Hey, it's your birthday!
Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard
Director: Christopher Landon
The Plot: Tree Gelbman (Rothe) is a typical bitchy sorority student, and it's her birthday, but this will be a birthday unlike any other: beginning with waking up from a drunken one-night stand with nice guy Carter (Broussard), it ends with Tree being murdered by a masked killer with a grudge against her. But it's not the end - Tree reawakens and finds herself re-living the same day over and over, remembering everything but being killed in different ways no matter what she tries. As she begins to lose her wits, will she be able to work out who the killer is and break the cycle? And will anyone believe her?
Review: I like films that don't take themselves seriously. Happy Death Day is one such film, and it's also one of those gems that I knew nothing about (I didn't see a single trailer or poster for it beforehand) and turned out to be a winner. This is a very funny, original take on the horror genre.
Now wait a minute, I'm sure some of you are thinking, original, really? Haven't I heard of a film before where a character re-lives the same day over and over, unable to break out of the loop no matter what different things they try? Of course you have - Groundhog Day. Happy Death Day liberally borrows from that film, both thematically and in specific scenes, and it makes no attempt to hide it, with Carter at one point mentioning how similar the events happening are to the plot of Groundhog Day, to the non-plussed Tree who's never heard of it. One scene features Tree attempting to convince Carter of what's going on by correctly announcing events before they happen, a la Phil and Rita in the diner, and we even get a scene where we think the killer has been stopped and Tree has broken the loop, only for her to awaken again in the same day once more. While the concept as a whole isn't original, I've never seen it used within a horror film before, and I liked it a lot. There's even a nice special effect on the opening Universal logo, which glitches and rewinds itself twice before playing out in its entirety.
Truth be told, if this had tried to be a completely serious horror film, it wouldn't have worked. Happily though, the film has its tongue firmly in its cheek and it's very, very funny. There are one or two moments of physical comedy but the laughs mostly come from the dialogue - this is a very sharp script which pokes a lot of fun at the stereotypes of American college students, and the laughs come often.
The film is also very clever in the way it deals with standard horror movie tropes, particularly in scenes where Tree is either about to encounter the killer or is being chased. It knows that you know what's about to happen and so it plays with it, using camera angles and double-bluffs to good effect. While it is trying to scare you, and there a few effective jump-scares, the emphasis of the film isn't on the murders themselves - there's virtually no gore in the film, the camera cutting away every time the killer strikes a fatal blow to Tree - it's about having fun with the audience, and it works. There's a really nice transition effect at one point when the killer takes Tree out with a baseball bat, and she falls in slow motion only to land on Carter's bed as she reawakens in the morning. It also clocks in at a very sweet 96 minute run time, which is just right for a film like this.
Another clever aspect of the film is its use of misdirection and guesswork. During Tree's initial run-through of the day, we're introduced to the various people in her life, all of whom have the potential to be the killer due to the way Tree treats them. Clues and red herrings are presented liberally right from the get-go, and while it is quite easy to spot the killer if you're paying attention (I did) this is likely to keep a lot of people guessing right until the end, especially as there's more than one false finish. The film even has a laugh at its own expense once the killer and their motives are finally revealed.
Given the film's heavy influence of Groundhog Day, Tree's character has a very predictable arc. From the get-go we see that she's very much a bitch, treating everyone badly (Carter, her roommate Lori, her other sorority sisters, her father etc) and more interested in sleeping with one of her married professors than actually taking his class. It's quite obvious what's going to happen: over the course of the film the reason for Tree's behaviour is revealed and the significance that has with it being her birthday (it involves the loss of her mother), and she accepts that she's treated people wrongly and needs to change her ways. As predictable as this is, it still works, and it has to really, because as an audience it's hard to root for a character as bitchy as Tree initially is, but by the end when the "true" Tree has been revealed we're completely behind her, and a large part of this is down to her budding relationship with Carter.
Tree and Carter have a very likeable chemistry, which is helped by the two funny performances from Jessica Rothe and Israel Broussard. Rothe particularly shows some great comedic chops throughout, whether it's strutting through the campus nude on a day where Tree literally doesn't give a fuck anymore, or awakening and immediately yelling "SILENCE!!!!" before Carter can get a word in. Broussard is likeable as Carter, despite his nice-guy character being a bit predictable, and gets some of the laughs himself in the way he reacts to Tree's various incarnations. You find yourself wanting these two characters to end up together, which leads to an effective scene where even though Tree believes she's successfully broken the cycle, she has to reset yet again as Carter hasn't survived. Rothe and Broussard are, like the rest of the cast, relative unknowns (although you might recognise Rothe as one of Emma Stone's housemates in La La Land who sings "Someone In The Crowd" with her), and while none of the performances here are going to win Oscars, they're all perfectly acceptable for this kind of film and make it inherently watchable.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
A very funny, clever take on the horror genre that wears its similarities with Groundhog Day on its sleeve and has its tongue firmly in cheek. A sharp script, a likeable chemistry between the two main characters and a comedic performance from Jessica Rothe make this the most fun I've had watching a film in long time. Highly recommended!
No comments:
Post a Comment