Jungle
Happy Death Day

Happy Death Day

Movie
Director(s): 
Genre: 
In Theatres: 
Oct 13, 2017
Grade:
B+
Running Time: 
96 minutes

I love scary, spooky thrillers, but what keeps me from seeing most horror films is the predilection the main characters have to make incredibly stupid decisions that lead to their inevitable demise. Many potentially good horror films are ruined by this crutch and thus I have become jaded. Despite sharing the same producer as Get Out and the trailers looking like the offspring of Groundhog Day and Final Destination, my expectations of this film remained low. However, Happy Death Day soared past them.

Every day begins with Tree (Jessica Rothe) awaking on her birthday and everyday ends with her grisly murder. In order to see tomorrow, she has to avoid her murder. Her frustrated attempts are alternately hilarious, smart, and inventive. Using horror movie tropes to at first make us dislike Tree while simultaneously providing us with plenty of suspects, Happy Death Day eventually subverts these common tropes in favor of Tree’s character development making for satisfying arch not usually seen in horror films. Through her many deaths Tree reconnects with the humanity she shoved aside after a tragedy and gains empowerment, eventually Buffy-ing herself up to face the killer.

While Happy Death Day does rely too heavily on jump scares, it is a thoroughly fun, surprising, and refreshing horror film.

Maria Jackson
Review by Maria Jackson
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