Happy Death Day

2017 horror mystery movie

Rating: 8/20

Plot: A sorority girl is forced to live her birthday over and over again, each day ending with her being murdered by a masked individual.

What the hell am I doing with my life?

In my defense, I really only went to see this because I like the chairs in the theater and needed about 30 minutes of driving time to listen to a podcast. But still, I could have probably seen another movie.

This horror spin on Groundhog Day looked interesting to me, but I knew pretty much right off from the start that these characters were going to be too unlikable for me to want to spend much time with them. Jessica Rothe is cute for a sorority girl, especially if that's your thing. She's also as obnoxious as a Hollywood depiction of a sorority girl can be. As with Bill Murray's character, hers is a dynamic one, but the whole thing is handled superficially, and her character is so unlikable at the start, that you just never really end up rooting for her. The supporting characters, with the exception of the guy whose dorm room she keeps waking up in and the masked killer just because you really support his efforts after a while, are equally obnoxious. This is the type of movie that can make an old fart like me hate college-aged kids.

There are all kinds of opportunities for this movie to be clever, but it never takes advantage of them. I generally like the fun repetitious things in time-travel or time-loop movies like this, but they didn't really serve much of a purpose here except to remind us that she was indeed reliving the same day over and over again. The movie does make an allusion to Groundhog Day at one point, but instead of being something sneaky or clever, it just basically has a character saying, "Hey, this whole movie kind of seems like a rip-off of Groundhog Day, doesn't it?" It wasn't the first time I groaned audibly and rolled my eyes while watching this.

I'll give the movie this--it is unpredictable. You won't figure out who the killer is until it's revealed. Unfortunately, that's because the whole thing is stupid and doesn't make much sense. But wait a few minutes because there'll be yet another twist that makes even less sense followed by another twist that will make you wish you had just decided to stay home and enjoy some gluten-free pretzels instead.

The main character's name is Tree. What is there not to hate about this movie?

Mental note: If a movie's title is as bad as Happy Death Day, don't waste your time seeing the movie. Which does make me wonder: What is the best movie with a terrible title? Maybe I'll make a list at some point.