I did not go into Happy Death Day with high expectations. I expected and average dumb horror movie. That’s all I was looking for “Oh they made a Groundhog Day horror movie? Well the action movie version was great so I guess I’ll give this a shot.” From the opening loop it was clear this movie was going to be good, and better than I expected. It establishes the world of the film and all the shitty people in it very well. By the second loop it was clear that this movie was going to be great.
A lot of that has to do with the humor of the movie. It’s not that this is just some comedic farce. This movie understands the ways in which horror movies are naturally funny and plays into that. While also having a lot of good comedic dialogue to go along with that. The result is a movie that’s very entertaining throughout. Whether that be because of charters interacting or because of the stress inflicted on our heroine as she gets murdered over and over.
The real key to this movie is Jessica Rothe as our main character. She carries the movie and she’s great. She gets better and better as the movie demands more and more of her, rising to occasion as her character develops. The damsel in distress, the completely stressed out phase, the comedic “I’m so past giving a fuck” phase, the badass phase; she nails them all.
This movie is really well thought out and structured, all the little details fit into place, and it’s got a lot of great dialogue and character interactions. These are key ingredients in making a movie specifically for me. And that’s all on top of a solid slasher movie with plenty of kills (even if they are all of the same girl). This is great movie, one I highly encourage people to go see. My biggest positive surprise of the year.
Thank You For Your Time.
