Review of Happy Death Day 2U (2019) by The3Academysins — 30 Oct 2019

Happy Death Day 2U is such an interesting follow up to the original Happy Death Day. In some regards, it improves vastly on the premise of the original film. Shifting the genre from horror/comedy to sci-fi/comedy is such an incredibly strong writing choice that only elevates the movie. There are some excellent character developments and world expansions in the script, and the script itself is quite witty. There are thought provoking parallels to absurdism, and without giving too much away, even the title of this movie, Happy Death Day 2U is a cleverly disguised plot reveal.

Jessica Rothe triumphantly returns to the character of Tree Gelbard, and she's only gotten better since the first movie. The whole rest of the cast also reprises their roles, and you can tell there was a lot of passion that went into making this sequel. For the most part, the passion pays off. Where Happy Death Day 2U falls short is in its technical execution and meandering second third of the movie.

Very noticeably, it seems like the production quality of HDD2U has dropped considerably. The lighting isn't as good. The CGI is more noticeable, the fake CGI blood just looks bad and is somewhat over indulgent. The camera work is cookie-cutter and uninteresting. The score is just noise. As far as the storytelling, about halfway through the second act, and halfway through the third act, up until right before the climax, nothing happens. You can skip this entire 20 minutes of screen time and not miss anything. All in all, while not as good as the first film, this sequel provides enough fresh twists to at least be somewhat memorable.