(spoiler free)
From the director of ‘Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse’ comes the latest Halloween slasher, ‘Happy Death Day’. The film follows college student, Theresa or Tree, as she is murdered on her birthday. Instead of passing to the afterlife though she returns to live this same day over and over again. Not knowing what else to do she attempts to solve her own murder by unmasking her mystery killer!
Although this narrative might sound a little familiar in more ways than one this ‘Groundhog Day’ & ‘Scream’ mash up makes up for it’s unoriginality by successfully blending these two concepts. It takes the good from both of these films fusing them together for the sake of audience entertainment, giving it a strangely authentic feel despite borrowing from other genres. It gets away with this due to the enormous amount of fun it all is. The murder mystery element is really enjoyable and it’s a cool concept that the victim can attempt to work out their own killer. It’s a well executed premise helped along massively by the cast of relative unknowns. All of these young performers really help to sell the concept and contribute to the boisterous atmosphere present throughout the movie.
One of my biggest worries was that the film would quickly become monotonous. This is often the hardest challenge for time loop movies to overcome, one that Netflix film ‘Naked’ struggled with earlier in the year. Thankfully ‘Happy Death Day’ experiences no such problems. It’s wonderfully paced never exhausting the concept. This is achieved through the already mentioned performances, the use of music & montages and of course including the slasher horror element. Now don’t expect this film to terrify you, it’s really not all that scary however it’s enjoyably jumpy and whilst rather cliched it never becomes boring. The variation in the death scenes offered plenty of entertainment not unlike the scenes in sci-fi time loop film ‘Edge of Tomorrow’. Alongside the horror elements comes a lot of humour, it’s this mixed tone which makes this slasher such a riot.
Ultimately ‘Happy Death Day’ is a rather silly movie, however if you can accept it’s concept and get on board with it you might just be surprised at how much fun you could have. If you want to be really scared this Halloween maybe opt for something else, although if you’re simply looking for a lively horror flick then this is the film for you. With talks of a sequel already in motion ‘Happy Death Day’ could be set to revive the slasher franchise genre and what a way to kick start it!
Written by Hamish Calvert
Rating – 7.5/10
Question: What is your favourite slasher movie?
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