Film Review: Happy Death Day 2 U

"Oh, My God. Everything Is Different. This Time It’s Coming After All Of Us..."

Whilst it is never surprising within the contemporary world of cinema to see sequels, prequels and spin-offs when any feature ticks the financial boxes by surpassing box office expectations, it's fair to say that no one really expected a sequel to 2017's, Happy Death Day, the highly entertaining, knowingly camp, Blumhouse slasher flick featuring a starring lead performance from Jessica Rothe as Tree who, just for recap purposes, becomes stuck in a Groundhog Day influenced death loop as she is followed and subsequently murdered countless times by a creepy, baby-face masked killer on the campus of her flashy, up-market college. But with the dollar signs stamped on a very well-worn narrative which took almost thirty times its' production budget across the globe, here we go again with Happy Death Day 2 U, the rather awkwardly titled follow up which sees Rothe once again face battle with continued death as she attempts to save not only herself, but her newly formed and overly geeky acquaintances, from an endless cycle of murderous rampaging. Whilst it comes at no surprise that Death Day part two knowingly treads over highly familiar and already well-worn ground, the cheesy demeanor and likable sensibility the film evokes results in a sequel which fails to be classed as anything resembling memorable, but is undoubtedly a moderately enjoyable B-movie flick nonetheless. 

With the original taking large leafs out of the book of Scream and every other slasher flick both before and after, Happy Death Day 2 U chooses to revert to an almost different genre entirely, where amidst the numerous expected murderous set pieces is an underlying narrative which seems to fit more into the science fiction genre rather than horror. With characters outright asking each other whether they have seen Back to Future in one particular scene, the nods to the notion of time travel results in a more interesting sequel than one might have expected, with the brave choice of reverting the assumed genre actually quite rewarding as we move from one outrageous set piece to the next in a sequel which easily could have been called Happy Death Day: Into the Murderverse. With storytelling plot holes saved by the good graces of some flashy editing, the epileptic tone not entirely sitting comfortably in one particular zone, and an overriding sense that maybe one film may have been more than enough, Death Day is of course flaky and overly flawed, but a movie which on the other hand surprisingly never becomes dull or dis-interesting, largely thanks to an assortment of likable characters and a continual hit rate of laugh out loud comedic one-liners and slapstick arrangements, but with a post-credits scene which hints at even more chapters to come, Happy Death Day 2 U is indeed throwaway fun, but that's all it is. 

Overall Score: 6/10