"Happy Death Day" - Film Review
Time-loop movies are especially difficult to pull off. Groundhog Day is the most recognizable and beloved film in this sub-genre. A time loop usually has one character who is stuck reliving the same day over and over again. Done poorly, this repetition can start to feel tedious as the film resets for the umpteenth time. When done well, the repetition can be a fount of comedy or a means to force a character to self-reflect. In a slasher time loop movie, that also means new and different ways for the protagonist to meet their demise.
Such is the case with Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day. Tree (Jessica Rothe) is stuck in a time loop that causes her to live her birthday over and over again. Things begin oddly when she wakes up in fellow college student Carter’s (Israel Broussard) dorm room, confused and hungover. The rest of the day is fairly normal, filled with sorority meetings, classes, and a lunch date with her dad. In the evening, she takes a shortcut across campus on her way to a party and is murdered by someone wearing a bizarre, baby-face mask. The next thing Tree knows, she’s waking up every day reliving the same events and trying to figure out who’s killing her.
Happy Death Day works because Rothe is a charismatic lead, invoking the scream queen performances of yesteryear. Most of the other characters are far more secondary, so the burden falls on Rothe to bring life to a grounding role. As the lead, Tree needs to be intriguing enough for the audience to put up with the repetitive nature of the genre, but also pliable enough to allow her character to grow. Her relationship with Carter is particularly interesting because it has to both progress over the course of one day for Carter (who forgets everything as the day resets) and vary for Tree over the many different versions of the one day she lives through. Their relationship must be both a blank slate and feel as though the needle has moved forward at the end of each repeated day. Broussard and Rothe are able to sell it completely from the first time Tree wakes up confused in Carter’s bed.
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On paper, Happy Death Day seems like it should be a simple slasher movie, one that is immediately forgotten when the theatre lights come on. However, Scott Lobdell’s script elevates this film into something unexpectedly entertaining. Tree’s growth from self-centered mean girl to a person who is aware of how her actions impact the people around her is the sort of journey that doesn’t usually mix with the slasher genre. Unexpectedly, the use of the time loop elevates Tree’s growth as a person by giving a clarity to her actions that wouldn’t have been possible in a simple linear plot. For those who enjoy seeing the varied and elaborate ways people can die in slasher movies, the time loop offers a different one each time (also helping with the repetition). In a further blend of genres, Happy Death Day feels like a teen romantic comedy from the ‘80s and a murder mystery with enough clues to make it possible for those paying careful attention to figure out who the killer is.
Happy Death Day is a blast, a pure delight. It perfectly straddles the lines between comedy, horror, and romance, somehow juggling all of these genres to create a breezy romp of a movie. It’s a well-deserved addition to the time loop genre.
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