Movie Review
Review Happy Death Day
It was September 18, Monday, Tree's birthday. That day, a hungover Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) woke up in the dorm room of nerdy boy Carter (Israel Broussard). Later that night, she was attacked and murdered by a killer wearing a baby mask of their college mascot. Then she woke up again in Carter's room and relived the same day over only to die again at the hands of the same masked murderer. With each loop she goes through, Tree eliminates her suspects one by one until she thought she's got it all figured out.
Jessica Rothe as Tree Gelbman and Israel Broussard as Carter Davis are fantastic as the two leads. They have excellent chemistry and make us root for them. The likability of this whole film depended on the winsome portrayal of Tree by Jessica Rothe. There was something very charming about her mean girl whose cursed repeated reliving of her birthday (and death day) had humbled her down. Her bitchy Tree was played with tongue fully in cheek. With every day relived, she managed to project a different personality that kept the proceedings interesting. But in that sequence of her penultimate reincarnation, she was positively radiant.
Happy Death Day works best when it's conscious of its very own absurdity, when its unfortunate protagonist herself becomes so accustomed to dying, and when it's aware of its own limitations. It is adamantly a slasher flick, but one that upends its genre’s conventions by literally grounding its pleasures on the pains of repetition.
Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day is a murder mystery by way of the same conceit used by films like Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day (1993), Duncan Jones’ Source Code (2011) and Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow (2014). The film is helped by the fact that the conceit has been used so many times, it has become open to satire and parody.
Happy Death Day is one of the more fun slasher films I have seen in a long time. It's a movie that will appeal to many with its fun pace, decent comedy, intriguing mystery, and character that keeps you invested in their life.
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