A total buzzkill
Happy Death Day sequel can’t maintain the momentum of its first 20 minutes
Happy Death Day 2U, the sequel to Happy Death Day, is much like its predecessor — except that this time, it’s a Groundhog Day-inspired comedy-slasher in which a young woman is forced to relive her death over and over again. It also acts as a sci-fi romance and melodrama and includes elements from classic heist films while throwing in a Breaking Bad reference.
It might be tempting to suggest that the returning filmmakers from Happy Death Day embraced a kitchen-sink mentality, but if one had been available, there’s little doubt faucets and a basin would have made their way into the movie, too.
Still, the cold open is unexpectedly good. It sets an irreverent comedic tone, prepping the audience for a winky self-parody that pokes fun at the silliness of the first movie. If Happy Death Day 2U had maintained that momentum beyond its first 20 minutes, it could have been a great film. It does not. And it is not.
The movie draws on the strange details of the first film to craft a parallel story of a science experiment gone wrong. Upgrading Ryan (Phi Vu) from awkward roommate to mad scientist is particularly ingenious. Whereas Ryan has room to grow and change, there is a sense that Tree (Jessica Rothe) already fulfilled her mission in the first movie. Briefly, it feels like we are actually destined for something new and exciting.
But by the film’s midpoint, we are back to Tree’s birthday hangover with more quantum physics thrown in. Like the first movie, the premise promises endless possibilities and variations, but delivers mostly conventional and predictable beats.
Rather than test the limits of the universe, the film is satisfied with playing things safe.
This includes ramming a whole bunch of schmaltzy melodrama about love and family down our throats that would feel heavy-handed in a Nicholas Sparks novel.
In the final act especially, there are endless cries and confessions. For a movie that otherwise feels designed for people who play Grand Theft Auto, these attempts at sincerity feel out of place.
The very premise is that an archetypical “mean girl” is killed over and over again.
Is anyone really walking away from Happy Death Day retaining the altruism that “every day is an opportunity to be a better person?”
It would be easy to try to dismiss all this melodrama as purposeful kitsch, but even if we give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt, the cloying aspects of the movie grind it to a halt.
Any momentum the film has going for it is dashed as characters are forced to make a multiverse version of Sophie’s Choice.
The characters work because they’re mean, funny and dumb. Attempting to make them fully rounded not only dashes the movie’s rebel attitude and comic appeal, but it’s also ruinous for the film’s narrative credibility. These feel-good antics, drawn from the film’s Back to the Future inspirations, only amplify how risk-averse the Happy Death Day films are.
In a film that challenges the confines of reality itself, Happy Death Day 2U is taken down by unfulfilled ambition.
The movie suffers from a serious case of déja vu. And even with time loops and multiverses thrown in, there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before.