Stars Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Moden, Charles Aitken, Rachel Matthews, Rob Mello Directed by Christopher Landon Despite coming from Blumhouse pictures, I didn’t find Happy Death Day to be that much of a horror flick, any more than, say, D.O.A. is a horror flick. If you’re not familiar with that film, either the 1948 noir thriller or the 1988 remake, it’s about a person who discovers he’s been murdered with a slow acting poison and sets out to find out who did it. Here, Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) gets murdered on her birthday and ends up in a time loop enabling her to set out finding the person who is killing her. While Groundhog Day gets name-dropped in the film thanks to its time looping conceit, the loop only starts over when Tree is murdered or dies within the day itself, waking up at 9:01 a.m. in the dorm room of Carter (Israel Broussard), a boy she met the night before. While similarities remain, her actions can vary from life to life, each subsequent ‘life’ possibly giving clues as to who the murderer is. Written by Scott Lobdell (known comic book writer of X-Men and others), the story plays fair with the murder/thriller aspect and the cues are there, with a few red herrings along the way. After all, when the movie kicks off, we learn that Tree is not the nicest person around and more than a few might be suspect of being the murderer. Rothe does an excellent job earning the audience’s sympathy as the movie progresses while the rest of the cast work equally well, some playing into the typical stereotypes of characters you’d find in a horror film set at a college. So you have characters to like and those you’d love to hate as well, but the story itself helps to elevate the cliches. That’s also thanks to director Christopher Landon, who doesn’t completely succumb to the tropes of a horror movie despite some of the more obvious set-ups. Anyone going in expecting a typical horror film is going to find something completely different, and that might actually work in the film’s favour, subverting expectations a few times over. The thriller aspects is more than in full force and the occasional bits of humour work to add to the overall presentation. It is worth checking it out. Rating: ****/5 Find the best online deals here. | Barnes and Noble | Google Play Store | Book Depository Discover more about the books here. Please Support.
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