Happy Death Day 2U
Don’t worry- a review of Christopher Landon’s “Happy Death Day” is coming (a Quick Take video of my initial thoughts can be found on the Sonic Cinema Podcast YouTube channel, though). For now, let’s focus on the sequel, which has the director, who has written this follow-up, further developing the idea of an endless loop day where the main character has to figure out and learn in order to remove themselves from this Hell. “Groundhog Day” set the template back in 1993, and “Edge of Tomorrow” brought it into the action genre. It’s curious why it took someone so long to make this into a horror film. The first film was well worth the wait.
In “Happy Death Day 2U,” Tree (Jessica Rothe) has finally broken the cycle of death that she found herself caught in on her birthday, and she is enjoying waking up the next morning with Carter (Israel Broussard). Now, we are following Ryan (Phi Vu), Carter’s roommate who was relegated to his car so Tree and Carter could be alone. We see him go from the dorm room to meet his fellow science students as they try to work out the kinks in a device they have created that may have been responsible for Tree’s neverending day. When Ryan finds himself in a similar loop, though, with each iteration ending when he is killed by a baby-masked killer, Tree is pulled back in to her own loop, with a few wrinkles, this time.
I feel like that last paragraph is saying too much about the story Landon has built in this sequel, but there’s really no other way this sequel can be discussed if we don’t know how the story effects Tree, and understand that there might have been a reason beyond narrative trickery for what happened to her in the first one. That’s part of why the sequel is as good as it is, though. If we’re going to have this movie, where Tree finds that her friends are now going through a similar situation, there has to be a logical reason for it. What Landon has come up with isn’t particularly logical, but it is entertaining, and more importantly, Tree finds herself at the center of things once again, giving her real stakes in what ending this particular loop might cause her to lose if she makes a certain choice. That, I will not share with you here.
On the whole, the original “Happy Death Day” was better. It was sharper and more focused in what it did, and how it did it, and it also allowed Rothe a phenomenal showcase, much like those other films did Bill Murray, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Rothe has a great time in this film, as well, and at particular moments, she is given some real weight to play. This is, ultimately, a predictable slasher sequel, however, though not so predictable in who the slasher is this time. We also see a setup for a third one, and I’m interested, but also wondering if Landon runs the risk of jumping the proverbial shark with another go around, as well.
