Happy Death Day

image source

In Happy Death Day, a woman named Tree must relive the same day over and over Groundhog Day-style to find out who has been killing her on her birthday. When I saw the trailer for this movie, I thought it looked intriguing. I was a little worried when I found the director of this movie was the same guy who directed Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension and Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Fortunately, this was actually really fun movie. The main character starts out pretty unlikable, but she does grow and go through an arc. Honestly, I think 2017 has been a pretty solid year for slashers between this, Cult of Chucky, and The Babysitter. All of them have really offered something different for the genre. Of the three, this one was probably my favorite. I love the idea of a slasher where the same victim dies over and over. This movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, and has a genuinely good sense of humor. Lead actress Jessica Rothe is fantastic. The woman certainly pulls off the growth her character has to go through, and actually has pretty solid comedic timing. As much as I honestly did enjoy this movie, it isn’t perfect, by any means. The ending reveal of the killer’s identity is something you can see coming from a mile off. To be fair, the red herring that the movie adds actually does work pretty well. The biggest disappointment I have with the movie is that it is PG-13. It doesn’t make the movie bad; I just wished there could have been more gore involved. Overall, Happy Death Day was a movie that had its flaws, but was a really Halloween watch nonetheless.

8 / 10