Review of Happy Birthday to Me (1981) by Jesse M — 15 Mar 2008

Also known as "death by kebab", this movie was great for a burbon and popcorn night, where you can sit around, talk your mind about the movie and laugh at the silliness of it overall. Some things are confusing at first, the acting is incredibly bad and some scenes just make you laugh out loud. Yes it's outdated and Cliched and mostly nonsensical until the horrible soapy ending but it's also inventive and funny at it's poor ways to kill someone.

You can't care much for the characters.

Aside from the main character, you don't and can't know much about any of them. None of them are really given back stories that make you care but this is slasher territory so that's forgiveable.

The directing tells the story albeit confusingly so. Not everything is really explained, leaving me to just scratch my head trying to grasp what the point of a few scenes were.

Most of it lazy as well, reverting to a typical horror scenario where lightening flashes at the climax of the film. or in this case, Anti-climax.

The writing is nonsensical. The killer strangles a victim in her own car as she goes to drive away.

As she is pulled slowly back into the back seat, she has time to reach the horn and signal a passing girl.

But she doesn't.

Argue she's trying to breathe but i'm gonna argue she at least has enough brain cells to use her foot, which can easily reach the horn.

Not much logic is there?

The twists in this movie just make it more sillier as the movie goes on but again, that's ok because you might be too confused by events that occurred mid-way in the film.

So really, should I applaud it and say it's a slasher that makes you use your brain or should I criticize the stupidity of it's characters?

Nevertheless, it's a silly slasher film because it's incoherent, it drags and one too many soapy twists occur.

Still, it has a few inventive deaths that are all silly and are enjoyable for this fact alone.

It's trash...but in the company of friends and alcohol, it's FUN forgettable trash.