Happy Death 2U! Is it worth the watch? HELL YEAH!
I admit I slept on the original Happy Death Day, only seeing it on cable for the first time last month in preparation for this film's release. I really enjoyed its premise and Groundhog Day meets a slasher film mentality. And the fact that it was written by former Uncanny X-Men writer Scott Lobdell, well that was just icing on the cake for me.
This next chapter picks up right after the last film ended, the next day in fact, as Ryan (Phi Vu) wakes up in his car, and goes through a series of events that lead to him getting stabbed by the Baby Face Killer, and reliving it again. After freaking out and telling what's happened to Tree (Jessica Rothe) and Carter (Israel Broussard) Tree fills him in, and the audience, on her own experiences with time loops in a handy recap of the first film that was also seen in the trailer. They soon find and capture the Baby Face Killer and whom it's revealed to be changes everything.
The first film, as I mentioned, was strictly a slasher film with a unique gimmick that had one victim. This movie takes that concept and adds some more Sci-Fi elements to it. Time travel, the multiverse, parallel realities are all things that come up in this film. This is where the movie lost a lot of critics, but for this viewer, I love this sort of stuff so I was all in for the ride. It was clear that the filmmakers decided to have some fun with this premise. Which leads to some pretty fun deaths for Tree to experience and do to herself, in a montage sequence that we saw most of in the trailer (unfortunately).
This movie has some added heart and feels that I didn't see coming as well, which was nice, and added some extra warmth to the proceedings. Also, the movie is just crazy in the best kind of way, it knows what it is, and just goes with it, which you have to respect. I've seen some critics reviews tearing the movie apart for it not making much sense. But it's a time travel story, the first one wasn't, but this one is, and as such you have to expect a fair bit of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff at its core that doesn't add up if you break it down logically, but it's fun.
At the end of the day, Happy Death Day 2 U knows what it is, and just has fun with it, I suggest you do the same. Also, stick around past the initial credits for a post credits bit which sets up the next chapter (Oh yes, there will be more).
Check out our review of Happy Death Day here
