Now, you all know I love me some horror flicks with the
slasher subgenre being my favorite. The
films of yore, showing masked maniacs terrorizing teenagers and being defeated
at the end by the survivor of the film (yet never truly dying) only to come
back in a sequel is very nostalgic to me and something we haven’t seen lately
in theatric horror movie releases.
Don’t misunderstand me, there are quite a lot of horror
films in the past ten or fifteen years that have been captivating and
entertaining. But I’ve just missed that
age of cinema where we’d get a slasher flick here and there that was just pure
fun and terrifyingly engrossing. Nowadays,
we’re just treated to so many haunted tales, like The Conjuring, Insidious,
and Annabelle, leaving “Chucky” and
“The Creeper” to scare audiences only in direct-to-disc releases.
There’s just something about a masked-killer-movie that gets
the blood pumping and gives the audience that point of mystery—especially if
the killer is never revealed, only to be resurrected in a follow-up film.
And that’s what I had expected when I first caught a trailer
for the 2017 film, Happy Death Day. Seeing
the killer stalking around with a butcher knife and wearing a baby-faced mask
seemed all too perfect. Add to that, the
story seemed to take on a Groundhog Day vibe,
where the focal point of the film must relive her demise over and over
again…the film seemed to be the faultless amalgamation in making a slasher for
the 21st century. I was
interested—yet, not that interested to go out and see it in the theater—and
when it was available on Netflix, I gave it a looksee.
But before I get into my view of the film, here’s the
synopsis of Happy Death day…
After a night of hard partying and heavy drinking,
self-centered college student, Tree (Jessica Rothe), wakes up on the morning of
her birthday with a serious hangover in the dorm of a guy—Carter (Israel
Broussard)—whom his name she can’t remember.
Within the course of the day, Tree is murdered by some unknown masked
assailant and wakes up to start the day all over again. Tree then realizes she’s re-experiencing the
day of her murder—always restarting with her waking up in the same dorm with
the same situations—and will end only when she discovers her killer’s identity.
What I liked about the film, without a doubt, was the look
of the masked killer. I guess you can
put any type of mask on someone and if they don’t speak and just leer at their
victim, they’ll seem just as disturbing.
Although my opinion of having the film reveal who was wearing the mask
the whole time was that they should’ve chosen not to do so, but the twist that
was worked into the end more than made up for it.
What I didn’t like about the film was the matchup of Jessica
Rothe and Israel Broussard as Tree and Carter.
It worked at first only because Rothe’s character was a despicable
person who was easy to hate and when she treats Broussard’s character like
crap, it was easy to take in. However,
once she took a liking to him and saw that he cared about her, there didn’t
seem to be enough chemistry between them.
The scenes they shared at that point were awkward and unnatural. Luckily, those scenes were very few so it
didn’t take you out of the film as much.
Another aspect of the film I thought was wrong to include was Tree’s
relationship with her father and how she makes amends with him during the
second act. It felt out of place and
seemed to be taken out of a Hallmark or Lifetime channel movie. The actors tried to convey their
strained-relationship-turned-loving interaction, but just like the rapport
between Tree and Carter, it seemed artificial.
Alone, though, Jessica Rothe seems to really take hold of
this part and plays it very naturally, especially the spoiled and bitter
college sorority girl. In fact, she
plays the part so well, it makes it hard to believe that she could change her
ways near the end of this film. At
first, she looked familiar, yet I really don’t recognize her from anything
else. Looking at her IMDb list of
productions, however, she has a list of about 33 acting parts—but nothing I’d
ever seen.
The same goes for Israel Broussard, I kept thinking he
looked familiar and all through the movie I kept racking my brain as to where
I’d seen him before. Glancing through
his résumé on IMDb didn’t help much because there was nothing there I’d
seen…and it finally hit me—he just reminded me of Hayden Christensen. Perfectly cast as this good kid who decided
not to take advantage of the hot girl who he let stay in his dorm room, there
was no believable kismet about them when it comes to this flick.
Happy Death Day was directed by Christopher Landon and although
he hasn’t directed a slough of films, he’s actually helmed a couple of flicks
that had surprised me. In 2014, he
directed the Paranormal Activity spinoff,
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
and the following year had him overseeing the very entertaining Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. I can’t say that Landon did anything special
with this film, nor can I say he was able to bring out the best in these
actors, but the shots were set up nicely and I really couldn’t complain about
anything regarding the direction of the film.
Writing credit goes to Scott Lobdell and his claim to fame is being the
writer of a number of X-Men comic book titles in the 90s. Besides writing the comedic film Man of the House back in 2005, this is
probably his biggest theatrical film that he has a credit for writing. Together, these guys really didn’t knock it
out of the park, but it was a solid effort.
Even though the plot is similar to Groundhog Day--so you really can’t give the story the recognition
for being original—there is one supplement to the plot that I thought was a
unique twist to the whole living-out-your-day-over-and-over idea, and that is
the little subplot on how the repeated murdering of Tree is taking a toll on
her physically. At one point, she passes
out and ends up in the ER where the doctor tells her the x-rays show scar
tissue and damage from the trauma her body had withstood from the murders she
had suffered through. I thought that was
a nice touch…though it went nowhere from there after that.
So…what’s my final “bit” on Happy Death Day?
Aside from borrowing the framework of Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, the film works with that
aspect of the main character living the same day over and over again,
especially bringing in the mystery of this killer always getting to her no
matter what course she takes in the day.
But, then again, that’s the downfall of the story because it gives a
sense of the supernatural that no matter what happens or what the main
character does, this killer always kills her.
Though this aspect kept me rooted in my seat and having me wait for the
reasoning behind this, when we find out, it really doesn’t make sense. If you can suspend disbelief in that facet of
the film, it’s still enjoyable throughout the first half. However, interjecting the strained
relationship with the father brings the story to a full halt and really changes
the style of the film to a lighthearted drama—something that really shouldn’t
be in a horror movie. All in all, the
film is entertaining enough, but don’t expect it to be remembered for years to
come.
Thanks for reading!
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