One of the many Halloween-themed movies that are released in October, Happy Death Day has risen to the be top of the box office. The movie’s budget was a measly 5 million dollars but pulled in more that 5 fold in profit on opening weekend (26 Million). Debuting on a very coincidental date, Friday the 13th of October, the story depicts Jessica Rothe playing the character Tree (Teresa) Gelbman, A college student who lives in a sorority house right off campus. She seems to be a part of the “elite” group at the school, which is shown by her sorority leader’s personality and agitation towards the littlest issues in the group, example being a girl getting chocolate milk at lunch instead of something “healthier”. This particular Monday is Tree’s birthday which does not mean much in the grand scheme of the story line, but it is the day that is being repeated. She starts by trying to fix what is happening to her by herself. Later, she starts relying on the people, specifically Carter, on helping her through this nightmare. Together, they make an extensive list of everyone who knows her birthday along with who would want to kill her.
The film is advertised as a teenage horror. Upon watching, I had more questions about the story than anything else. First of all, there is no reason why Tree has to repeat this day of her life. What is so special about this day? Yes, it is her birthday, but there is no significance to it. You would think there should be a reason for example, she wronged someone in her life and its finally back to haunt her, but there was not any evidence to prove that theory. I guess the universe just decided that this particular day she would repeat.
You would think that a movie of this caliber and budget would not cut corners think the average viewer would not notice. However, there were multiple scenes where there were repeated scenes along with cheesy gags to build suspense in tight situations. The only car scene in the whole movie showed Tree quickly backing up then accelerating towards the exit. This scene showed a repeated scene when Tree quickly shifted the car into reverse, then back into drive. The editors decided to repeat the same shifting sequence, which for someone caught in the moment probably would not notice but anyone actually paying attention would notice the exaggerated movement very quickly.
Cheesy, unrealistic events should not be integrated in these high dollar movies. On a car chase scene involving Tree and a police officer, the officer was caught off guard when blindsided by the “killer” in a car. Somehow when the killer’s car collided with the police car, it created a trail of gas that was pouring out of the gas cap. So,if you hit a car hard enough on the door to the gas cap, gallons of gas will start pouring out? Good job producers.
