Movie Review: Happy Death Day 2U

Happy Death Day 2U *** / *****

Directed by: Christopher Landon.

Written by: Christopher Landon.

Starring: Jessica Rothe (Tree Gelbman), Israel Broussard (Carter Davis), Phi Vu (Ryan Phan), Suraj Sharma (Samar Ghosh), Sarah Yarkin (Andrea “Dre” Morgan), Rachel Matthews (Danielle Bouseman), Ruby Modine (Lori Spengler), Steve Zissis (Dean Bronson), Charles Aitken (Gregory Butler), Laura Clifton (Stephanie Butler), Missy Yager (Julie Gelbman), Jason Bayle (David Gelbman).

 

I’m not sure I realized just how much I enjoyed the first Happy Death Day from 2017 until I saw the trailer for Happy Death Day 2U, and got excited about seeing them continue the story. In a way, the fact that the original film is precisely the type of film you should not be able to make a sequel to is precisely the reason why it is the perfect film to make a sequel to. Like the original film, Happy Death Day 2U doesn’t take itself seriously – at all – it’s a goofy horror movie riff that is almost more comedy than horror. And the sequel adds in goofy sci fi to the mix as well – not real sci fi, but 1980s teen comedy sci fi to it. Like the original, the ambition of the film is almost shockingly low – and you kind of realize half way through both films that they are going to somewhat squander an ingenious premise because the filmmakers aren’t willing to push themselves too far. And yet, both films are also a surprisingly fun time at the movies. If you cannot enjoy yourself watching these films, there’s something wrong with you.

 

In the opening scenes of Happy Death Day 2U, we think the film is going to change focus from our heroine in the first film – Tree (Jessica Rothe) – and instead focus on her now boyfriend, Carter’s (Israel Broussard) roommate Ryan (Phi Vu) – as he seems to be going through the same thing she went through in the first film – basically being stalked by a knife wielding maniac in a Baby Mask – and every time that psycho baby kills him, he wakes up and starts the same day over again. But the movie quickly dispatches this premise – and launches into a different one – involving his science experiment, which created the time loop in the first place, and has now transported Tree to another part of the multi-verse, which is very similar to the one she just left, but not exactly. And once again, she keeps dying and resetting the time loop – but this time, well, I’ll just let you figure that out.

 

The movie is goofy in its depiction of the multiverse, and leaves some fairly basic questions not only unanswered, but also completely unasked (if Tree is transported to another dimension, what happened to the Tree in that dimension – and everyone else for that matter at the scene of the explosion?). In a way, I kind of wanted to see the film follow through on the beginning – because the identity of Ryan’s killer (revealed about 10 minutes into the film) opens up a wealth of possibilities that the film just kind of ignores. I get it through – Jessica Rothe is the star here – she is terrific in both films, working her ass off in a role that requires a hell of lot of emotional whiplash from her, and she makes it all look easy. She is a movie star in the making to be sure.

 

Yes, the film is goofy as hell – but it knows that, and fully embraces its goofiness. This is even less of a horror film than the first film is, but is perhaps even more fun as a result, because it really leans into being a little more than a goofy good time. Yes, the ambitions are low – but the film exceeds them.

Movie Review: Happy Death Day

Happy Death Day *** / *****

Directed by: Christopher Landon.

Written by: Scott Lobdell.

Starring: Jessica Rothe (Tree Gelbman), Israel Broussard (Carter Davis), Ruby Modine (Lori), Rachel Matthews (Danielle), Charles Aitken (Gregory), Jason Bayle (David), Phi Vu (Ryan Phan), Donna Duplantier (Nurse Deena), Rob Mello (Joseph Tombs), Cariella Smith (Becky).

 

Happy Death Day is a goofy horror movie riff on Groundhog Day – and the best thing about the movie is that it knows how goofy it is. This isn’t really a scary movie – there are a couple of moments that may make the uninitiated jump, but for the most part, you likely won’t be too scared by the movie. Instead, the movie just want to have a little fun with the genre, and for the most part succeeds. I wish the movie had pushed itself a little harder – a better ending could have upped this film from fun, forgettable time waster into something more than that – but its ambitions are not that high.

 

The film opens with university student Tree (Jessica Rothe), waking up in a strange dorm room, hungover, and not quite sure how she got there. The dorm room belongs to Carter (Israel Broussard) – and he isn’t the creep we first assume him to be (it’s a little sad how low we set the bar for not creep like behavior for men on university campuses, but apparently just not sleeping with a girl who is almost unconscious from drinking too much is where we’re at). She quickly gets her stuff together, and does the “walk of shame” back to her sorority, and then goes through the rest of the day – her birthday – dodging calls from her dad, and apparently interacting with every person she knows on campus. That night, on her way to a party – she is attacked and murdered by some knife wielding psycho wearing a baby mask – but just as she dies, she wakes up in Carter’s room, and does the whole thing over again. And again. And again. And again. No matter what she does, it always ends the same – with the knife wielding psycho in the baby mask killing her. She figures if she can figure out who the killer is, than she can stop them – but that is more complicated than it sounds.

 

Like Tree, you’ll spend most of the film trying to piece together who the killer is – although a montage part way through takes a lot of suspects out of the running too early for my tastes. The last act of the movie is more than a little bit of a mess – and goes on a lengthy misdirection that was raised so many questions in my head that it obviously had to be a misdirection, and so it’s more than a little farfetched than Tree – who had lived through the day dozens of times by now – would ever believe it.

 

And yet, I have to say that for the most part, I enjoyed Happy Death Day. No, it’s hardly a classic, and it keeps its ambitions shockingly low – using Groundhog Day as a template should be where the filmmakers start innovating, not stop. But in Rothe, the film has found a star in the making – she’s funny and charming, and you root for her even in the first act, where she is admittedly a pretty horrible person. Happy Death Day probably could have – and should have – been better than it ultimately is – there is a great horror movie with this basic premise to be made. But for an October programmer, its good – a horror movie for people to watch this Halloween season that won’t scare them as much as keep them entertained. Its low risk, low reward to be sure – but its fun.

Movie Review: Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Directed by:  Christopher Landon.
Written by: Christopher Landon.
Starring: Andrew Jacobs (Jesse), Jorge Diaz (Hector), Catherine Toribio (Penelope), Meredith Eaton (Convina), Richard Cabral (Arturo), Gabrielle Walsh (Marisol), Noemi Gonzalez (Evette), Katie Featherston (Katie), Molly Ephraim (Ali), Micah Sloat (Micah), Eddie J. Fernandez (Carlos), Renee Victor (Jesse's Grandmother), Karolin Luna (Laura Esposito), Chloe Csengery (Katie), Jessica Tyler Brown (Kristi), Carlos Pratts (Oscar Hernandez), Gloria Sandoval (Anna).

I have never seen any of the Paranormal Activity movies after the first one. I saw that one early – before it had become a low budget hit – and it surprised, scared and shocked me more than most horror movies have. It seemed like at long last another filmmaker had followed in the footsteps of The Blair Witch Project and made another do-it-yourself hit. When Blair Witch came out, I thought we’d see more like it – but for a long time, it seemed like a one off. I didn’t see Paranormal Activity 2 mainly because I didn’t want my pure, scary experience of the first film ruined – in the way that inferior sequels sometimes can diminish their better originals. When Oren Peli made the first film, he was doing it with no money and no interference (although, apparently, they did reshoot the ending) – but once it made money and studios got involved – and Peli left for other projects – I didn’t really want to see them. The reviews of the sequels were mixed, and once I fell behind, I never quite got the urge to catch up. I cannot say why I decided to rent Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones this past weekend – probably boredom, as I walked around the lone video store in my town looking for something to watch that night. Also, I knew that the film wasn’t really a sequel – a Paranormal Activity 5 will come out in its normal October time slot, as this series has taken over from the Saw franchise (which I also gave up on – I don’t think I ever saw the final installment) as Hollywood’s go-to October horror franchise – but rather a spin off. Presumably, it came into being via focus group – as some studio executive realized that America had a lot of Latinos, and they liked horror movies, so giving that audience a Paranormal Activity of their own seemed like a good – albeit cheap – bet. It’s easy to be cynical about such a move – especially since the resulting movie indulges in pretty much every cliché of Latinos one can think of – short of anyone coming out in a sombrero that is. I cannot help but think it probably would have been a smart idea to hand the writing and directing duties to a Latino filmmaker instead of someone who had simply written the last few installments. The truth is however, and this is sad, is that Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones will be one of the few studio movies this year with Latino leads – so I guess it’s a win somewhat. Too bad the movie isn’t very good.

Instead of white suburban household, this Paranormal Activity takes place in a rundown apartment complex in Oxnard – populated mainly by Latinos. Best friends Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) and Hector (Jorge Diaz) have just graduated from high school, and are in that hazy time after high school when they’re not exactly sure what to do with themselves. Then a strange incident happens – as an older woman named Anna, who there have long since been rumors of her dabbling in witchcraft, gets murdered – presumably by the straight laced valedictorian of Jesse and Jorge’s high school. The pair cannot help but investigate the apartment after the police have gone – and then strange things start happening to Jesse – who slowly, but surely, starts to change – and develop weird powers. At first, Jesse thinks this is cool, but then he cannot control himself – he starts getting angry and violent – and Jorge, and Jesse’s friends and family try to bring him back from the brink of whatever is happening to him. Oh, and they communicate with the “other side” via an old Simon toy – which is creepier than it sounds.

The found footage genre is pretty much played out at this point. For every clever use of the technique – like Cloverfield, Chronicle or End of Watch – there’s a lot more low rent horror movies (or horrible comedies like Project X) which are basically dull, boring and incomprehensible because of the constantly shaking camera. There is very little new being done with the genre, as filmmakers seem content to simply repeat what has worked in the past. And audiences don’t seem to mind.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked One is one of the films that doesn’t do anything new. All the scares you’ve seen before – and even if the movie gets a couple of cheap, momentarily scares out of big “BOO!” moments, there is never the mounting sense of terror that made the original Paranormal Activity so genuinely terrifying. The best part of the movie may well be the opening act – with only a few hints of the supernatural. Jacobs and Diaz have an easy, natural chemistry between them and those opening scenes really did make me care about their characters. I cared less and less as the movie wore on, and it became more and more by the numbers – but there was something there in those opening scenes.

In short, the movie doesn’t do anything all that new, and I do wish it had upended some of the Latino clichés instead of fully embracing them. It’s not a horrible movie – it’s watchable all the way through – yet there is a definite been there, done that feel to the entire movie. I suppose if you’re not sick of this franchise yet, you may even enjoy the film. But this is only the second of these I’ve seen – and I’m already tired of them.