Another version of Groundhog Day? Really? This is the second movie this year revolving around a girl who has to wake up on the same day to figure out what went wrong and what went right. The first movie this year was Before I Fall, which suffered in its narrative with an unnecessary subplot but it had a solid conclusion. That movie is a rental at best. However, the difference between that movie in Happy Death Day is the girl's status: the former takes place in high school and the latter takes place is in college. But, someone had an idea of taking the familiar concept on a birthday but in a horror genre and the result is even though the movie has a predictable arc, the journey is fun enough as a marginal recommendation but I would categorize this movie as a slumber party horror movie to watch because I believe teenagers would like this.
At Bayfield University, Teresa "Tree" Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) wakes up hungover in Carter Davis' (Israel Broussard) dorm room, a class mate. She is a snotty girl who ignores his father's calls and dismisses other boys like her date, Tim (Caleb Spillyards), because their date was at Subway. Tree goes to her room and sees her room mate, Lori (Ruby Modine). Tree realizes that she is late for class and becomes frantic as Lori presents Tree with a cupcake as she blows her birthday candle but throws the cupcake away because of carbohydrates.
The head sorority sister, Danielle (Rachel Matthews), invites Tree to a party at a dorm later that evening. Tree heads to the campus alone and as she heads past the bridge, she hears the sound of a music box. Tree goes over to pick up the music box as suddenly a person with a baby mask approaches in front of her. Tree threatens this person as she warns this person that she will call the police. But, as Tree leaves, the "baby mask" person chases after her and kills her. Tree wakes up on the same day and in the same dorm room as she gets confused and going through deja vu. She has to relive the same day repeatedly to figure out who is going to kill her and why.
Yeah, we have had versions like this but in different movies from different genres like the action thriller, Source Code, or the sci-fi action movie, Edge of Tomorrow. Those are better movies but this movie in a horror genre being placed in a young adult world is perfect because it educates both the characters and the audience as to what is leading up to her murder. The only big criticism I had with this movie is after she goes through all these loops, we get a sort of "real-life" caricature of a serial killer of women later in the movie and it jumps to conclusions and interferes with the main story and gives us a sort of PSA of young women being careful. I would have cut that storyline and focused on her main mission of finding the killer on campus. It generates a bit of suspense because I was worried that it would end in sort of a cop-out. In a way, the revelation of the killer's reasons is hokey but it is appropriate for this kind of flick.
The cast is solid and the direction by Christopher B. Landon is grounded and well-done compared to his last two movies. But, again, the movie is a fun horror flick, and even though there is some humor, there is enough to create some dark PG-13 suspense for teenagers and young adults to get giddy or scared about. Is it a movie that will be a horror classic and be studied for years to come? No, cut a break with this movie and have fun. After all, it is October.
By the way, there is some funny dialogue towards the end that is meta towards the structure of their movie in borrowing the 1993 movie, Groundhog Day, that is quite refreshing.
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