If there's one horror subgenre that has been dormant in the 2010s, it's the slasher film. A huge staple of the 1980s/1990s and of lesser prominence in the 2000s, the slasher subgenre has been basically nonexistent in the past few years, at least in terms of theatrically released horror movies. One of the very few slasher films released recently was Happy Death Day, a Groundhogs Day meets House on Sorority Row-style horror comedy that managed to make a healthy profit upon its release in late 2017. Naturally, a sequel was put into production fairly quickly and less than a year and a half after Happy Death Day comes Happy Death Day 2U.
While the title may be awful (there's really no reason the movie couldn't simply be called Happy Death Day 2), Happy Death Day 2U manages to be one of the rare sequels that is actually an improvement upon the original. Upping the comedy to the point that classifying it as a horror film may be a stretch, Happy Death Day 2U is more of a throwback to 80s classics like Back to the Future Part 2 and Real Genius than the slasher some genre fans might be expecting. On one level, that's disappointing; Happy Death Day did such a great job of paying homage to the slasher genre that to see that aspect minimized is a bit of a letdown. On the other hand, I can't deny that the increased dark humor of Happy Death Day 28U works. In fact, the film as laugh-out-loud funny as any movie I've seen in the past couple years with fantastic one-liners, solid visual gags, and humorous callbacks to the original. While the movie may actually provide the scares one might expect, it does fully deliver on macabre comedy.
This sequel is definitely zanier and a bit more over-the-top than the original but credit to the entire cast and director Christopher Landon for making the characters feel as real as possible amidst all the goofy time travel shenanigans and plot twists. The dramatic scenes are effective and character decisions make sense given the implausible situations, which isn't always the case in the time travel genre or the horror genre. It may sound weird to anyone who hasn't seen the movie, but Happy Death Day 2U gets downright moving towards its finale, with a something to say about grief and loss. I don't mean to oversell the flick as the next Citizen Kane, though it has far more depth and is more interesting than its dopey title would indicate.
I'm not sure why the box office numbers for Happy Death Day 2U are significantly lower than the first one. Maybe the dumb title scared some people off. Maybe the sequel should have come out slightly sooner, like at Halloween (where it would have faced the competition of, well, HALLOWEEN). Maybe the marketing push wasn't big enough. These things are never easy to figure out. Not every movie can be a breakthrough success at the box office. That said, the fact that Happy Death Day 2U is only making half of what the original did when the sequel is a way better film is disappointing. In time, maybe this sequel will develop a bigger following. A lot of horror sequels do. Unless that happens, it's unlikely Happy Death Day 3 will happen, which is a shame. This seems to be the only slasher franchise that gets better as it goes along. 8.5/10
While the title may be awful (there's really no reason the movie couldn't simply be called Happy Death Day 2), Happy Death Day 2U manages to be one of the rare sequels that is actually an improvement upon the original. Upping the comedy to the point that classifying it as a horror film may be a stretch, Happy Death Day 2U is more of a throwback to 80s classics like Back to the Future Part 2 and Real Genius than the slasher some genre fans might be expecting. On one level, that's disappointing; Happy Death Day did such a great job of paying homage to the slasher genre that to see that aspect minimized is a bit of a letdown. On the other hand, I can't deny that the increased dark humor of Happy Death Day 28U works. In fact, the film as laugh-out-loud funny as any movie I've seen in the past couple years with fantastic one-liners, solid visual gags, and humorous callbacks to the original. While the movie may actually provide the scares one might expect, it does fully deliver on macabre comedy.
This sequel is definitely zanier and a bit more over-the-top than the original but credit to the entire cast and director Christopher Landon for making the characters feel as real as possible amidst all the goofy time travel shenanigans and plot twists. The dramatic scenes are effective and character decisions make sense given the implausible situations, which isn't always the case in the time travel genre or the horror genre. It may sound weird to anyone who hasn't seen the movie, but Happy Death Day 2U gets downright moving towards its finale, with a something to say about grief and loss. I don't mean to oversell the flick as the next Citizen Kane, though it has far more depth and is more interesting than its dopey title would indicate.
I'm not sure why the box office numbers for Happy Death Day 2U are significantly lower than the first one. Maybe the dumb title scared some people off. Maybe the sequel should have come out slightly sooner, like at Halloween (where it would have faced the competition of, well, HALLOWEEN). Maybe the marketing push wasn't big enough. These things are never easy to figure out. Not every movie can be a breakthrough success at the box office. That said, the fact that Happy Death Day 2U is only making half of what the original did when the sequel is a way better film is disappointing. In time, maybe this sequel will develop a bigger following. A lot of horror sequels do. Unless that happens, it's unlikely Happy Death Day 3 will happen, which is a shame. This seems to be the only slasher franchise that gets better as it goes along. 8.5/10