Review 2. It’s 1AM? Do you know where your writers are? Probably awake like me thinking of the thousand ideas that didn’t come to them when they were coherent enough to write them down during the day. True story. Ask a writer. They can confirm this. That isn’t why you are here though or likely the time you are reading this. You want to know if the idea of Groundhogs Day as a horror movie works. The trailer sets it up nicely and I am surprised by the amount of restraint they show.

So did it work or will watching this make you relive a nightmare over and over and over…and …

Scott Lobdell, yes the same guy who wrote Uncanny X-Men in the 90s  and created one of my favorite characters “Blink”, takes a stab (sorry I had to) at big screen film writing with Happy Death Day. We are not discussing 2005’s Man of the House or a potential sorority focus he may have in his work. We are, however discussing the fact he wrote a fairly straight forward slasher film with the Groundhogs day twist. It’s a slasher film with a hidden killer and a time loop story. I can’t say much more on it without spoilers. It’s pretty basic, but utterly functional in its application. Director Christopher Landon (writer on Blood and Chocolate, and director of Paranormal Activity The Marked Ones) has enough to work with and a few good set pieces to play with, even if they are basic in the college slasher film. The remote college campus, a hospital which always seem to have abandoned wings in them, and a sorority/frat house.

Again it’s all pretty basic, but as I mentioned to a coworker today – in the horror genre if you can make basic work that isn’t so bad. They play with some interesting conceits in the film which was a nice change of pace and try to keep it interesting. The primary failing and I have to warn is that there is not a lot of gore here as Blumhouse (production company) and Universal went for a PG-13 rating rather than a hard R. This is October guys. Go for the R. Nothing is going to disappoint a horror movie fan more, especially in the month of horror, than a weak film that doesn’t go for the throat when it can. You can get away with a PG-13 horror film but to do that you need more than this delivers in the story, scares, and thrills department. I am not sure if they shot for the R and it got edited to the PG-13 or what, but the lack of some key slasher genre elements really weakens the film. I know some are booking this a horror comedy – but the comedy doesn’t quite land for me. It does have fun with it’s premise and that at least counts for something.

It isn’t a total waste though as Jessica Rothe (La La Land), who plays our victim Tree (yes…that is her name) does carry the film to the best of her ability and I like her! This is necessary and it works and really keeps the movie out of the bad category. The problem of course is it isn’t a lot of weight to carry. She covers the gamut of emotions in her performance and it does work to watch her develop after each death. The film does not spend  too much time before getting to the first kill which was pleasing; just enough to establish and then get into the guts of things. I’d like to say any of the deaths were inventive within the trope they were playing with, but it’s all pretty straight forward.

TL;DR?

Happy Death Day is an OK film, but literally almost anyone could have succeeded with this concept. It isn’t a stupid film, nor does it really treat the characters or audience in a stupid way but it also doesn’t challenge us. The rating and lack of guts (figurative and actual) hampers the movie in ways I didn’t realize until I was writing this. I just kept feeling something was missing and now I realize what it was. Do I want to see Rothe die over and over again in gory ways? Eh not particularly, but if you want a real “Final Girl” you have to give us something to sink our teeth into and taste and this one just doesn’t do it.

Should you see it?

If you are a genre fan maybe, but at matinee only.

Are you going to buy it?

Ask me in 4 months when it comes out on BluRay and I’ll decide then, right now that is up in the air. Unrated then yes.

Was it bad or something?

No. I was in fact entertained, but in this field I want to also feel some tension but I felt absolutely none. So it fails as a horror movie even if it succeeded at being mildly entertaining.

Ok so what’s next for October?

Well, I was hoping to see American Satan this weekend, but Tucson has no screenings of it. I really like Andy Black and this just looks positively interesting – and I will take interesting.