The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Death, warmed over nicely
Time-loop slasher romp ‘Happy Death Day 2U’ has appeal of predecessor without making us relive it “The Bling Ring”), is enjoying some intimate time with new girlfriend Tree (Jessica Rothe) and tells Ryan in no uncertain terms to get lost
Not too long after, he is stabbed to death by a person wearing the now-familiar one-toothed baby mask Bayfield students wear to honor their mascot. (“Who picks a creepy baby as a mascot,” Ryan asks later, echoing a question on our minds since the first movie. “I should have gone to MIT.”)
“Happy Death Day” — a 2017 B-movie blending a “Groundhog Day”like time-looping concept with slasher-flick tropes — shouldn’t have worked as well as it did, but the romp has proved so fun as to warrant repeated viewings on cable.
And its new sequel certainly shouldn’t work as well as it does, either.
That’s not to say “Happy Death Day 2U” fits together quite as tightly as you’d like — it’s a little messy here and there. On the other hand, it isn’t merely the retread of “Happy Death Day” you might have feared from its secretskeeping but in retrospect hints-revealing trailer.
Returning writer-director Christopher Landon (“Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones”) dials up the ridiculous meter this time, giving us a movie that lets its geek flag fly with a tale that doesn’t just dip its toes but instead dunks its head into some heady sci-fi concepts and has a really good time doing it.
You wouldn’t know that this isn’t the first movie repackaged from the opening moments, however, when Ryan (Phi Vu, “Pitch Perfect 2”), a bit player from the first movie, awakens in his car and proceeds to experience a sequence of minor events.
He almost gets bitten by a dog.
He’s surprised by a beggar hiding in some bushes.
After he enters his dormitory at fictional Bayfield University, a resident screams at another for practicing the trombone in the hallway.
When he goes to his room, his roommate, Carter (Israel Broussard,
The first movie taught us to expect to witness many variations of this day, which, one way or another, will end in Ryan’s murder. Instead, though, the second time Ryan enters his room after reliving all those little moments before that, he explains to Carter and Tree what he’s just experienced, and Tree is only too ready to believe him.
“OK, recap,” Tree says to Ryan and Carter, and goes about summarizing the events of the first movie, which saw her die 11 times on her birthday until she completely solved the mystery of who was killing her and why and woke up the next day for the first time in a while.
It soon becomes apparent that a thesis project being worked on by Ryan and fellow aspiring engineers Samar (Suraj Sharma, “Life of Pi”) and Dre (Sarah Yarkin, TV’s “Foursome”) likely is responsible not just for Ryan’s predicament but also Tree’s previous ordeal. They have collaborated to create the Sisyphus Quantum Cooling Reactor, aka SISSY, designed to slow time on a molecular level but seemingly able to create these loops of time.
When they attempt to use SISSY to set things right, the dean of the college (Steve Zissis of HBO’s “Togetherness”) gums up the works and Tree reawakens on her birthday, the previous loop seemingly having returned. She is, to say the least, aggravated.
And while “Happy Death Day 2U” is, again, actually Tree’s story, everything is not as it was in the first movie, for reasons that will become clear. Yes, there’s still a masked murderer on the loose, but Tree may not be his or her prime target.
Oh, but die a bunch more she will.
Other returning “Death Day” players include Charles Aitken (“The Knick”), as the womanizing Professor Gregory; Rachel Matthews as Danielle, the superficial president of Tree’s sorority; and Ruby Modine (Showtime’s “Shameless”), as Tree’s previously murderous roommate, Lori.
Speaking of returnees, Landon, in crafting this second serving of “Happy Death,” has done a nice job of providing some of what was so fun about “Happy
“Happy Death Day 2U” does teeter on the line of being a bit too zany at times, but ultimately sequences such as the montage where Tree meets a series of bizarre ends are a blast.
Death Day” in the sequel — more than a couple of moments appear to have been re-created shot for shot — while also not presenting the same movie again.
“Happy Death Day 2U” does teeter on the line of being a bit too zany at times, but ultimately sequences such as the montage where Tree meets a series of bizarre ends are a blast.
However, the movie does lose a bit of momentum in its stretch drive as the characters work to save the day — and fend off the dean, Landon honoring the tradition of giving a college comedy a dean for an antagonist.
Like its predecessor, “2U” likely wouldn’t be quite as enjoyable with someone other than Rothe — who is slated to star in a musical adaptation of the 1983 film “Valley Girl” later this year — in the lead role. She continues to show an ability for comedy, and she does well in the movie’s few heartfelt scenes. Most importantly, though, we feel Tree’s understandable frustration over living the loopy life again.
If you enjoy the movie, stay through the initial credits for a sequence that appears to set up a possible sequel.
Another round of gutstabbing fun with Rothe in front of the camera and Landon behind it?
We’re all but dying for it.