Review of Happy Death Day (2017) by Jon C — 13 Oct 2017

Once more the time loop scenario gets mixed in with something unexpected.

First it was 'Groundhog Day' as a comedy, then 'Edge of Tomorrow' as an action-sci-fi, later it was 'Before I Fall' as a dramatic young adult story now it's traditional slasher meets all of them.

'Happy Death Day' actually manages to be a lot of fun having the usual horror tropes being poked at while also utilizing this living-the-same-day over concept as a funny gag.

It's very funny in a lot of spots for something so familiar.

This time we focus on a college girl, Tree who wakes up from partying the previous night in a guy's dorm room; she goes about her business showing us how messed up her life is from being part of a sorority to neglecting her roommate to ignoring her father to having an affair with a married professor....all on her birthday of all things.

She believes it's a waste of energy with people gathering around to celebrate mediocrity just because someone gets older.

Then later that night she meets a grisly end from a killer in a baby face mask only to wake up the following morning like it never happened.

The cycle repeats itself and from then on we know how this whole thing plays out, she is stuck in this loop until she can fix a few things of her own not to mention finding out who the killer is, the only downside is that every time she gets killed whether being stabbed or blown up her body gets weaker meaning her biological clock is literally getting worn out.

Director Christopher Landon sets this film apart from others by making it so much fun with its plot we've seen countless times, having Tree do the craziest actions in each loop, and producing a few laughs in the process, he also pulls off a hell of a twist at the end, too.

If nothing else in the movie is doing anything for anyone it's Jessica Rothe's performance that makes it, I really found her to be the best thing in this because she actually grows as a character.

Even when she tries to get help from her male co-star Carter he helps her change as a result of this scenario she can't escape, maybe she was a terrible person and didn't notice because of so much going on; maybe living the same day over again makes you see who you really are and every day is a chance to be something different, something better.

A good movie, not great although it's still so much of a good time to be scared and made fun of with two genres meshing with one another that you wouldn't expect it to work.

What's scarier than celebrating your birthday with its counterpart by having to die over and over again.