Happy Death Day 2U

Horror is full of sequels no one wanted. Any modern horror film that does well these days is a potential start to a franchise it seems. It's usually a nuisance. Non stop retreads that add little to the original film and in most cases turn out so badly that they end up tarnishing the original altogether. Every now and then though we get a sequel that works. One that adds to the original and maybe even makes it seem better in retrospect. It's rare but it happens. Very rare tbh because Scream 2 is the only example I can think of offhand. But now we have Happy Death Day 2U. A highly enjoyable sequel that no one asked for from a film no one saw in the first place. Well I saw it (review here) but for my sins I watch everything.

Tree is launched back into her old routine of dying every day only to be instantly resurrected. Her head is fried because she assumed she'd put her tussles with the baby faced serial killer behind her. She thought she was out and before long she realises a science experiment on her college campus has created a time/space anomaly and of course she's at the centre of it all. Alternate timelines of her life are everywhere. She needs to end the experiment so she can start living again. But then she realises that living in an alternate timeline might be better than the one she's trying to get back to...

This was a blast. The first film was fun but this one really shakes the shit out of the formula. Mind boggling time travel flicks like Back To The Future 2 and Primer will come to mind during this. Ok, it's not quite as confusing as those two but it will certainly give your brain a bit of a bruising. It takes the slasher movie by way of Groundhog day story of the original movie and adds a post modern & very knowing sheen to proceedings. The killer story becomes almost a subplot as we watch Tree struggle with the emotional toll of living in a world where her life has taken a very different turn. It's here the film......believe me, this was a surprise......actually starts to build itself a bit of depth, starts to gain a couple of layers and amazingly makes us care about it's thinly drawn characters. Any horror movie that can make you care about it's lead is doing it's job well. Believe me, I've seen enough bad ones to recognise the rare ones doing it right.

It's raison d'etre is to entertain though and it does so in spades. Watching Tree experience her day for the 400th time while everyone around her experiences it as new is never not funny. One of the joys of the original film was trying to guess how Tree would die everyday. We get that again but we also get, for reasons I won't go into, a montage of self inflicted death that some may sound offensive but it's all done in such a silly way that you'll end up just laughing at the chaos. It's not done for shock value either, it feels organic and does genuinely move the story forward. Like the original it all moves like a freight train too. No pauses for rest. It's a nice neat 100 minutes long and manages to pack nearly 200 minutes worth of madness in. I love a film that doesn't outstay its welcome.

Jessica Rothe as Tree keeps everything moving. She has a whale of a time here, packing in slapstick, scream queen antics and even a heart breaking moment or two. Everyone from the original returns too, even the dead (gotta love time travel). Pick of the bunch is Phi Vu as Ryan who makes the most of a much expanded role. Rachel Matthews as Danielle is the one dud note of the film. Her character Danielle is a cipher throughout and when actually called on to do something near the end of the film delivers a scene of farce so painful that you'll watch it through your fingers. It's an odd choice. God only knows what writer/director Christopher Landon was smoking when he wrote it but it's so stupid that it lifts you right out of the film at a time when you should be gnawing your fingers off. It's bad but thankfully it's not film ruiningly bad. The rest does enough right to help us overlook it.

An entertaining watch. But one that really should only be attempted if you've seen the first installment. There's a little recap of the original but it's only there to jog the memories of those of us who've seen it. If you haven't you'll be totally lost. Watch the first one and then go see this. You'll enjoy yourself.