Review of Happy Death Day (2017) by Wayne K — 23 Nov 2017

Possessing a surprising amount of wit, charm and even genuine emotion, Happy Death Day was a lot better than I was expecting. Knowing little about it aside from the title, I was expecting a pretty standard and predictable slasher flick featuring dopey students who fall victim to a combination of stupidity, clumsiness and raging hormones, leading to their messy demises.

But instead it's a character study which just happens to have a murder plot in it. Jessica Rothe starts off selfish and obnoxious and is forced to look long and hard at herself as she is put through the same day over and over again.

Yes, the premise is basically Groundhog Day meets Teen Slasher flick, or Edge Of Tomorrow on Campus, but it strives and succeeds to do new things with the formula, having the character grow and learn from their repetitive experience while also utilising it to solve a puzzle that has her trapped there in the first place.

It's pretty fascinating, and the film sells it brilliantly, and its very enjoyable to witness Rothe embracing her predicament and showing off a very quirky, irreverent sense of humour. What falls flat is, like in so many movies, the villain's motivation, which is thin at best and doesn't warrant what they put the protagonist through.

Also, it has the inevitable plot holes that pop up in any film that involves time travel, but those are hard to avoid and it's understandable why they're there. Overall, it's a very enjoyable movie with a great combination of horror and comedy, 2 ingredients which aren't usually mixed and should be done more often in the future.