SUCCESSFUL: Happy Death Day 2U manages to expand upon a standalone film with almost no source material, without ruining what made the first film good.
By Micah Pierce, Staff Writer
There doesn’t seem to be many different ways one could repackage what is essentially the same movie and effectively sell it to audiences a second time, yet director Christopher Landon manages it in his creation of Happy Death Day 2U. The film’s time loop originates on Tuesday the 19th, as opposed to the first film, whose time loop begins on Monday the 18th. More light is shed on the cause of the time loops introduced in Happy Death Day, revealing connections with quantum computers and alternate realities. The central conflict of the film sees Tree Gelbman, played by returning actress Jessica Rothe, struggling to find a way home after getting stranded in a time loop in another dimension. Once again, a killer sporting a babyface mask pursues Tree, but to her horror, he also targets her friends.
While the original movie focused far more on the slasher and horror aspects of cinema, Happy Death Day 2U explores science fiction much more. The change in tone serves the film well, since few people want to see the exact same recycled jump scares mixed with the same boring time loops. The metaphysical aspect of the film adds another layer of depth to a movie that could have been an enormous bore. And Landon doesn’t think to stop at only two genres, adding yet another layer in the form of the film’s comedy.
Part of what elevates the movie’s humor is its self-awareness, how keen it is for audiences to be in on every joke it has. The film is jam-packed full of just about every common college movie trope there is, balancing moments of suspense with those of laughter. The tongue-in-cheek nature of the film’s tropes aren’t limited to narrative and character ones either, as the movie contains three separate cheesy montage moments, a heart-wrenching family subplot, and a point at which it somehow turns into a heist movie. The wacky spontaneity works well for a movie split three ways between genres.
Happy Death Day 2U succeeded in no small part thanks to the level of risk taking included in the film. It’s refreshing to see a director go so far off the beaten path and subvert so many expectations, yet still produce a movie enjoyable to watch. The blending of all the ragtag elements thrown into the film somehow just works.