Happy Death Day 2U (2019) Review

"I died eleven times."

-Tree Gelbman

The morning after the events of the previous film, Carter's (Israel Broussard) roommate, Ryan (Phi Vu), is killed by someone wearing a baby-face mask, only to wake up at the start of the day again.  Carter and Tree (Jessica Rothe) agree to help Ryan stop the killer only to discover the source of the time loops.  Tree quickly finds herself back at the start of her birthday all over again and has to find a way to stop the killer, who may not be the same person as last time, save her friends, and fix the time loop once and for all.

What Works:

Happy Death Day 2U dials the slasher elements back and focuses more on sci-fi.  This is a time-travel, dimension hopping film.  It feels the the plot of an episode of Rick and Morty at times.  I love that this movie doesn't just do the same thing all over again.  They jump headfirst into a new genre, which is something I would love to see more oftenin the slasher genre.  I'm totally on board with the direction this series has taken and I really hope they do a third film.

Jessica Rothe is 100% the best part of these movies and will be a legend of the genre.  She's hilarious, relatable, and likable the entire film.  But what really surprised me is how emotional and dramatic her story gets and we get some really powerful scenes.  These emotional character moments were extremely well done and some of my favorite scenes in the film.

Though we don't get a ton of gore, the kills are more creative this time around and we get some truly iconic and occasionally hilarious deaths, with my favorite happening during a skydiving trip.  While this film definitely has less slasher moments than the film, the stuff that is there works very well.

Finally, I really appreciate how intelligent the characters are.  They make decisions that the audience would make,  When they get the opportunity to unmask the killer, they do so without hesitation.  We actually find out who the killer is pretty early in the film, which was extremely refreshing.  This movie proves you can make a slasher movie with intelligent characters.

What Sucks:

The script could have definitely used a few rewrites.  This movie has a lot going on in it.  There are a large amount of elements for the filmmakers to juggle and they don't execute with perfection.  There are a few plot-holes with the time loop stuff.  The film never makes it clear why Tree has to die for the day to reset.  During a montage of Tree repeatedly killing herself, I was trying to figure out why she had to die so elaborately when she could have kept it simple and stayed focused on fixing the time loop.

The 3rd act motive revelation for the killer was also a bit rushed.  It made enough sense, but I could have used a few more lines to really clarify why they were doing what they were doing.  Basically another draft or two of the script would have worked wonders in fixing the loose ends.

Verdict:

Happy Death Day 2U isn't quite as good as the first movie due to some weak writing, but the film is still a lot of fun with some interesting deaths, an exciting jump to a new genre, intelligent characters, and an fantastic and surprisingly dramatic performance from Jessica Rothe.  Without a doubt, this movie has got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good