Review of Happy Birthday to Me (1981) by Bill T — 03 Nov 2008

*spoilers ahead*.

As you can expect from a guy like J. Lee Thompson, Happy Birthday to Be is both suspenseful and visually dazzling. The murder scenes are more disturbing than they usually are in these movies, in part due to the fine acting on the part of the victims. They're not great in most of their scenes, but they all portray the fear and realization that they're doomed wonderfully (especially the bar-bell guy!).

However, there are some definite problems. For one thing, it's much too long for its own good. The ending is nicely atmospheric, but the various twists are kind of stupid. And by kind of stupid I mean ridiculously stupid. Argento might've pulled it off, since his films are mostly surreal and sometimes absurd, but here it just feels stupid and tacked on. The murder scenes also felt heavily cut, especially one near the end (where a character is hit once on the head, and suddenly the whole room is covered in blood!).

Still, thanks to an interesting story, good characterization, good acting, and great direction, this is a cut above the rest. If it hadn't been for the flawed script this might have been a classic of the slasher sub-genre.

Oh! And I really liked that ballad played during the end credits! One thing that all these filmed-in-Canada slashers have in common is great and beautiful music, along with a more mature atmosphere (See also Prom Night, Humongous, Curtains, and Black Christmas. Especially Curtains and Black Christmas!).