The announcement of a new project by Christopher Landon made me regret the missed opportunity of many artisans. Indeed, no one had previously guessed to use the Groundhog Day idea in a slasher. The scope for author’s imagination, the wealth of deaths and the myriad pretexts for postmodern deconstruction have never been thought of to be realized in horror.
As the reviews say, the trailer for Happy Day of Death presented the project as an overwhelming horror film full of black irony. And the tape issued in advance justified. Her rating is IMDb: 6.50, which is not bad for a horror movie. The date of the world premiere of the picture is October 7, 2017. On December 7, a domestic audience had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the content of Happy Day of Death in Russian. The project received mostly positive reviews.
Genre delights
The creators of the picture were the well-known screenwriter of all parts of the “Paranormal Phenomenon” Christopher Landon, who took the director’s chair, screenwriter Scott Lobdell, who honed his creative skills in X-Men, and producer Jason Bloom, specializing in thrillers and horrors.
In the direction of Christopher Landon, the most significant achievement is the parody horror Scouts Against Zombies. By the way, the project of 2017 is, in a sense, the debut for the visionary, since this is the first picture he shot not according to his own script. Despite the specifics of the creative preferences of the author's trio, the film “Happy Day of Death” is not considered by critics as one genre.
Among the proposed options - horror, horror comedy and slasher. Particularly skeptical reviewers argue that the project is a youth comedy from the beginning of the 2000s with all the inherent attributes like a pop soundtrack, the atmosphere of student camps, and somewhat cartoonish character characteristics.
Scenic blemishes
What else can be said about the film "Happy Day of Death"? In the reviews, most movie experts note that the project is not a failure in many respects due to the concept. But they immediately emphasize that the screenwriter has already too carelessly beat an interesting idea, having missed a lot of opportunities, which cannot but upset. In horror films, the audience empathizes with the desire to “tell” the characters what they should do.
When people watch the movie "Happy Day of Death", they want to point out the oversights to the heroes almost continuously. For example, the main character for some reason does not know about the most basic way out of this situation. Here you just need to prepare for the killer’s moves, repeating exactly the ill-fated evening, and she will try different options over and over again, naturally, bumping into new surprises.
Plot
The narration introduces the viewer to the main character Theresa Gelbman (Jessica Roth), who prefers to reduce her name to Three. The typically arrogant “Queen of the College” is extremely selfish and does not take into account the opinions and feelings of others. On her birthday, after a noisy party, she wakes up in the room of Carter (Israel Broussard) - a very inconspicuous student.
The girl is indignant at such an unsightly "catch", but this is only the beginning of her misadventures. That same evening she was destined to become a victim of a masked psychopath, after which this day would be repeated again and again. And so that the heroine would not take action, inevitable death awaits her in the evening ... Of course, many authors publish reviews of the film “Happy Day of Death” with the remark that the plot is not the most innovative.
However, the creators beat him with a fair share of wit, resourcefulness and, very importantly, irony. Therefore, the project looks both a real detective thriller about identifying the killer and a youth slasher about the maniac’s intrigues in a hostel. And the attacker, hiding behind the creepy mask of the baby, can be anyone, which makes the story intriguing.
PG-13 Rating
Everyone wants to see in good quality "Happy Day of Death." In reviews, most fans of the horror genre claim that a slasher with all its components (numerous murders, a maniac mask, a variety of death instruments) serves as a wrapper. There are practically no common genre tricks in the picture.
Detailed killing scenes do not fall into the frame, nudity is also not here. The camera seemed to bashfully slow down at those moments when the heroine of Jessica Roth was about to bare herself. Therefore, many viewers in reviews of Happy Death Day compare Christopher Landon’s work with the movie “Scream” (1996) by Wes Craven.
They focus on the fact that the emphasis in both tapes is on detective, somewhat suicidal searches for the killer. In this regard, the age rating corresponds to PG-13, although Landon fans did not expect such a turn from Landon after the slovenly and bloody Scouts Against Zombies.
According to the verified formula
The only moment in which film critics and viewers agreed in their reviews of Happy Death Day is the creators' exact follow-up to Groundhog Day formula: an unnerving melody on waking up, wild antics in an attempt to change the course of events, annoying meetings every morning etc.
These rumcom stamps, transferred to the slasher soil, qualitatively pump a tense atmosphere. The heroine does not go "positive", as in comedies, changing her view of the world. She is clearly not up to reconciliation with her own “I” and not up to enlightenment, because in the evening she will have a fateful meeting - “a maniac is waiting in the gateway”.
Nevertheless, having begun in the form of a struggle for survival, the story later turns into Theresa's endless attempts to sort out herself and her feelings. So, gradually the heroine Jessica Roth transforms from a selfish blonde (traditionally the first slasher to die) to a martial and even altruistic person, similar to those who, according to all the canons of the genre, survive to the end.
Starring
Critics appreciated the skill demonstrated by actress Jessica Roth. Her charisma overshadows most of the scenario flaws and conceptual blunders. Last year, the performer appeared in La La Land, but her character was in the shadow of the characters played by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
But on Happy Death Day, Roth is constantly in the spotlight and brilliantly coping with the test. Jessica is equally beautiful and convincing in the image of a selfish bitch and a fooling young person. Enthusiastic about the talent of the actress, you understand that the public will hear about Roth more than once. Next year, the performer will play a major role in the remake of the now-classic romcom “Girl from the Valley” (1983).