Happy Death Day (2017) Review!!!

Synopsis – A college student must relive the day of her murder over and over again, in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer’s identity.

My Take – Live. Die. Repeat! This was set to be the original title of the impressive science fiction actioner Edge of Tomorrow (2014), which used the concept of forcing the protagonist to live through the same day again and again, a concept popularized by the success of the 1993 Billy Murray film Groundhog Day, but here writer Scott Lobdell uses just this three words to create a 96 minute film around it. While other filmmakers have gone on apply their own spin on the same concept, like the melodramatic yet enjoyable Before I Fall from earlier this year, the sub-genre seemed to have been running out of its certain fresh approach, that is of course until writer Scott Lobdell and director Christopher Landon, known for the spinoff Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, swooped in with a creative gimmick of setting the premise in a horror/slasher film. To be clear, yes, despite its seemingly familiar plot, the film successfully manages to be a hell of a lot of fun! With best part being, the film’s acceptance of being cliché ridden to a beautiful campy fault. This is a film for the fans of Scream series (like myself) and other earlier generation Slasher films, are just going to love, all thanks to its creepiness, tongue-in-cheek humor and a certain self-awareness. The story follows Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe), a stereotypically snobbish mean sorority girl, who is a real bitch to everyone who crosses her path. She is brash to her ex Tim (Caleb Spillyards), dismissive to her roommate, Lori (Ruby Modine), even less polite to the rest of her sorority housemates, including the equally ungracious Danielle (Rachel Matthews), all the while having an affair with her much married professor, Dr. Gregory (Charles Aitken) and avoiding calls from her father (Jason Bayle).

With no idea about what’s in store for her, Tree wakes up on the morning of her birthday, after a night of hard partying, in the dorm room of the resident sweet guy Carter (Israel Broussard) and rockets from his room as fast as she can and goes about her day. However, on her way to a party that night, she runs into a hooded person wearing the baby face mask of the school’s mascot, who ends up chasing her down and killing her. The problem is, Tree doesn’t die, but instead wakes up again in Carter’s dorm room, only to relive the same day and be killed again and again. Seeking the help of Carter, Tree decides to use every means possible to figure out the identity and motive of the person behind the mask and put a stop to this endless loop. I couldn’t believe how charmed I was by this film. I didn’t plan on going to see this, it was a very spur of the moment thing and walking out of the theatre I was blown away. This sure isn’t the best film I’ve seen this year but it’s the biggest film-going surprise of the year for me. In the film’s very first seconds, the Universal musical theme starts, and restarts, and restarts again, a clever ode and sing of things to come. The plot of the film may seem nothing special to younger audiences, but it is a real homage to those that remember the classic Slashers from the ’70s and ’80s. That said, it is meant to be fun and if you pay attention, you will see all the tributes to the past. For example, the knife stabbing through the film mimics the same as seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic Psycho. Other than the living the same day plot point, the film centers around the mystery of who Tree’s killer is. The film throws a bunch of obvious red herrings at you right off the bat and I was glad they took it a less obvious direction. Being a veteran horror film director, director Christopher Landon succeeds in showing off his skill of dropping settle hints right in front of the viewers alongside with a surprising twist in the end. Shots of settle hints are shown since the beginning of the film, providing the audience an opportunity to try and solve the murder before the ultimate reveal of the killer’s identity on screen. A typical college campus setting, anyone could be the suspect, thus Tree makes a list of possible suspects alongside with the audience who are creating their own lists, and debunks every single possibility until there is no more suspects and making the murderer almost as someone who possesses superpower, but yet with a sole purpose of killing Tree. But in the end, everything makes perfect sense. At the beginning, the journey hits the first couple of familiar notes but when Tree starts to realize what’s happening, that’s when the film shifts gears. They aren’t afraid to play with Tree’s tragic end day after day and the film functions for whole periods as a straight comedy. Luckily, this film is really funny when it wants to be. The writers know enough to play with certain genre clichés and there’s a surprising amount of tongue-in-cheek humor here. Most of the humor stems from Tree knowing exactly what is going to happen each cycle, much to bewilderment of her surrounding characters. Also at a certain point, Tree lands in the hospital, and the doctor examining her concludes “Technically you should be dead”!

The concept, even though it is not new, is refreshing to see it being applied to a teen horror film. Watching the same thing over and over again, but with all previous knowledge intact, it was fascinating to witness Tree learn and grow as a character. In the beginning she is this mean and terrible person who is the biggest jerk to everyone, but by the end of the film, she more than softens up because of all the things she has experienced, changing her worldview. Sure, there is cheesy moments were she goes all out in night gear and night vision on trying to track down everyone on her suspicious list of people. Even, moments were she does not care and takes advantage of the whole situation when she knows she can do anything because the day will end with her death and it will all be repeated. Catching Tree in a time loop, writer Lobdell gives the shiny Slash shocks sharp, underlying psychological terror, as each time she is murdered, leads to Tree getting increasingly raw fears that she will never escape the loop. Along with slicing up over a dozen, weapons- grade final girl battles, writer Lobdell takes an excellent stab at Horror-Comedy, that shines in each attempt Tree makes to survive the day, from Tree walking round the campus care-free and naked, to the headache Tree gets of having to re-live a deadly morning routine. Most slasher films fail in terms of a gripping character to follow the journey with, in order to provide fodder for our demented killer. Surprisingly, Tree has depth hidden within her superficial looks and sorority attitude. Seeing her character evolve over the film changed my attitudes towards her, especially as her sorrows began to emerge onto the field. And even more impressive is how balanced her multiple aspects were balanced into the story, to maintain the development that was so nicely done. All the characters are very entertaining and it felt like watching a film based off the game of Clue as Tree deducts who is the one that has been killing her. One character I particularly liked was Carter, the schoolmate of whose room Tree wakes up in. Their romance was something I could cling on and by default, the heart of the film. Backed by a jumpy score from Bear McCreary and a great mask designed by Ghostface creator Tony Gardner, director Landon gets into the Slasher groove with ultra-stylized tracking shots following Tree and the psycho, and overlapping slow motion eyeing the wear and tear Tree experiences in the loop. One drawback to the film is that it’s not particularly scary. It has a few jump scares and, despite them being the cheap way out, I think it could’ve done with a few more. I only say this because it would give the audience more of what they come to a film like this expecting. That said, this isn’t really that kind of horror film. This is the kind that relies more on the suspense and the mysteries of a whodunit, the kind that skirts the line between horror and thriller, and it pulls this off well. Also what bothered me the most was the “twist” that comes up in the final reel; I understand why they felt to throw that in there, but I didn’t buy it and it comes at a point where the film feels like it’s over. Ironically, I wish there had been a little more running time put to showing her finding herself in her repeat-times, or a little more discovery of her being horrible to people (she kind of realizes it at the 2/3rd’s mark, it works but not as well as if it had come just a few scenes earlier). But it’s this twist that screams of being a studio note. Coming to the performances, following her small role in La La Land, Jessica Rothe gets her first starring role here & puts in a stellar performance. As an attractive lead she handles the hero’s journey amazingly well, with subtle shifts in the beginning that lead to the bigger personality changes. In supporting roles, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews and Charles Aitken are also good. On the whole, ‘Happy Death Day’ is a slickly made fun slasher flick that is sometimes creepy & other times very funny.