tombs before he chases Tree to the bell tower where she manages to subdue him with a crowbar. Realizing that Carter will remain dead if she doesn't restart the loop, Tree hangs herself from the tower.
During the next loop, Tree goes around righting the various wrongs she has caused, ending her affair with Dr. Butler, finally meeting with her dad to resolve her inner grief, and resolving to be a kinder person. That night, she prepares to stop Tombs. He manages to get the upper hand on her until Tree utilizes a campus-wide blackout that occurs during her loops to ambush him and shoot him to death. Relieved to finally be free, she celebrates her birthday in Carter's room and eats the cupcake given to her by Lori.
However, the next morning Tree wakes up again on her birthday. Confused and distraught over the fact that killing Tombs didn't stop the time loops, Tree returns to her room in order to run away, where Lori offers the cupcake again. Tree realizes that she had died in her sleep, and also notes that this was the only time she had ever eaten the cupcake. Tree realizes Lori is the true killer; Lori had poisoned the cupcake, but when Tree didn't eat it, she utilized her job in the hospital to frame Tombs for Tree's murder. Lori confesses she was jealous that Dr. Butler had shown interest in Tree over her before the two fight. Tree manages to stuff the cupcake into Lori's mouth before kicking her out the window, sending her falling to her death.
Tree and Carter muse over the day's events back in the restaurant, and he offers her his room for the night, also commenting her situation is a lot like the film Groundhog Day. Tree wakes up the next day believing to be in another loop, however it turns out to be a prank by Carter and the two share a kiss.
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So after an amazing afternoon/evening with amazing friends, I decided to go see the movie Happy Death Day.... please do not judge me too harshly. Actually, I thought the movie would be campy, and, well... kind of bad. But I had hoped for bad in a fun way.
I admit, I was wrong. Not about it being fun, because it was, but about it being bad. Was it amazing cinema? Nope! But did it have the right balance of comedy and slasher movie to make it a really entertaining Halloween treat? Yes, yes it did. It also offers a good cast of potential suspects so it is not completely predictable.
Happy Death Day sets up an unlikeable character, who as the movie progresses, actually gets more relatable. By the end of the movie I was actually looking forward to her winning (I admit I love slasher movies, and I usually root for the killer since the main characters irritate me).
Do you have to see it on the big screen? No, but I do think it is definitely worth a matinee price, especially if you are looking for a fun seasonal movie.
And... I would actually see this again, if any of my friends want to go- let me know!
by
James McCoy
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