#29 - Happy Death Day (2017)
College student Tree (yes, her name is Tree) is having a lousy day. She wakes up in a stranger's dorm room with a wicked hangover, is late to class, has to deal with her bitchy sorority sisters, and gets lunch spilled all over her clothes. Oh, and then she is murdered. She wakes up again in the same dorm with a major case of déjà vu, and is extremely confused as she seems to be living out the exact same day again. Soon she realizes that the only way to break the cycle is to solve her own murder and prevent it from happening.
Much of the criticism I've seen leveled at this movie accuses it of just being a retread of Groundhog Day, but in slasher movie form. While this is true, I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing. Sure it isn't super original, but it's not like time loops are a horror cliche either. That said, this isn't a great movie, but it's not particularly bad either. I found it entertaining enough, if a bit dumb sometimes. The first act, where Tree is first figuring out what is happening to her, is probably the strongest part of the movie, but it starts to go downhill with a silly montage set to Demi Lovato's "Confident". The ending also doesn't really make much sense, although you could say that about dozens of other slashers so I can forgive that a little.
Overall this was just okay. Other than the time loop gimmick, there isn't much here that hasn't been done better in other films. If you a really big fan of slashers, maybe wait until it pops up a streaming service - otherwise, this is skippable.
Comments
Post a Comment