Happy Death Day

Rating: 5/10

Happy Death Day is not in any case a disappointment- that is if you were expecting a cheeky, funny slasher-horror movie with just a tiny sprinkle of suspense thrown in the mix.

       

This low-budgeted horror movie is produced by Blumhouse Production, the people behind other outstanding movies like Split or Get Out which was critically acclaimed early this year.

Then came Happy Death Day, a fusion of slasher horror and comedy, giving you a taste of a suspenseful serial killer with some dumb college jokes in between. The only twist is that the heroine, Tree, has to relive the day of her death (which also happened to be on her birthday) in order to know the person who killed her. 

As a result, we get to see her being murdered in various different styles, oftenly grisly but sometimes humorous. Since most of the time the murders happened, Tree is alone or with a friend or two, the number of body count is lesser and the killings were not inventive.

It strips away the best quality of a campy slasher film which is the fear of the unknown; not knowing who the next victim is and the mourning of the death of lovable characters but in this movie, after Tree’s death, we were transported back to the beginning of the day where Mark, the guy who helped her from her drunkenness the night before, spewed some lousy jokes every single morning. 

Just like mother!, Happy Death Day was also misrepresented in their trailers, providing a different interpretation for viewers. I was hoping for more in Happy Death Day especially since it’s one of the few slasher films under Blumhouse Production and the premise is a little promising. But the murders were toned down, not as brutal as iconic 80s slasher-horror films we’ve seen before. Jokes were at times funny but also make you wonder “Am I laughing at the dumb jokes or the lameness of the film?”

But all in all, Happy Death Day is a happy, yet twisted whodunit movie, focusing more on the who and ignoring the why. There’s no explanation as to why she was on this loop on her death day and oh, the killer is not even supernatural like Freddy Kruger or Jason Vorhees thus the murderer has no part in the reason why Tree has to live the same day everyday.

It’s got a pretty good ratings on Rotten Tomatoes (66% as of now) whereas other Blumhouse movies like Get Out and Split get a ratings of 99% and 74% respectively.

Watch this if you like: Groundhog Day, Sorority Row and a slew of other slasher movies.