Universal Pictures
One of 2017’s biggest surprises, Happy Death Day, was an absurd mix of humor and horror and it left me wanting more. Less than two years later Tree, played by Jessica Rothe, is stuck in the same time loop from the first film where she must find her killer on her birthday. I was highly anticipating this movie and was hoping that it would entertain me just like the first film did. Even though many scenes are straight out of the first movie, it stayed fresh throughout.
The first Happy Death Day movie was just a horror version of Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow with a great performance from Jessica Rothe. Rothe previously appeared in La La Land in one of the opening songs with Emma Stone. Watching her being fed up with constantly dying and waking up in the same bed was amusing. The second film was even more amusing because she thought she got out of the loop at the end of the first film. She must figure out how to end the loop again and to further the process, she ends up killing herself. I found it entertaining to see the different ways she came up with to kill herself. On a side note, I don’t like the idea of people killing themselves, but here in Happy Death Day 2U it was added with humor to make it funny. Rothe is a very upbeat, energetic actress who I would love to see in more films. She is very animated and makes any scene hilarious.
The first film was a perfect mixture of horror and comedy, but the newest film added a new element to it: science. Tree and her friends must learn of different algorithms to try and end the loop. Many different science terms were thrown out at me that I didn’t understand but it was fun to watch Rothe memorize them and test out the algorithms.
Since a lot of things are different for Tree in the second film, a new killer is presented the second time around. Just like the first film, the journey of discovering who the killer is offers some suspenseful moments. With her roommate ruled out as the killer early in the film, we must rethink about who could be the killer this time around. The joy in horror films like this is playing out all kinds of scenarios for the characters and think about who the killer might be. There are so many different possibilities as who the killer might be and that is the fun in watching Happy Death Day 2U.
There is an enough blood presented in the film, but it never feels gory as a traditional horror film. The film feels tame regarding the slasher moments. Since a lot of of the scenes feel borrowed from the first film, the gory scenes feel the same as well. The baby-faced killer relies heavily on his knife and the same old stabbing routine. I wish they would have changed things up and given us something new when it came to the slasher scenes.
The film used a lot of scenes from the first movie, but it managed to feel new. Scenes that were involved in the second film that were borrowed from the first movie was when Tree woke up to her phone ringing and Carter telling her good morning. Tree already knew how to handle the day and what and what not to do, so she had the upper hand in these scenarios. The problem with the second film is that many of the scenarios are different and her killer isn’t her roommate from the first film.
Happy Death Day 2U is a worthy sequel to the surprising horror comedy of 2017. The film manages to use the same scenes from the first film but also feel fresh at the same time. Christopher Landon has stated that he has a bonkers idea for a third film, and I am curious as how they can top the second movie.
Happy Death Day 2U has a run time of 1 hour 40 minutes and is rated PG-13 for violence, language, sexual material and thematic elements.
Share this post
