Happy Death Day Movie Review

Happy Death Day is a slasher movie with fantasy and comedy overtones. The main character (Jessica Rothe) is stuck in a time loop, à la Groundhog Day, suffering a violent death over and over again until she figures out how to break the cycle. Considering the movie's premise and genre, the violence is actually on the milder side. Stabbings happen offscreen, but blood is shown on knife blades, and there's a brief spatter when a character falls from a high window. Characters are also hit with blunt objects and run over by a car. There's also some racy content. Sex among college students is spoken of, though not shown. But a male college student is shown preparing to masturbate to porn (there's a computer image of two men kissing), and a young woman walks naked through the quad (nothing graphic shown). Characters also kiss, and the main character has a short-lived affair with a teacher. Language includes a use of "f--k," plus "s--t," "p---y," "a--hole," and more. Teens talk about drinking and being drunk, but no one is shown drinking. The movie is gleefully aware of its silliness and could be a strong draw for teens; luckily, there's an underlying message about thinking about others instead of just yourself.

The film is directed by Christopher Landon, writer and producer, known for Disturbia (2007), Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) and Zombie Camp (2015).

WHAT'S THE STORY?
In HAPPY DEATH DAY, Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) wakes up on the morning of her birthday; she's hung over and in a strange dorm room, which turns out to belong to the helpful Carter (Israel Broussard). Tree goes about her day, which includes a lunch meeting with her nasty sorority sisters and a closed-doors rendezvous with a married teacher. At night, on her way to a party, a killer in a creepy baby-face mask stabs her. Then Tree wakes up, and it's the same day again; she's reliving it over and over, meeting the killer every night, and dying violently. One day, Carter wonders whether, if she can discover the killer's identity and save her own life, it could break the cycle. Unfortunately, she starts feeling weaker each morning, as if her "lives" are running out. But then she finds out that an escaped killer, Joseph Tombs (Rob Mello), has been lurking nearby.

MOVIE INFO
Rating: PG-13 (for violence/terror, crude sexual content, language, some drug material and partial nudity)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Directed By: Christopher Landon
Written By: Scott Lobdell
In Theaters: October 13, 2017
Runtime: 96 minutes
Music: Bear McCreary
Studio: Universal Pictures
Cast: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Rob Mello

Fuentes: CommonSenseMedia.org & RottenTomatoes.com