PG-13, 1h 40m – Horror, Mystery, Thriller
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“Happy Death Day 2 U,” the sequel to 2017’s “Happy Death Day,” is a “Scream” meets “Back To the Future” meets “Groundhog Day” attempt at the slasher-genre, only not nearly as good as any of those films.
In this film our heroine from the first movie, Tree Gelbman (played with surprising range by Jessica Rothe), discovers that dying over and over in the first film was surprisingly easier than the dangers that lie ahead. If only it was easier for the filmmakers to take advantage of such a clever premise the second time around. Writer/director Christopher Landon (writer on a whole bunch of “Paranormal Activity” films) adds the element of dimensional time travel into what was essentially a lightweight (PG-13) horror film in part one and ups the comedy, but the audience is left with the ingredients to a recipe that don’t quite mix together. The look of the cake is better than the taste.
The pic is chock-full of pop-culture and movie references (mostly Universal Studios properties, who’s distributed both films) which leads me to wonder why they didn’t use the “Evil Dead” template while turning the film’s previous genre on its head. After the 1983 horror film, Director Sam Raimi returned to the franchise that launched his career with 1987’s “Evil Dead 2,” and with it brought a ton of comedy. I would venture the film is considered more of a comedy than a horror film. It wasn’t afraid to go all the way with the laughs.
“Happy Death Day 2 U” seems hesitant to make that change. The first half of the film plays like the horror/thriller the original film was, but this sequel turns into more of a comedy by the halfway point. If you are going to commit, commit from page one.
Still, after a rocky first act, I found myself being slowly won over by the change and enjoyed the last 30 minutes of the movie. If only it could have been that way from the start.
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“Happy Death Day 2 U” arrives in theaters this Friday. You can follow this movie on Facebook and Twitter.
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