Movie Review: ‘Happy Death Day 2U’

Review by James Lindorf

Happy Death Day was a surprise hit in 2017 earning 125 million worldwide on a budget just under 5 million. It is no surprise that a sequel was fast-tracked and fans are returning to the theater for Happy Death Day 2u only 16 months later. This time around Tree will find out that dying over and over may not be the hardest thing she has ever done. Universal Pictures will release the PG-13 Horror Comedy in theaters across the country on Feb 13th, 2019 with a runtime of about 95 minutes, when you wait for the mid-credits scene.

Christopher Landon returned as director and was the sole writer this time. He returned along with most of the cast including protagonist Tree played by Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard’s love interest Carter, Phi Vu as annoying roommate Ryan and Rachel Matthews as head Kappa Danielle. Joining the main cast are returners Ruby Modine, Charles Aitken, Rob Mello and newcomers Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi), Sarah Yarkin (Eat, Brains, Love) and Steve Zissis (Jeff, Who Lives at Home).

There is a lot to love about Happy Death Day 2U, there are scenes that will make you laugh out loud and others that ratchet up the tension and give you a good jump. 2U embraces some of the horror sequel troupes like upping both the body count and the special effects, thanks to a budget increase of 4 million dollars. There are still a couple of scenes where the CGI was below average, but they are over quickly and played for humor so there may be an element of charm in how obvious the green screen is.
The original did little more than ape the outline of Groundhog Day and gave it a college slasher makeover, which it did very successfully. This time around, Landon wanted to build on that by throwing in a dash of the Back to the Future franchise. I think that was his major misstep, the film tries to go too big with its ideas in both their scope and number. Resulting in some dropped plot lines that do little more than serving to provide shock value in the final cut. The comedy is broader as well with a scene of pratfalls and a character pretending to be blind that feels out of place with the rest of the film.

Even this misstep does little to harm the film overall. It still has good horror elements, a lot of humor, and is just a lot of fun to watch. While it is a step down from its predecessor, it didn’t fall off a cliff. If Happy Death Day were a 10, then 2U would be a 9. If this film performs well at the box office, we should see Tree and the rest stuck in a time loop one more time.