TFS Movie Review: Happy Death Day | Byeeeeeee!
Universal Studios
As a child born in the mid 80s and raised in the 90s, I miss the campy scary movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. The kind of scary that made me jump and hide behind my sweater, yet still was just a fun movie to watch. Nothing like those purely gore films that have been coming out lately that just aims to see who can have the bloodiest scene ever.
And after making this complaint for as long as Sidney Prescott has been running from the Ghostface killer, Happy Death Day finally gave me what I wanted as a Friday the 13th treat.
The premise is simple. Resident sorority mean girl Tree wakes up on her birthday and goes about her mean girl way only to end up killed at the end of the night. But in a Bill Murray Groundhog Day twist, she wakes up only to relive that day and her murder over and over again. And with each new restart, she tries to find out who her killer is and what she can do differently so she can stop them to see another day.
I absolutely loved this movie. Jessica Rothe, who plays Tree, gave life to the perfect stereotype of a mean sorority girl that everyone imagines. And as she lives out her day, you start to think who doesn’t want to kill her and would even put yourself on the suspect list at some point. But during her “Death Day,” Tree eventually becomes a decent human being and you’re left rooting for her to find the killer and see the next day.
As far as the horror part of the film, the scary bits are really just when you know she’s about to get killed again. Each time, the killer has a crafty new way to murder Tree. But overall, the humor throughout the movie made me at least keep one eye open during the whole movie.
Honestly, I have no complaints. This movie was just plain refreshing and FUN. I would definitely watch this again and would add to a classic movie list for Halloween time watching — hopefully tomorrow.
TFS Rating: A