Review: Happy Death Day
Being a pretty big fan of Groundhog Day I was both intrigued and a little hesitant about seeing this movie. While it seemed like a fresh new take on the story, I didn’t want them to take away any of the gravity that Groundhog Day brought to that idea. Just a little RFF backstory for you - I learned from the commentary of Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis who directed Groundhog Day wanted it to be a straight drama film while lovable real life troll and star of the film Bill Murray wanted it to be a straight comedy. What we were left with was a dramedy that admittedly leaned a little harder on the comedy, but overall had the perfect tone for the story. The premise does lend itself to dramedy pretty well…
I guess there is a Supernatural meme for everything…
Happy Death Day starts very similarly to its groundhog predecessor, queue entry of despicable human being who treats everyone around them like dirt. Clearly they need to be taken down a peg or two. This time around instead of just forcing the protagonist to live the same day over and over until they go insane, she has to die a gruesome death over and over again. The most intriguing part of this one was the ‘Who done it?’ of it all; I even had a theory based on the trailer. Unfortunately the actual execution of this left me wanting more.
The movie started strong with some humor and even a few actually creepy moments, but I felt it fizzle around the half-way mark. There were a lot of things they tried, the inevitable twists and turns, that just felt like a movie paint-by-numbers with a little mad-libs thrown in. It was as though they decided where they needed a twist and then picked a name from a hat of those they hadn’t ruled out yet. The twists actually surprised me, so point for them, but the payoff was often non-existent, so negative 2 points for them.
Maybe it’s a new way of writing…
Now I do like a few things towards the end of the movie and about the protagonist in general. While she sort of appears like a cookie-cutter sorority girl, she is at least in touch with her power. Men don’t easily get away with treating her disrespectfully and she is constantly standing up for herself both seriously and hilariously. The simplest way to put it, is every time I thought ‘you gotta be kidding me’ she said it right after, and who doesn’t love a character that agrees with you all the time?
Unfortunately, a 'woke' protagonist and a few funny lines don’t completely make up for its foibles.
2.5 untimely deaths out of 5