“Happy Death Day” delivers a unique take on the “Groundhog Day” inspired genre. Jessica Rothe (La La Land) plays Tree Gelbman, a stereotypical sorority girl who lives a life of late night parties and early morning hangovers.
With her mother’s passing and birthday on the same date, she has become reluctant to celebrate. She begins her day by waking up with a hangover and realizing she’s in Carter’s bed, played by Israel Broussard.
He offers to cure her hangover but she quickly denies the help and begins the walk of shame back to the sorority house. On the way home, she receives multiple phone calls from her father, which she ignores.
Her roommate and loyal friend, Lori (Ruby Modine) attempt to celebrate Gelbman’s birthday but are both soon turned down.
Gelbman later stops at her professor’s office inside a hospital, where the audience learns that the two are having an affair.
While walking to a party later in the day, she finds herself approached by the killer. In a last attempt of survival, she fights to get rid of the killer but to no avail.
To her surprise, she wakes up at the beginning of the day and begins to relive it. Gelbman initially believes that she has had a bad dream and continues the day as normal, but in doing so the same outcome happens.
Realizing that this is not a dream, she confides in Carter about her situation and he helps her find out who the killer is. She spends her each repeated day investigating which one of her friends or acquaintances wanted her dead.
During her investigation, she realizes the error of her ways in how she treated people and how her actions affect the people who truly care about her.
At the end of the film, she begins to come to terms with her mother’s death and picks up her father’s phone call. It’s only after this moment of clarity that Gelbman realizes her initial guess of who the killer is was incorrect, offering a surprise ending to the audience.
“Groundhog Day” movies tend to have a hit or miss quality to them. If done incorrectly, they can seem repetitive and predictable. “Happy Death Day” does a great job at presenting each new day in a different light, forcing the audience to remember every part.
It’s enjoyable to see the transformation that Gelbman has from sorority party girl to a respectful woman. However, the movie has qualities that made the movie difficult to follow.
There were characters, such as her mother, that were not explained enough for the audience to become emotionally attached. The film offers more suspense than is needed and for the majority of the film, the audience already has an idea who the killer is. This provided inconsistency in continuity; although, in its’ entirety the film provides quality entertainment.
2.5/5