Happy Death Day

photo courtesy of fanfest.com

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

     Blumhouse Productions (Split, Get Out) looks to keep up its 2017 hot streak with Happy Death Day, a horror take on the Groundhog Day premise. The movie follows Theresa “Tree” Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) who finds herself reliving the day of her murder—which is also her birthday—over and over again. It’s up to Theresa, along with an unlikely friend, Carter (Israel Broussard), to discern the identity of her killer and save her life for good. 

     Happy Death Day is a guilty pleasure kind of movie experience—one you know isn’t particularly good for you, but you watch anyways. It’s not an ambitious movie; it has a silly premise and a noticeably low budget. But for some mindless jump scares or a fun time at the theaters, it’ll sure do.

photo courtesy of nerdist.com

     The movie succeeds, primarily, by way of two things: that silly premise I just mentioned, and an antagonist costume design worthy of the horror hall of fame. Happy Death Day’s trailers are pretty good at communicating just what to expect, so an audience member who’s been paying attention should know what they’re getting into. It’s Groundhog Day, but with more murder and sorority girls. The movie never explains (never makes an effort to explain, for that matter) why Tree is reliving this day instead of simply dying, or why after a while her murder-acquired injuries begin to accumulate even after she begins the day anew. But that’s not the point—the point is to accept the ridiculous concept behind the movie and sit back and enjoy the ride.

     As to that second point, the antagonist’s costume design, let me just say this: this is an average to below-average horror flick, but the killer’s costume belongs to a much, much better movie. Like Jason’s mask or Ghostface (the latter was created by the same designer, Tony Gardner), Happy Death Day’s baby mask could easily be iconic. It takes borderline-scary sequences and ratchets the creepy up by a factor of ten. It doesn’t matter if it’s full-screen or slowly emerging from the darkness in the background; it’s just unsettling to look at, no two ways about it.

photo courtesy of dreadcentral.com

     Story-wise, Happy Death Day doesn’t bring anything especially groundbreaking to the table, but it knows how to deliver on audience expectations with respectable payoffs. It packs in a few (somewhat predictable) twists, gives the characters plenty of real moments, and almost has a really, really interesting ending. In other words, there are things to appreciate, even if it’s not going to revolutionize the horror movie genre as we know it.

     A list of nitpicks: a cheesy moral message, the love interest being admired because he meets the most basic requirements for not being a scumbag, occasional poor acting, an obnoxious protagonist (everybody can be a good person if you have like thirty chances in a row!), and a few bouts of laughably bad sound design. It is what it is.

     FINAL VERDICT: Happy Death Day has enough new ideas to make it an entertaining slasher flick and not much else. 

Watch the trailer here. 

photo courtesy of nydailynews.com