Happy Death Day 2U

2017's Happy Death Day was an extremely clever and fun mix of slasher thrillers and the basic plot of Groundhog Day, where its lead heroine Tree Gelbman (played by the winning Jessica Rothe) had to solve her own murder by reliving the day she died over and over.  It had a sharp sense of humor, and a surprisingly strong human center, as Tree was forced to learn from her own mistakes, and become a better person in the process.  It was one of the year's more pleasant surprises to me, and my admiration for it has only grown as I have rewatched it since its release.

In Happy Death Day 2U, returning director Christopher Landon (who has taken over script writing duties this time around) has kept everything that worked in the original in tact, but this time seems to be focused much more strongly on the Science Fiction angle of the story, rather than the slasher elements.  Yes, someone is still trying to kill Tree, and the mystery murderer still wears a goofy baby mask to cover their identity that looks an awful lot like Baby Herman from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  But Landon's screenplay seems much more bent on the fantastic elements of the story, which includes parallel dimensions and time paradoxes.  There's a good reason why a couple of the characters bring up Back to the Future Part II in one scene, as both movies are about convoluted but fun timelines where characters from the original movie face different fates, or have a completely different personality or outcome all together.  Some people may be disappointed that the movie has almost abandoned the thriller element, as the movie is being advertised as a slasher film with a comic bent.  But, I personally had a blast with this.

Just like before, Tree is at the center of it all, and Rothe's performance is filled with strong comic timing and on-screen charm.  As much as I enjoy her in these movies, I do hope she gets to move beyond them soon, and get some other great roles.  I personally think she would do great as the lead in a smart romantic comedy.  Also back is Ryan (Phi Vu), who had a minor role in the original as the roommate of Tree's eventual love interest, Carter (Israel Broussard), but he gets upgraded to a main supporting role here, as it turns out he and some of his friends (including Carter) have been working on a science experiment in the campus basement that manipulates time, and was the cause for Tree reliving the same day over and over the last time around.  To make a long and very complicated story short, something goes wrong with said experiment, and Tree finds herself reliving the same day from the first movie over again.  She wakes up in Carter's dorm room, it's Monday the 18th (her birthday), and a deranged person hiding their face with a baby mask is lurking about trying to kill her.  Also like before, every time Tree dies, she wakes up in bed, starting the day over again.

However, this time, everything is different.  I cannot go into too much detail, but the fun of the film is seeing how things have been mixed up or altered from the first movie.  Some characters are acting different, some are in relationships when they were not before, and entire plot elements or the fates of certain characters have been switched around.  Tree has somehow been warped to a parallel universe that is like her world, but things are on a different path.  Again, I cannot go into any detail.  All I will say is don't even think of watching this unless you watch the original beforehand.  In fact, I would almost recommend a back-to-back screening of both movies, so you can pick up on all the details and how things have been changed.  This is a movie that loves to subvert the expectations of those who are familiar with the first, and that's one of the things I loved about it.  So many sequels repeat the same formula and structure, only raising the stakes.  What Landon has done is make a sequel that starts out following the rules set by the first, and then goes off into entirely different, imaginative and increasingly funny directions.

Just like last month's Glass, Happy Death Day 2U is made for an extremely specific audience.  This time, however, I felt like I was part of the crowd, rather than an outsider.  I loved seeing how the movie would play against my expectations, and I especially loved seeing Tree reacting to these changes, which get some of the biggest laughs in the film.  This is a movie built around throwing metaphorical curve balls into its plot, but it does play fair.  Even if things are different, these are still the people we came to love from before.  This is a sequel that knows what made the original a success, and knows what to keep, and what to subvert.  The movie doesn't really bother with introducing any newcomers into the mix.  It's all about giving the characters from the first new roles to play, and sometimes expanded ones as events play out differently.

I admire what the filmmakers have done with this, but I honestly hope they stop here, as I'm not sure how much more they can bend things to keep the formula a success.  If the original was a pleasant, clever and funny surprise, then this is in a lot of ways even more clever and funny.  Just don't walk into this one cold.  Not only will you not get the jokes, you probably won't get the entire movie itself.

0 comments