Slasher movies as a film genre are nothing that special in the grand scheme of things and in spite of still being a popular genre to retread, they have become a little redundant in today’s society. They will always have their space and fandoms that adore them for their simplicity (mainly horror fans) and several iconic horror films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and especially Halloween own their popularity to the genre, it’s a formula that can very easily and very quickly gets repetitive and even outdated (to the point that even Scream in 1996 was credited for putting a spin on the tropes rather than playing the straight). Since the very idea of horror and the appeal of it, is the thrilling feeling of dread and being challenged by something threatening, it becomes a little harder to remain in the dark when you have a formula to uphold, switching the standard from intense unease to jovial anticipation. Because of this, there have been an advent of projects that are specifically designed to mock the slasher in a way that is critical, but usually in a positive manner that still pays tribute to what people like about them. While some are wildly recognized like the previously mentioned Scream franchise, the 2017 Blumhouse slasher film, Happy Death Day, was a more recent attempt that greatly paid off. Things start off pretty crazy for college sorority student, Tree (played by Jessica Rothe) on her birthday when she wakes up with a hangover in the room of fellow classmate, Carter (played by Israel Broussard) and rushes to get started with her day. Being an all-around popular girl with enough mean streaks in her attitude to make her popularly hated, her daily routine of trash talking her friends mainly her roommate Lori (played by Ruby Modine), acting aggressive to anyone passing her by, and continuing to take part in an affair with her professor, Gregory Butler (played by Charles Atiken), this routine is cut short when she is approached and killed by a man wearing a baby mask whilst walking back to campus. Instead of the movie reaching its obvious conclusion, Tree realizes that she has return to the start of the day, with the full knowledge that she is going to be murdered later. Discovering she is stuck in a time-loop for un-explainable reasons, she slowly has to list off all the suspects that could want her dead before her deaths are up and she’s gone for good. Receiving mixed reception yet succeeding at the box office due to its minute budget of only $4.8 million (earning $125.5 million) Happy Death Day works with a fantastic premise and provides a new and enjoyable slasher experience through solid direction, acting, pacing and good knowledge of the familiar tropes as well as ones to make fun of.

Originally titled Half to Death, the idea created by the film’s screenwriter, Scott Lobdell, was announced in 20017 and was originally going to be produced by Michael Bay and would star Megan Fox as the lead (which would’ve gone down a very obvious path that would not have been the most flattering). This never materialized and the film was eventually given to Blumhouse (with Jason Blum helping to produce the film), which led to the film being green lit by Universal, and Christopher Landon being given the reigns of director as well as rewriting Lobdell’s script. With Landon having past experience working with horror films like Disturbia and most of the Paranormal Activities films, alongside his work on projects that are heavily genre-centric yet feature a campy sillier approach, he feels like a really solid choice for not only being able to recognizable and effectively capture the tropes of the genre, but also pick them apart in a way that is obvious, but also delightfully self-aware. While Blumhouse does have a reputation for not always releasing the best horror films due to their ”cheap to make, quick to release” mindset, this does result in a choice few projects that house solid ideas, and Happy Death Day is no different. Despite having all the familiar trademarks for a typical slasher, the movie’s proud stance on being a horror satire with strong comedic elements, is apparent throughout the entire picture (it is literally a combination of Scream and Groundhog Day, and that was how it was originally pitched), and the film is smart enough to know how far it can take this direction and this idea. Since the film does a good job pacing itself as well as its cliches out, it results in a quick and easy-to-understand narrative with a very clear end-goal, one that may feel very gimmicky on the surface, but is led in a way that does legitimately curious with the outcome and invested in the lead’s struggle. Lodbell’s past work in comic book stories explains the fantastical qualities added to an otherwise straightforward environment, and the humor does work its way quite well into this situation, whether through the simplicity of the background characters actually allowing them to be gradually molded into more formed individuals with each passing day, or the main character’s gradual descent into madness at the absurdity until finally accepting this loop of death, it gets some good laughs and really prevents it from getting too tired despite literally repeating a lot of the same things over and over again. With that said, the mystery surrounding the killer is not very good. It’s pretty obvious who the culprit is if you’re familiar with these types of movies and when it’s the guiding element of your whole premise, that is a bit unfortunate. It doesn’t ruin the movie, but it is a pretty glaring weakness.

In the slasher genre, a majority of the characters are intentionally designed to be pretty stereotypical and only designed to either be fodder for the coming threat, or a survivor who manages to escape due to their defining trait being holly enough to warrant not dying. Usually, the only characters they give any strong attention to are the leads themselves, which this film does as well, but what’s fun about this character within this premise is that due to the cyclical nature of the story, it results in a pretty effective arc for what is otherwise a generic lead. While a name like Tree is pretty stupid, seeing this typical mean girl transform into a more put-together nice person is actually pretty nice, and there is a lot of emotional investment attached because you want to see this character escape this cycle and find a way to prevent her death now that she has matured. Jessica Rothe does a great job going from bad to good in an exaggerated yet still believable manner, having a personality that works great in the comedic moments yet still works strong enough in the horror spaces as well, and creating a character  that might not be the deepest or the most complex, but one that works in the realms this movie sets up and has enough development to feel like more than just another staple in the genre. The rest of the cast give pretty good performances depending on what kind of role their give (the stock characters act overly stereotypical and the ones that are positioned to be more genuine and real like Israel Broussard as the love interest do so generally well), but the focus is never truly on them, so they never overstay their welcome either. It’s a genre that allows for a goofier more in-your-face style of present stereotypical portrays, and the movie decides to utilize that in a more charming way as opposed to an annoying one.

Horror and comedy are two styles of entertainment that are weirdly linked together in many ways as both rely on similar forms of emotional investment to get their specific reaction, so pairing them together is usually very effective when played right. So logically, what makes said mixture work even better in this film is that both genres are handled in a very similar fashion within the framework of the story, and both do their part in adding to environment and creating an atmosphere that really comes alive. The comedy comes not only from the strangeness of the situation, but also how the movie sticks what would naturally be a pretty standard slasher and then dramatically alters it overtime. While the movie has enough familiar set-ups to make it come across as scary and even something like that baby mask (which was fittingly designed by Tony Gardner, the same person who created the Ghostface mask) does have that unique element of being both funny and creepy, it does a pretty decent job capturing the feel of a modern but still traditional slasher film in the opening before it then spirals into pure comedic territory. Even the music could easily fail if the tone weren’t as well set up as it was as most of the soundtrack features a lot of modern pop that usually feel forced into most of these kind of movies but given the tone it has set up plus the kind of main character that it has, it never feels forced or phoney, it just seems to match. This could so easily go too modern or too retro and get caught up within a specific type of humor that can be present in most horror films that are either too poorly spaced out or too annoyingly generic, but it manages to find that right balance that never feels too involved, but also adds in enough that it feels natural.

Happy Death Day doesn’t feel like it would go above and beyond in trying to be a stand-out horror movie of the generation, but in doing that, it still managed to produce something that was interesting, engaging, well laid out, and enjoyable to watch for fans of the genre or those that aren’t. With great acting, a connectable lead, enough clever moments to show it has a mind, but enough sillier moments of comedy to keep it within the right tone, it developed something that showed that the slasher genre still has a place in today’s society, but just needs to be seen through a different lens. The movie isn’t a ground breaker by any means, and it won’t shock or surprise you as its actual twist is pretty easy to spot before her literal first death but considering that it made a lot of money and even resulted in a sequel two years after its release, there was an audience for the experiment and the results were mostly strong. Check it out and see for yourself if this is a birthday you’d want to keep experiencing.

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