From the producer of Paranormal Activity and Get out, Jason Blum reintroduces a familiar horror themed thriller in Happy Death Day.
The movie follows Tree Gelbman (Jessica Roth), an entitled and self-centered college student, highly resemblant of Mean Girls, Regina George persona. Tree wakes up hung over in student Carter’s (Israel Broussard) dorm on her birthday to a hip-hop ringtone, the soundtrack of the movie and also the beginning of the movie’s Groundhog Day motif.
Tree makes her way out of the dorm giving a global warming activist the cold shoulder, passing by a jock questioning why she never texted back, almost getting caught hooking up with a partnered young professor, all leading to the moment where she’s attacked by a deranged stranger in a hoodie wearing cheeky doll mask expecting a surprise birthday party. In a short episode of struggle, the killer stabs and kills her, but instead of dying Tree wakes up on the same exact day to the same ringtone.
The main character then goes through the journey of living through a time loop to find her killer with the help of Carter, picking up pieces of evidence to reveal the masked villain, and living day by day until she finds herself as person. The mission and search adds more inclusion to the traditional slasher movie, while still incorporating plenty of gore and jump scares. Although this thriller shows little to no originality to the discerning horror critic, it is a sure box office hit for the younger, more commercial crowd. In addition, the cast of characters aren’t too bad as well; while obviously looking the part, Rothe also impeccably showcase’s her character’s moral development, and Carter and Tree work as perfect counterparts and foils to each other. Christopher Landon also takes a less serious tone to the film, not only is it self-aware by making direct references to other similar movies, but it also injects the right amount of dark comedic relief from the premise throughout the end. In context, Happy Death Day delivers in every piece of its framework, with little controversy nor outstanding praise.
Happy Death Day comes out today in theaters.
