Happy Death Day (2017)

[Scottie]

[The Great Owl]

Here's my movie content review from the Movies sub-forum...

Jessica Rothe plays Tree, a self-centered girl who has a track record for stealing boyfriends from under the noses of her sorority sisters while she is also in a relationship with one of her married college professors. On the morning of her birthday, Tree wakes up with a hangover in an unfamiliar dorm room after an apparent one-night stand, walks across campus with her nose in the air, snobbishly ignores greetings from people around her, casually dismisses her roommate's birthday well-wishes, puts on a flirty dress and heels to go to a fraternity party, and is brutally murdered by a masked killer. She then awakens in the same unfamiliar dorm room and is bewildered at the fact that everything is playing out in the exact same way that it did the day before. She subsequently wakes up in the strange dorm room again and again, has the same interactions again and again, and meets a bloody demise again and again.

Tree is driven by necessity to find the identity of the terrifying masked killer so that she can defend herself in order to change the outcome of this ever-repeating day, but this proves to be a complicated task, since she has an impressive suspect list of enemies who could possibly want to kill her, including jilted boyfriends, the above-mentioned college professor, the college professor's wife, sorority sisters whom she has wronged, and random people whom she has mistreated while going about her everyday affairs. The process of reliving the same day over and over is illuminating, to say the least. She learns more about herself each day and eventually finds herself on the path to becoming a better person who has a genuine appreciation of those around her. All the while, her soul-searching and gradual coming-of-age on each repeated day is bookended by being stabbed to death, axed to death, blown up, hung from a noose, and so on.

Happy Death Day is a PG-13 feature that focuses more on a good-natured and often-amusing aesthetic instead of inundating us with violence. The end result will not win any Academy Awards, but I am pleased to report that I had a blast with this movie. Rothe, who is probably best known for her supporting role in La La Land as one of Emma Stone's roommates, delivers a solid antihero lead, and her character arc as she finds her inner steel is convincing and charming enough to earn both sympathy and laughter from the audience. This is just as much of a character-driven romantic comedy as it is a horror film, but it still occasionally pulls its weight in the scares department by way of impressive cinematography and deliberate homages to classic slasher movies like Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Scream. An overtly self-aware reference to the 1993 movie, Groundhog Day, late in the story brought a smile to my face.

This film introduces us to superficial stereotype characters and to an obviously derivative plot, but it easily redeems itself of these shortcomings because it never takes itself too seriously. In the end, it is resplendent in its clever homages in a way that earns my admiration and my enthusiastic recommendation for anyone who is looking for a fun October season popcorn movie.

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Here's my movie content review from the Movies sub-forum...

Jessica Rothe plays Tree, a self-centered girl who has a track record for stealing boyfriends from under the noses of her sorority sisters while she is also in a relationship with one of her married college professors. On the morning of her birthday, Tree wakes up with a hangover in an unfamiliar dorm room after an apparent one-night stand, walks across campus with her nose in the air, snobbishly ignores greetings from people around her, casually dismisses her roommate's birthday well-wishes, puts on a flirty dress and heels to go to a fraternity party, and is brutally murdered by a masked killer. She then awakens in the same unfamiliar dorm room and is bewildered at the fact that everything is playing out in the exact same way that it did the day before. She subsequently wakes up in the strange dorm room again and again, has the same interactions again and again, and meets a bloody demise again and again.

Tree is driven by necessity to find the identity of the terrifying masked killer so that she can defend herself in order to change the outcome of this ever-repeating day, but this proves to be a complicated task, since she has an impressive suspect list of enemies who could possibly want to kill her, including jilted boyfriends, the above-mentioned college professor, the college professor's wife, sorority sisters whom she has wronged, and random people whom she has mistreated while going about her everyday affairs. The process of reliving the same day over and over is illuminating, to say the least. She learns more about herself each day and eventually finds herself on the path to becoming a better person who has a genuine appreciation of those around her. All the while, her soul-searching and gradual coming-of-age on each repeated day is bookended by being stabbed to death, axed to death, blown up, hung from a noose, and so on.

Happy Death Day is a PG-13 feature that focuses more on a good-natured and often-amusing aesthetic instead of inundating us with violence. The end result will not win any Academy Awards, but I am pleased to report that I had a blast with this movie. Rothe, who is probably best known for her supporting role in La La Land as one of Emma Stone's roommates, delivers a solid antihero lead, and her character arc as she finds her inner steel is convincing and charming enough to earn both sympathy and laughter from the audience. This is just as much of a character-driven romantic comedy as it is a horror film, but it still occasionally pulls its weight in the scares department by way of impressive cinematography and deliberate homages to classic slasher movies like Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Scream. An overtly self-aware reference to the 1993 movie, Groundhog Day, late in the story brought a smile to my face.

This film introduces us to superficial stereotype characters and to an obviously derivative plot, but it easily redeems itself of these shortcomings because it never takes itself too seriously. In the end, it is resplendent in its clever homages in a way that earns my admiration and my enthusiastic recommendation for anyone who is looking for a fun October season popcorn movie.

I was already thinking of getting this just from the trailer but your review has made my choice easier & I will be blind buying this when its out on BD.

[Britnasty]

Gonna hope this is successful enough that we get a UHD release eventually a la Get Out and Split.

This would benefit extremely from HDR.

[dvdwatcher]

I thought it was a great flick

[KilloWertz]

Regardless of whether it gets a UHD release or not (hopefully it does), I am looking forward to the home video release of it already after watching it today. Not a classic or anything, but I really enjoyed it regardless. It'll still have plenty of replay value for me even though I will already know who the killer is.

[TheBoss062]

I hope this doesn't become a trend with Universal where they release a horror film on standard blu-ray only to release a UHD months later.

[Phil92]

Originally Posted by Britnasty

Gonna hope this is successful enough that we get a UHD release eventually a la Get Out and Split.

This would benefit extremely from HDR.

Originally Posted by TheBoss062

I hope this doesn't become a trend with Universal where they release a horror film on standard blu-ray only to release a UHD months later.

Several Europe countries have a UHD up for pre-order, so likely we'll get an US announcement soon.

[victimofthecity]

This was just okay in my opinion.

[The Great Owl]

This Blu-ray is going to be so Day One that it's not even funny.

[TXMoviebuff77]

Heard good things about this one, a horror version of Groundhog Day, might blind buy this movie

[Akijama]

Release date: January 16

Bonus Materials:
• Includes a digital copy of Happy Death Day (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.)
• Alternate Ending
• Deleted Scenes
• Worst Birthday Ever!
• Behind the Mask: The Suspects
• The Many Deaths of Tree

[TheBoss062]

Originally Posted by TXMoviebuff77

Heard good things about this one, a horror version of Groundhog Day, might blind buy this movie

We kind of already had them before, Haunter with Abigail Breslin and Premonition with Sandra Bullock.

[Leonidas King]

Hands down already the best cover of 2018!

Was hoping for UHD but given Universal's practice, it will come months later.

[Phil92]

Originally Posted by Leonidas_King

Hands down already the best cover of 2018!

I’m definitely thinking a lenticular with the knife stabbing the cake.

[grodd]

My whole family had a great time at this movie. Can't wait to see the alternate ending.

[TheBoss062]

Originally Posted by grodd

My whole family had a great time at this movie. Can't wait to see the alternate ending.

Do you want me to tell you what it is?

[grodd]

Go Ahead but I think I heard.....

[Batman1980]

That cover alone would almost make this worth a purchase even if I didn't love the movie.

[Chaotic]

Wow, no actors on a blu-ray cover. Extreme rarity.