'Happy Death Day', a Satirical Slasher Film with a Stuck-in-a-Time-Loop Twist, Is Cheesy but Extremely Entertaining

Happy Death Day revolves around Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe), an obnoxious, Mean Girls-type college student who gets stuck in a time loop on her birthday.  Before the day ends, a spiteful hooded killer in a baby mask murders her, and she subsequently wakes up in the same time and place she has awoken from the first time around that day: 9:00 am, in the dorm of a random dude named Carter (Israel Broussard).  And thus, she has to relive the day over and over – and die over and over – until she can figure out who is the mysterious, masked killer that is killing her and survive the day, which she hopes would allow her to finally escape the time loop.

So, yeah, the film is basically Scream and Groundhog Day rolled into one.  And it uses themes, tones, tropes, and even plot elements from both movies.  The resulting product is a cheesy mashup.  But it’s extremely entertaining.  I really liked it.

The plot is unremarkable, uneven, and inconsistent.  It has generous plot holes, and it lacks suspense.  It won’t hold up under scrutiny.  Thankfully, you won’t notice most of its problems while watching it because it’s so fun.  Whatever failings and flaws it has will only come to mind retrospectively.

In addition, the two main characters, Tree and Carter, are interesting and worth rooting for.  And the virtually unknown actors playing them had solid, endearing performances.

Moreover, though Happy Death Day is unoriginal, it is appealingly self-aware.  It is honest with its intention of ripping off the Groundhog Day formula.  This is even mentioned at some point during the movie.  And though Groundhog Day will probably always remain as the most definitive film about getting stuck in a time loop, it’s possible for its concept to be utilized innovatively by other movies (e.g. Edge of Tomorrow) or, at least, competently (e.g. Before I Fall).   In the case of Happy Death Day, it utilized the concept quite well enough.

But the most beautiful and most thoughtful thing to emulate about Groundhog Day is how the stuck-in-a-time-loop setup can provide a compelling, poignant arc for a protagonist, and that is, how the bizarre situation he or she finds himself in gives him or her the opportunity to reflect on his or her life, identify his or her faults, and seek to better himself or herself.  When a movie mimics this, it would be clichéd, of course.  But it’s also something I can get behind on constantly, as I’m sucker for redemption stories.  This feature is predictably present in Happy Death Day, and I find it has a positive effect on the overall narrative.

In the end, Happy Death Day may not be revolutionary, but it is a charming and enjoyable satirical-slasher-film-with-a-twist.  I even think it has the potential of becoming a cult classic someday.