Happy Death Day (2017) Review

"I'm not sleeping in my car again.  It smells like Hot Pockets and feet."
-Ryan Phan



It's Tree Gelbman's (Jessica Rothe) birthday, but it's no cause for celebration.  At the end of the day, Tree ends up getting murdered by a masked killer only to wake up at the start of her birthday again.  Forced to live the same day over and over again, Tree has no choice but to try and figure out who her killer is and stop them before the repeated deaths take too much of a toll on her body for her to come back again.


What Works:

I love the premise for this movie.  It's Groundhog Day meets Scream.  That's an awesome combination and it works very well.  I'm shocked this movie was ever made.  The humor is great and the whodunnit elements are very well done.  This premise allowed the filmmakers to get very creative with their storytelling and they executed on this very well.

Tree has a great character arc.  At the start of the film, she is extremely unlikable.  Almost everyone on campus has a reason to kill her, but over the course of the film she starts to change and become a better person.  It's a believable arc and it becomes especially poignant when Tree meets up with her father (Jason Bayle).  They share an emotional moment over the death of Tree's mother and it adds a lot to her character.  This, coupled with Jessica Rothe's charismatic performance, makes Tree a likable character by the second half of the film and gives us someone to root for.

I'm glad this movie references Groundhog Day.  The plots are too similar to ignore.  And the film addresses it in the best way possible by having a character bring up the movie to Tree, but she has never even heard of it.

The cinematography is also very cool.  I love the twisting camera movements during some of the chase scenes.  It makes the world of Happy Death Day feels even more unnatural than it already is.


What Sucks:

The only complaint I have with this film is the kills themselves.  While some of them are creative, most of them aren't super memorable and they all lack gore.  It's a slasher movie, give us some awesome kills!  I get that this is a PG-13 movie and the producers want to make more money, but I don't have to like it.


Verdict:

Even with the lack of gore, I love Happy Death Day.  It strikes the perfect balance of comedy and mystery with a great premise, solid acting, especially from Jessica Rothe, an engaging story, and solid cinematography.  Without a doubt, this movie has got it going on.

 9/10: Great 



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