How many movies have sequels better than the original? Not many. Evil Dead II? Maybe. Batman Returns? Sure, I guess. Happy Death Day 2U? ABSO-FRIGGIN-LUTELY.
If you’ve seen the first one, you get the gist: [SPOILER WARNING!?] Tree (Jessica Rothe) is stuck repeatedly living the day of her demise, until she figures out who her creepy baby-faced killer is, breaking the cycle. Pretty simple plot, made for a pretty generic horror movie. But what caused the loop? Why Tree? What other interdimensional madness is going on? These may or may not be questions you were left asking at the end of the first movie, but either way they’re questions you’ll get answered in the sequel.
Written and directed by Christopher Landon – who has the majority of the Paranormal Activity movies, Disturbia and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse under his belt – this is quite a departure from his usual creations, even if it’s in the same genre. Delving into the science behind the death loop, almost creating a horror version of Back to the Future, Happy Death Day 2U is far from a dull sequel to a pretty basic gore flick.
It amps everything up to 11 – the humour, the jump scares, and gore. And obviously, the plot. We’re treated to an actual story that’s even quite sad at times, adding an emotional level you probably didn’t expect from a Blumhouse horror.
Jessica Rothe is the perfect lead for such a movie. She manages to play the dual role of victimized scream queen and strong, heroic final girl the film creates to a tee, adding the right amount of believability, likeability, and humanity such a role requires.
The rest of the cast are also great at portraying their intentionally generic characters; the standard cute, good guy Carter (Israel Broussard), the typical nerds Ryan (Phi Vu), Samar (Suraj Sharma) and Dre (Sarah Yarkin), and basic sorority sister Danielle (Rachel Matthews), all add their fair share to the story.
While it could be said the first movie lacked ambition and originality, Happy Death Day 2U does not. It might take inspiration from other movies – what movies doesn’t?! – but it hacks and slashes those influences into tiny little bits, piecing them back together into a pretty unique movie, that’s just and funny and heartfelt as it is scary and gory.
And, there’s a brilliantly funny and graphic death montage set to Paramore’s “Hard Times.” What more do you want?
Related Article: ‘Happy Death Day’ Baby Mask Was Almost Something Different
