Happy Death Day Movie Review

3/10

If only it was me who starred as the main character of Happy Death Day so I could have been killed over and over again instead of watching this garbage.

Blumhouse Productions continues to bring out crappy horror film after crappy horror film, and I’m wondering whenever will we see another great film in this genre since It Follows. I’m still saddened by the fact that when this film came out, it took in more money at the box office than the infinitely better movie at the time Blade Runner 2049. I don’t know, maybe it’s just because it’s so unique man. It’s like Groundhog Day but instead, there’s someone out there who kills you every time and then you wake up to do the same thing over and over until you’re killed again. Sigh.

Whatever the case, Happy Death Day serves to suit a cause to satisfy moviegoers interested in seeing a simple horror film with just enough originality to make it slightly different from others like it. This is what the film does well and is probably the only reason Blumhouse Productions made a profit over so many of their horror films of the same formula. But does this make it a great film? No.

Because the twists are there to be spotted through various clues in the plot. Our main character develops a love interest which is the standard for almost any horror film of the modern age. But most importantly and how can I forget, we get our dose of nonsensical scares and silly teenagers dying (I mean, it’s only one person in this case but it’s basically the same thing). The only mildly interesting part about Happy Death Day is the Groundhog Day-like concept. Which if you’ve already seen the trailer, wears off quite fast after the first half hour.

I found several details about the plot that either didn’t make sense or could have been solved far easier than what it was made out to be. I also still don’t understand why a college sports team has a baby face mascot and that ultimately becomes the killer’s trademark mask. I couldn’t help but laugh every time I saw it, or even just thought about the fact that they used that particular image as the emblem for their football team.

Would they be chanting something like, “let’s go babies let’s go!” (claps’ hands). What do they even call their team then?! The Atlanta Babies? No one in the right mind would use such a figure as a sign of team power but I guess it is set in the United States so it might some sort of sense to American audiences. Or maybe it’s a just subtle dig and “ingenious” commentary towards how they voted in Donald Trump as President whom the world sees as essentially a giant baby that has access to nuclear weapons. Oh, now I see the master plan of the “brilliant” writers of this film.

From that point on whenever I saw the baby face mascot, it quickly went downhill from there. What would have been enjoyable to see would be placing a hated celebrity as the main character. I swear if Justin Bieber had been cast as the one to be killed over and over again, this movie could have destroyed Star Wars: The Last Jedi at the box office. Better yet, throw in Martin Shkreli and the whole world would thank the director for giving us one of the best casting choices of the decade.

Go see Happy Death Day if you either want a simple horror flick or a film to laugh at its cringe-worthy dialogue and plot holes. Perhaps that’s why it did so well compared to the thought-provoking and intelligently written Blade Runner 2049. But if you want to see a better horror-esque film that came out in the last year, catch mother! or flashback to the 2014 film It Follows. You haven’t seen nothing yet if you haven’t watched those. Skip it.