Happy Death Day

When I saw the trailer for this movie I admit I rolled my eyes and groaned that they were trotting out the circular time gimmick again. It was of course classic in Groundhog Day, but never seemed to click since then. I was dubious, but after seeing it with my own eyes, I can say I had a great time. I'm not sure if Blum House intended it to be funny, but it had a lot of humor in it, enough I would say to qualify it as a dark comedy. The cast was superb and while it didn't offer anything groundbreaking in terms of murders/deaths, I didn't mind because the story was so well connected and it really had me guessing right up until the end. Another litmus test for the quality of this movie is that the audience was rather quiet during the presentation. I've been to enough of these films to know that when you get a young audience seated in the dark and the film is a snooze, they'll start to talk and whisper and just annoy the Hell out of you. This movie managed to hold the attention of the entire audience and in this day and age I must say, that is an achievement in and of itself. I wasn't prepared to enjoy Happy Death Day as much as I did, but even I can admit when I was wrong. It worked from start to finish. I wasn't aware that Scott Lobdell wrote the script, but when I saw his name in the credits, I realized another reason I enjoyed it. I am familiar with his writing in the comic book industry and he is one of the more notable scribes. It's good to see the skills transfer.

I saw a pre-screening of Happy Death Day and let me tell you, it was one of the most fun theater experiences I've had. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously, which is definitely for the best. If anyone walks into a movie about a sorority girl living the same day over and over and being killed over and over and expects it to be some genre-defying horror perfection, that's on them.

However, that doesn't mean this is a bad movie by any means. Jessica Rothe as Tree Gelbman and Israel Broussard as Carter Davis are fantastic as the two leads. They have excellent chemistry and make us root for them. Rothe's character wasn't the typical horror movie sorority girl, either. She was cunning and badass. She made us believe she could actually figure this mess out. If you don't change your mind on who the killer is at least twice throughout the film, you aren't paying attention.

There are curveballs thrown left and right, which made my theater gasp and yell numerous times. You think the movie is about to end on at least two different occasions. The script is smart, there's horror, there's comedy, there's drama. Happy Death Day takes you in numerous directions, while also making sure you have fun along the way. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite campy horror flicks out there. It even pokes fun at Groundhog Day, which it very clearly took some inspiration from. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys horror; again, it doesn't redefine the genre and there are definitely an abundance of clichés. With that, though, there are still a handful of clever moments I certainly was not expecting.

Jessica Rothe is amusingly pithy and savvy playing a selfish college beauty, a spoiled sorority sister who rules the school until she is stabbed and killed on her way to a surprise birthday party by a masked lunatic. But fate plays this campus cutie an unusual hand once she discovers she's living her birthday over and over again, each time attempting to cheat death but always running into her attacker. Screenwriter Scott Lobdell isn't trying to sneak a slasher variant of "Groundhog Day" passed us--he's upfront about the similarities, even exalts in them, while toying with all the possibilities such a scenario can offer. It takes Rothe three tries to fully comprehend what's happening to her; once she formulates a plan (creating a suspect list), Lobdell mixes things up, so that the movie rarely feels repetitive. Our heroine, snarky to start, follows Bill Murray's example and becomes a better person on her twisted journey (reestablishing contact with her father, apologizing to her roommate, even causing her own demise on one occasion to prevent the cute nerd from the boys' dorm from losing his life). Director Christopher B. Landon deserves credit for delivering a modern-day thriller with lots of action but no gore and no nudity. If it isn't quite a family-friendly slasher flick, it certainly is a squirrelly, sassy one, with some big laughs counterbalancing the suspense. Good show! *** from ****

Jessica Rothe shines through in this tongue in cheek horror. It's a film that doesn't take itself too seriously, the characters, means of death, and outlandish humour move it into the horror comedy genre.

I loved the reference to Groundhog Day at the end of the film, I would imagine there was some sort of in joke there, and of course any film that involves the loop storyline will have reference to the great Bill Murray film.

There were some great twists and turns, the best one coming at the end. This was very enjoyable. 7/10

Don't watch it if you are in for a gory slasher, but if you like a bit of suspense with (teenage) humor, you're in the right place. Watched this movie with a smile on my face, but I was still interested int he mysterious side of the movie.