Official Dreadit Discussion: "Happy Death Day" [SPOILERS]

[u/kaloosa]

Official Trailer

Summary: Tree Gelbman wakes up again and again on the same day – her birthday – only to be murdered and restart the process until she finds out who killed her.

Director: Christopher B. Landon

Writer: Scott Lobdell

Cast:

• Jessica Rothe as Tree Gelbman
• Israel Broussard as Carter Davis
• Ruby Modine as Lori
• Rachel Matthews as Danielle
• Charles Aitken as Gregory
• Rob Mello as Joseph Tombs

Rotten Tomatoes: 67%

Metacritic: 56/100

[u/honeymoonavenue69]

I loved it. Very fresh, unique, creative, and fun. Nothing too mind-blowingly epic or insane, but definitely a great time at the movies.

It reminds me a bit of a Scream Queens which I absolutely love. I love horror when it can blend in smart humor and heart.

[u/crazygoalie39 → u/honeymoonavenue69]

Exactly. Very fun. Best corny, teen slasher type movie I've seen in a long time. Brought me back to the good ole days of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, etc.

[u/djotp]

It was a really fun movie. Not scary, but I was entertained. Basically what you would expect from the trailer, EXCEPT. . . (Soundtrack Spoiler?)

There is no 50 Cent 😰. Different ringtone altogether. So prepare yourself for that . . .

[u/chuckups → u/djotp]

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE. It's like when M.I.A.'s Paper Planes wasn't in Pineapple Express after they used it in every single advertisement

[u/IanGrag]

Saw it in a packed theater tonight. Only problem was nearly everyone in the theater was middle school aged. Probably since they couldn’t get into IT for being R rated they went to see a PG13 horror movie instead. Not a complaint, just a funny comment. Their frequent gasps and cheers made me laugh.

Anyways, I went in expecting it to be lame, but my expectations were actually blown away. The hook is never explained, which is really strange, but the reveal I actually didn’t see coming, and there’s a lot of actually really sweet moments. It’s not scary, and if you want to see it, don’t watch the trailers first.

That said though...

Where the hell was In Da Club? I feel ripped off.

[u/[deleted] → u/IanGrag]

The hook is never explained, which is really strange

I've rarely seen a "time loop" story where the cause of the time loop was explained. I mean seriously, they even reference Groundhog Day at the end.

[u/[deleted]]

A great reminder that horror movies can still be fun

[u/ogmarker]

Just got home from the movies. Really, really enjoyed it. However I can understand that not a lot of people on this sub will dig it.

To give an example of why I think this, an entire Demi Lovato song plays throughout a death montage. Do with that info what you will lol

It's a fun time at the movies though, so if you're open to it I'd suggest going for it and checking it out.

[u/[deleted]]

Let's be honest, who thought at the end when Carter plays her and recreates the loop that there was going to be another plot twist? ✋🏻

[u/[deleted]]

This was just dumb fun. Not really horror, but great nevertheless.

[u/mccuish1525]

I just came out of the theatre seeing this movie. It was a fun horror movie version of Groundhog Day.

[u/awkwardgemini]

I liked it. I don’t think of it as a serious horror movie, it was different and kind of refreshing to see something different. It could be cheesy at times but never bothered me.

In my opinion it stopped being a horror movie about 30-40 minutes in. I liked the cast, thought they did a good job. I’d give it a 7 out of 10

[u/[deleted]]

I love the Groundhog Day reference at the end, it gave the movie some more cred imo as it isn't trying to be 100% original and Groundhog Day was 1993 and not, well, a slasher

and also because Groundhog Day is 1 of my favorite movies. I've been seeing it every year on Groundhog Day since I was a kid.

gets a 9/10 for me. Pretty original idea (Groundhog Day as a slasher) and good execution.

[u/[deleted]]

Can do so much worse than this for Halloween fare. It was pretty fun, and the lead is a really solid actress who carried the movie on her back. I would recommend it for someone looking for an hour and a half to burn that enjoys these time loop templates.

I just wish they found a way to keep the 50 cent ring tone. It really added an extra touch in the trailer and I was irked that it (probably had to be) changed.

[u/[deleted]]

Did anyone catch why the loop occurred? I didn’t even gave it a thought until I got home haha.

Like others have said, it’s a really entertaining film but it was pretty easy to figure out the killer. Well, the first reveal did throw me off.

[u/Belgand → u/[deleted]]

I made the mistake of thinking that the serial killer had killed her mother. She reacted immediately to the story, her death was fairly recent, and it was never explained. The idea being that he was now back to finish the job. It was an obvious red herring (that I was briefly worried they were going to play straight instead of subverting), but it gelled those various elements.

Why is this relevant? Because it gives more weight to the time loop as a metaphor. She shared a birthday with her mother. Having her mother murdered would cast a pall over it for her, explaining why she was so indifferent. But that's because she is unable to get over things. She is metaphorically reliving that day over and over again. Her own death is thus turned into a chance to set right what once went wrong and get over things. It's not a literal explanation for the magical element, but it gives it a thematic reason to exist. Much like existing stories about ghosts that have to solve their own murder before they can move on. For this reason I also expected slightly more connection to the mother or even father (What's up with her constantly ignoring his calls? That felt like it was going to go somewhere) in the end.

[u/HistoryNerdi21]

Writer Scott Lobdell has been getting zero attention for this movie. Why is that?

[u/alamo89]

The only unbelievable part was when Tree didn't know who Bill Murray was.

[u/The7Reaper]

Will someone spoil me on who the killer is? I want to know if one of my 3 guesses is right.

1. The guy whose room she keeps waking up in.

2. Her friend in the purple-ish shirt who gives her a cupcake

3. The girl in the green-ish running shirt who she meets in the dorm

Those are my guesses on who the killer is from the trailers.

[u/mikelfour64]

Saw it last night. I had a lot of fun with it. Earlier on I had a theory that the killer set the loop into motion by some occult means because they hated Tree so much that they wanted to kill her over and over; though I wasn’t disappointed that it was left unexplained.

[u/calebtizon]

I saw this last night for my birthday, which was very special. A pseudo-slasher on a horror fan's birthday in the middle of October? Perfect. I expected it to be more of a dumb slasher, and ended up absolutely loving it. It's not horror to me at all - more of a mish-mash of various genres. It wasn't scary in the least bit, but it knew exactly what it was and didn't try to be anything else. I was grinning ear to ear nearly the while time.

[u/dyld921]

I really enjoyed this movie. Good writing trumps the lack of blood and gore, and it's a great example of how PG-13 horror can still be good.

It was satisfying to watch the main character grow throughout each day. It's a good deconstruction of the "mean girl" trope. You know the type, promiscuous blonde who gets offed in the first 10 minutes. She starts out as not being a very nice person, but eventually through character development she becomes the Final Girl. Not that this hasn't been done before (ala Buffy) but it's done pretty well imo.

I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously. There's some good jokes here but not too overblown. One flaw is perhaps with the red herring killer. We know it's obviously not him so the final sequence felt drawn out.

Also, who names their kid Tree? Were her parents hippies?

[u/RealNotFake]

I really liked it for what it was. Not scary in the slightest though, but that's ok. My only beef was how unrealistic it was when she woke up and suddenly decided to be a decent person. If anything, the actress did such a good job portraying the original snarky and selfish persona that it didn't feel believable when she does a 180. In Groundhog Day the whole point is that he changed over a very long period of time.

Also I feel as if the movie could have been more tightly edited. There are some scenes that kinda drag on and could be shortened. Overall I would recommend. It's a solid B.

[u/-TheShape]

Yeah, I'd say it was fun. Better than most throwaway horror fare. Hadn't watched the trailer so I went in fresh and didn't have the fatigue some people are describing. Competently made and entertaining. Groundhog Day scenario is interesting. They could have taken it a lot further though. The tone is very light, bordering on satire sometimes. Very obviously aimed at a teenage demographic.

SPOLIERS

Regarding the killer, did anyone find the red herring a bit disingenuous? It didn't make sense that the serial killer in the hospital would target her so singlemindedly given he has no motive or attachment to her (unless I missed something?). Kind of cheapened the whole thing for me and just seemed like a hollow trope they tried to adhere to.

[u/yellacopter]

Jessica Rothe f*cking killed it. The ending(s) were underwhelming and silly, respectively. But it didn't matter at that point. This movie was all about Tree, and she outshined the (many) flaws. For a teen horror film version of Groundhog Day, this was way better than I was expecting.