6/10
Starring
Jessica Rothe
Israel Broussard
Directed by Christopher Landon
Happy Death Day is
a Groundhog Day-style movie, and its focus is on a girl who’s kind of an
ass and, honestly, deserves every bad thing that happens to her. I like how the
movie doesn’t make the time loop stop the moment she decides to be good. It
only ends when she figures out who’s behind her deaths and stops them.
The movie drags
for a while before it gets to the point where she finally starts using her head
to solve the problem. That long stretch could have had me nodding off if I
wasn’t so curious to find out who was behind the whole mess.
The movie gives
off a cheap thrill vibe, so you’ll have to bear with that while watching. You
can tell from some of the acting and the setting that this wasn’t a huge
financial investment from major studios.
The plot starts
with our lead, Theresa (or Tree), waking up in the dorm room of her classmate
after what we assume was a night of drunken fun. The guy, Carter, seems like a
nice, goofy-looking guy who helps her out, but she dashes out of his room,
considering the night a big mistake. On her way back to her dorm and throughout
the day, we get to see the kind of person she really is.
When she gets to
her room, her roommate makes her a cupcake for her birthday. Instead of
appreciating it, Tree tosses it in the trash. We also learn she’s having an
affair with a married professor for good grades. The day we’re witnessing is
her birthday, and her sorority sisters have organized a party for her.
On her way to
the party, she’s lured into a tunnel and murdered—only to wake up back in
Carter’s dorm room. She thinks the whole incident was a dream or something and
goes through the day again, doing pretty much the same things, only to get
murdered again.
Waking up in
Carter’s room a second time makes her realize something’s up. She starts to
feel like this is some kind of déjà vu. After dying a few more times, she
realizes she has to do something about it. She soon learns that every death
takes a toll on her health.
The movie was a
huge financial success and even spawned a sequel, Happy
Death Day 2U, which continues Tree’s story. This movie is average, but
you’ll enjoy it if time loops are your thing and you can handle watching a girl
waste time for half the movie before things finally get good.
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