Happy Death Day

One of the more pleasant surprises of 2017 was the film Happy Death Day. An amusing mash-up of a murder mystery, slasher flick and the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day made for a thoroughly entertaining film that knew exactly what it was and never tried to be anything but that. 

Teresa "Tree" Gelbman (played by Jessica Rothe) wakes up in the dorm room of a strange boy, Carter (played by Israel Broussard) after a night of partying. He assures her nothing happened and he slept in his roommate's bed. Still, she leaves quickly and returns to her Sorority House. It is Tree's birthday, as she is reminded by her roommate Lori (played by Ruby Modine) offering her a cupcake. That night, she is due to attend a fraternity party, but on the way there she is murdered by a strange person in a baby face mask (which also happens to be the University Mascot (?!). When she dies, she then proceeds to once again wake up in Carter's bedroom on the same morning. Freaked out, she goes through the day's events again and once again runs into the masked stranger and dies again. As the day repeats again with her waking up in Carter's bedroom she realizes she is stuck in a time loop. As she discusses her predicament with Carter, after convincing him by pointing out everything that is going to happen before it does, he suggests using this opportunity to discover who her killer is and stopping it before it happens again. Realizing she has the advantage of already knowing how the day is going to unfold, she sets out to try and catch her killer, even if it takes more than a few tries to get it right. However, with each attempt, Tree finds herself getting a little weaker as evidence of her past deaths are still detectable, which means she doesn't have as many chances to survive the day as she may have initially thought.    

The film was directed by Christopher Landon from a script by Scott Lobdell that is perhaps far wittier and funnier than one might expect from the premise. They make an intriguing use of the time loop premise and apply it to a murder mystery/horror film, with the main protagonist having to solve their own murder. It's also amusing how they subvert the slasher cliche of the "bitchy" blonde character who appears in a large number of those films and put her front and center in this one, and as the film goes on and her day repeats more and more, the layers are peeled back and she slowly becomes a better and more likable character, one that we find ourselves rooting for as the film nears it's climax. At the same time, the tone of the film shifts away from slasher horror into a far more comedic tone, starting with an extended montage of Tree's failed attempts to discovering her murderer only to die by various methods and wake up in Carter's dorm room again. Landon and Lobdell do a great job of balancing the tone from suspenseful to funny and back again for the big climax. I also have to applaud the production design for the fact that Carter's dorm room ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE A REAL DORM ROOM. It is a rare sight in films indeed.

This film completely and without a doubt is a testament to the charm and charisma of Jessica Rothe, whose performance as Tree makes the film. She gives a wonderful performance that shows the growth of Tree over the course of film's events from a depressed, angry and self-loathing young woman to one who has rediscovered herself over having to live the same day over and over and eventually become a happier person who is more in love with life by the end. Israel Broussard has an equally good turn as the adorkable Carter, who becomes both a repeated partner in crime in trying to get Tree out of her time loop and a potential romantic interest as well (the dude has posters on his dorm room wall for Repo Man, Back to the Future, They Live, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 so I can see the appeal). 

Overall, Happy Death Day was a pleasant surprise for me. I wasn't sure what to make of it from the trailers when it was first released, but when I finally saw it I really dug it. It is a lot of fun from beginning to end with a breezy mix of suspense and humor make for an entertaining ride of a film. I also appreciated that the film straight up mentions Groundhog Day, as if to defuse anyone who dismisses it as a knock-off of that Bill Murray classic (which it isn't). And if that wasn't enough, this weekend sees the release of the sequel, Happy Death Day 2U. So we have that going for us, which is nice.