Happy Death Day Review

Before I say anything, I just have to mention that the Universal Studios logo animation at the beginning of the movie was genius (you have to see it to get what I’m talking about). Anyway…

Happy Death Day is about a girl who notices she’s living the same day over and over again after a mysterious killer murders her. Now she has to use her unlimited lives to try to find out who the killer is so that she can finally live to the next day.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. This sounds similar to other movies, like Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow, that use the same “live, die, repeat” mechanic. I actually think it's a cool idea but Happy Death Day doesn’t really do anything new with it. It follows the same formula you’d come to expect with the first few days having the main character confused and asking people to believe the situation she's in, which then leads to the classic montage, and finally the resolution.

What I can say, however, is that I actually really enjoyed this film. Even though it was very cliche in how its plot progressed, its light hearted tone really made what could have been a bland story more enjoyable. The film is self aware enough to know it’s not doing anything new, so it ends up taking the tongue and cheek route by poking fun at itself and its characters. I think this was a great way to make the story feel less stale, seeing as we've seen this type of thing before.

However, I have to give props to the lead protagonist, brilliantly played by Jessica Rothe, because she really carried this movie. Her performance was entertaining to watch mainly because she actually had a personality and development throughout the story that most murder victims in these kinds of slasher films don’t normally have. Roth’s character was charming, energetic and even had some mystery to her regarding her past. This is a small note, but I liked how the movie explained her backstory too because it was in a way that wasn’t blatantly expository, a flaw that plagues lots of films nowadays. She’s honestly what makes the movie somewhat memorable due to the otherwise banal plot.

On the other hand, every other character is very one note and stereotypical. This made it kind of boring to guess who the killer was since lots of the other characters weren’t developed enough to show much of a motive for murder. You never find out anything new about anyone that we don’t already know from the first day. I never had a "oh sh** maybe its this guy" moment, which was kind of sad for this type of story.

When it comes to the scenes with the killer, most of the sequences were well directed and thrilling to watch, but never really got me as scared as I think they could have. Most of the scenes start with weak jump scares that are usually easy to see coming, so the movie kind of fails in the horror department. It’s PG-13 so don't expect much anyway, especially because of the lack of any real gore. Like I mentioned before, as to guessing who the killer was, there were honestly no real clues to pick up on during the film. The reveal at the end was pretty unsatisfying and when you look back at the movie makes no sense.

Overall, this was an enjoyable little movie, but still disposable enough that you don’t really ever have to rush out and watch it. But if you do see it, it's the type of movie you get a bunch of friends to go see to get into the Halloween spirit. If you have any thoughts on Happy Death Day, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

The Verdict: 6.5