This month, Blumhouse return to the big screen with new horror film, 'Happy Death Day'. The story-line is simple: A girl (Jessica Rothe) is murdered on her birthday, but is forced to relive the day over and over until she uncovers the identity of her murderer. Given the time warp, it's easy to compare the film to 'Groundhog Day', sans masked murderers, of course. We'll have to wait and see whether the new film offers a breath of fresh air to the saturated teen-horror genre.
Forbes film correspondent, Simon Mendelson, summed up the film with a simple, "Live, die, enjoy", taking the slogan from 'Edge of Tomorrow'. That summary does not truly apply to 'Happy Death Day', given the former film was about an alien invasion. Despite that, 'Edge of Tomorrow' had us on the edge of our seats with stellar performances from both Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Even back then, the comparisons with Bill Murray's 'Groundhog Day' were innumerable.
According to TheWrap, "It's hard to tell if "Happy Death Day" is a smart movie masquerading as a dumb one or vice versa." Let us cast our minds back to 'Get Out', which cleverly, albeit falsely advertised itself as a horror film, only to reveal it was in fact a critical attack on racism in the US. Nevertheless, the film was unanimously applauded. The upcoming slasher film could very well be waiting to surprise us with a hidden social message too, for all we know. "'Happy Death Day' may actually be too beholden to its forebears, if only because this horror film is at its very best when it's being funny", mentioned IndieWire.
TheFrightFile.com seems particularly optimistic about Blumhouse's latest release: "'Happy Death Day' is fun, plain and simple, injecting welcome devilish mirth into a genre - and a bleakly discordant 2017 landscape - when we need a little cathartic levity more than ever." The positive review focusses mainly on the entertaining quality of the film, a trait common to a Christopher Landon film. Blumhouse, chaired by Jason Blum has a tendency to transform small films into huge box-office successes, something we believe the company will be able to replicate with 'Happy Death Day'.
ScreenDaily, on the other hand picked up on how, "part of Happy Death Day's appeal stems from both leaning into and playing with the usual tropes", a tactic Blumhouse is already familiar with.
It's not all praise
The film has also received some not so positive responses, We Got This Covered said, "'Happy Death Day' is a generic PG-13 horror purgatory that's lived on repeat until even weaker motivations take us farther out of any semblance of storytelling thrills." The Guardian's Benjamin Lee dubbed it "'Groundhog Day' meets 'Scream', although lacking the first film's novelty and the latter's postmodern smarts."
'Happy Death Day' is set for UK release on 20th October.
