October 13, 2017 was the release of the PG-13 Thriller film, Happy Death starring Jessica Roth. The 5 million dollar budget film was produced by Blumhouse Productions and directed by Christopher Landon and received a 68% by Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.7/10 by IMDb.
The joyful and goofy slasher film has a fun spirit, interesting characters, and even some life lessons. College student Tree Gelbman (Roth ) relives the miserable day of her death until she finally discovers her masked murderer’s identity, while simultaneously becoming a better person each day.
Many people compare Happy Death Day to the 1993 film “Groundhog Day” where the main character is trapped in a time warp an is forced to relive the day until he gets it right. The film also reminds viewers of the nostalgic teen slasher movies of the 1990’s, largely due to the cliché scene where a character is chased by the killer with a weapon, and suddenly trips on air and falls to the ground, hesitating to get up and continue running for their lives as the audience screams at the projected screen in suspense. There are a few frightening jump scares that arouses the audience along with very interesting twist and turns throughout trying to determine the true identity of her killer.
Due to the popularity of the production company, Blumhouse Productions ( Creators of Insidious, Paranormal Activity, Split, Get out and even The Purge ) many people had very high expectations for Happy Death Day but many felt disappointed. Jeannnette Catsoulis from the New York Times reviewed the movie as “A snappy horror-comedy with a gentle romantic spine”.
