HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U:
FUN SLASHER-COMEDY FOLLOW-UP LACKS A REASON TO EXIST!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
You know the phrase “Been there, done that”? That was my reaction while watching Happy Death Day 2U, the sequel to the 2017 slasher-comedy hit Happy Death Day which took the familiar slasher movie genre and added a comedic, Groundhog Day twist to it. When I saw the first movie back in 2017, I thought it was a fun and clever take on a premise that’s been done to death (no pun intended) and found myself laughing just as many times as getting chills…if not more.
The concept of having to relive the exact same day over and over again with a psychotic killer out to get you is a pretty terrifying idea. But the first film uses this premise to poke fun at various slasher movie tropes and bring arguably a more faithful slasher/horror movie spoof than anything the Wayans’ Brothers and Seltzerberg crapped out.
The comedic side helped the first Happy Death Day appeal to a wider audience outside of horror movie enthusiasts and was a big hit and the box-office. Naturally, a sequel was inevitable with Christopher Landon (Disturbia, Burning Palms, Paranormal Activity 2-5) returning as director, Jason Blum (Split/Glass, Get Out, Halloween (2018)) as producer and Jessica Rothe (Wolves, La La Land, Mary + Jane) reprising her role as Tree Gelbman.
On the surface this sounds like the most pointless thing you could make into a franchise, the first film ended with Tree realizing the killer was her roommate and “Kicked her crazy ass out a window” to her death which broke her time loop, what more can you do with it?
The answer: Borrow some elements from Back to the Future and add a sci-fi touch to it! Okay, a little out there but there could be some comedic and scary possibilities coming out of it.
So, how does Happy Death Day 2U hold up compared to its predecessor? It’s a sequel. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun sequel that delivers all the fiendish thrills and dark humor people enjoyed about the first movie with a Back to the Future edge this time, but at the cost of very few surprises and literal repeating.
Set immediately after the events of the first movie, university student Tree Gelbman has broken her time loop where she was stuck reliving the same day over and over again while a killer wearing a baby mask hunted her down on the night of her birthday, and started a relationship with her friend, Carter (Israel Broussard-Flipped, The Bling Ring, Fear the Walking Dead). She thought she was done with the loop, but suddenly her friend and Carter’s roommate, Ryan (Phi Vu) encounters the baby face killer and realizes she only passed the time loop over to someone else.
It turns out Ryan built a quantum reactor as his science project which turned out to be the cause for Tree’s loop two years ago and the campus blackouts in the previous movie. A terrified Ryan turns the machine on again in hopes to finally end the time loop only to send Tree back into the time loop that she just got out of.
However, things are a bit different this time, Carter is now in a relationship with Tree’s arch-rival, Danielle (Rachel Matthews), her roommate Lori (Ruby Modine-Shameless) who was the original killer is mysteriously brought back to life, and her deceased mother is alive. It turns out the reactor sent Tree not just in another time loop but another dimension as well where she lives the supposedly better version of her life.
But, there’s still a killer in a baby mask out to get her, so just like last time she has to die over and over again in order to figure out the identity of the new killer. All the while making the difficult decision between going back to her universe or staying in the dimension where her mother lives and her roommate isn’t trying to kill her.
The film also stars Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi, Homeland, God Friended Me) as Samar, Steve Zissis (Baghead, Cyrus, The Front Runner) as Dean Bronson, and Sarah Yarkin as Dre.
Overall, Happy Death Day 2U is a perfect example of a sequel trying to be “Bigger”, but that doesn’t necessarily mean better. It’s literally the exact same plot as the first movie just add a quantum reactor, an alternate dimension, more focus on comedy, and an undead mother.
For the most part, I think this is a decent follow-up, but when the movie is constantly reminding me about the events from the last movie, it felt like Christopher Landon was poking me in the head and saying “Hey remember this from the first movie? Here it is again!” I was also disappointed in the mystery aspect of the film, I thought the twist of Lori being the killer in the first movie was actually pretty shocking and the film acknowledges her reasoning behind it is ridiculous, well since she’s not the killer this time and it’s another dimension, we’ll have to get someone else to be the mastermind and guess what? It was another person on Tree’s suspect list from the last film except a more painfully obvious one that kills all suspense when the reveal happens.
When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was worried it would fall into the “Hangover: Part II Trap” where it’s a complete retread of the first movie but with minor changes made and minus any surprises. That’s not entirely the case with Happy Death Day 2U, at first you think it’s going to go that route when you see Tree waking up in Carter’s bed and all the things that occurred in the first movie are happening again, but it’s quickly abandoned to establish the alternate dimension and relationship with Tree’s parents which we didn’t get much of in the first film, and despite not being her actual parents you start to see what Tree’s relationship with her mother was like back when she was alive and it’s actually quite heartwarming.
The humor was very hit-or-miss to me, there were plenty of jokes and moments that got a huge laugh out of me especially during the montage of Tree constantly killing herself to reset the day in several crazy ways. However, I had a few groaners during my viewing of the film usually from a dumb response to something by one of the supporting characters, but it wasn’t to the point where I was annoyed.
Let’s talk about the best aspect of this movie, Jessica Rothe’s performance which was one of the things I praised about the first movie. She has this consistent energy throughout the entire film, she’s sassy and gives some witty lines, and she even sells the emotional moments extremely well, I was on her side from beginning to end and she could quite possibly be one of my favorite underrated young actresses working today, hopefully she’ll go places.
If you enjoyed the first Happy Death Day, you’ll probably enjoy Happy Death Day 2U, it delivers more of what you want to see, though it may not deliver as many twists the second time around. This is a fun sequel that doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor nor does it need to exist, but I’m glad it wasn’t a waste of time either, grab a slice of this slasher cake and chow down.
From the blog www.moviewatchinpsychopath.blogspot.com
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