I'll admit that ever since I saw this movie's trailer for the first time while seeing Annabelle: Creation, I was rather skeptical. Edge of Tomorrow, shall we say, "borrowed," the Groundhog Day concept of repeated days for a successfully entertaining action flick incorporating none other than Tom Cruise. Now, three years later, Universal takes a shot at somewhat of a Groundhog Day meets Scream concept in an ill-conceived attempt to transform the idea of the beloved Bill Murray classic into (I think) a horror/suspense movie. I'm not entirely against a ripoff of another ripoff of the original movie only three years after the original ripoff per se; but I do have a problem with an unoriginal concept being so poorly executed. Indeed, failing on multiple accounts, Happy Death Day is one of the most painful storyline ripoff films in recent history.
First, I want to discuss the lack of the film's clarity and botch as to what genre it is attempting to abide. The poor script (that I'll expand on later) appeared to be an attempt to deem it a comedy, yet the imprudent endeavor to strike fear into the audience caused me to think it was meant to be a horror movie--or at least a suspenseful one. Any attempt to invoke fear somehow managed to include every possible horror movie cliche that comes to mind--often using multiple simultaneously. Alas, to my knowledge, there is no genre that this movie can be included in. It was far from funny or scary, and the boring venture of a twist ending left it anything but a successful mystery. Furthermore, if the producers of this movie think that combining horror with humor is a good idea, the word delusional comes to mind. Action-Comedies work, Horror-Comedies are the worst combination since Kristen Stewart and...anyone.
Now let me expand on the butchery that is this movie's script. Again, any attempt at humor felt like it was written by a token 7th grader. I can find more creativity in an episode of SpongeBob Squarepants than any dialogue attempting humor in Happy Death Day. Complete with slapstick comedy, fart jokes, sex jokes, and a ridiculous montage set to cheesy 80s music, I'm pretty sure the only education these screenwriters have in comedy is old episodes of The Brady Bunch and Full House. Additionally, seemingly basic dialogue is no less painful than the failed "comedic" lines. As a college student, I take personal offense that someone actually thinks college students talk they way they do in this movie. The only time I was remotely intrigued was during a series of events towards the end of the movie, which the script quickly ruined.
Do I even need to mention the acting in this movie? It seems to be a given that a movie such as this would come complete with bad acting--which is exactly right. To be fair, almost nobody could make this dialogue sound realistic. Still, though, even token exposition lines felt like they belonged on Disney Channel. I'm pretty sure I was closer to laughing at lines that were meant to be dramatic or frightening than any that were aimed at humor. On a side note, I always felt that Hayden Christensen got a bad rep for the Star Wars prequels due to a poor script as opposed to poor acting. Anyway, as for Happy Death Day, I'll be surprised if any of these actors get a spot on a stupid commercial for fake beards.
You know what? I think I'd be able to overlook all of that--all of it--if this movie weren't just so blatantly lazy. I'm fine with recycling old stuff from the past (something Hollywood is entirely too fond of), but it at least has to have some form of original thought to it. Is that too much to ask? I mean, come on. When dealing with a concept as entertaining as this, the greatest sin comes from the apparent mental notion that an interesting premise is a guarantee for good film-making. This film looked like it was edited by a first-year film student. Discontinuity and plot errors are so obvious that watching this bordered on literal pain. I'm quite interested to see what Jeremy from CinemaSins has to say about this.
Well, I think I've made my stance quite clear. After my last two reviews, I'm really hoping something released soon will be refreshingly entertaining. I'll make it short and sweet: Happy Death Day earns a 38%, deeming it undeniably
Pawn Shop Worthy
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