Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

Directed by: Christopher Landon | 100 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, Sarah Yarkin, Rachel Matthews, Ruby Modine, Steve Zissis, Charles Aitken, Laura Clifton, Missy Yager, Jason Bayle, Caleb Spillyards, Jimmy Gonzales, Peter Jaymes Jr., Rob Mello , Kenneth Israel, James W. Evermore

‘Happy Death Day 2U’, directed and written by Christopher Landon (‘Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse’, ‘Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones’) is the sequel to 2017’s ‘Happy Death Day’ and is about, as the name suggests, a murder that takes place on a birthday, or a number of birthdays, or a number of birthdays that are not actually a number.

Although “Happy Death Day” has been labeled by several sources (Variety to name just one) as one of the worst films of recent years, it has so far grossed $125 million worldwide (55 million in the United States and 70 million internationally). ) raised. So for a movie with a budget of 5 million, it has paid for itself by 2500% and it’s not surprising that our axe-wielding multi-dying blonde is back in part 2.

Where ‘Happy Death Day’ is the child of ‘Groundhog Day’ and ‘Scream’, part 2 seems to have been written by Stephen Hawking (theoretical physicist and astrophysicist) and Teresa ‘Tree’ Gelbman (Jessica Roth) is being chased again, and chased, and chased again by an unknown babyface killer with a shiny butcher knife. The plot initially seems like a repeat of the first part, but it soon becomes clear that things are slightly different now. Where in part 1 Tree had help from her boyfriend Carter (Israel Broussard), she is now also assisted by a couple of philosophizing nerds, Ryan (Phi Vu), Samar (Suraj Sharma) and Andrea (Sarah Yarkin). Together they try to solve Tree’s problem, while, time and again, she comes to her ‘end’ in the most horrifying and sometimes hilarious ways and, at the same time, has to make hard choices. “Happy Death Day 2U” also discusses the how-and-why of part 1 (and part 2), or rather, why Tree wakes up every day with the same spinal cord-splitting ringtone and in her Dumpstaphunk shirt in front of her. life runs.

Plot aside, the film is predictable and laced with clichés in such a way that it detracts from the film’s spontaneity. The scares are therefore also without effect and the whole comes across quite clumsy. The horror aspect is also completely overshadowed by an excess of comedy and ‘Happy Death Day 2U’ is therefore sunnier than the first part. It is better not to talk about acting performances, because the film is clearly not intended to be judged critically, but to chew a bowl of sweet popcorn and wash it down with diet coke.

The horror fans, those who kneel for, for example, ‘Hereditary’ or ‘The VVitch’, should stay far away from this because the horror content is as absent as the coherence of the plot. Comedy aficionados don’t really benefit from this because the film, although comical, is not really a comedy. This is typically a go-between movie where you’re not sure whether to laugh or cry and you just decide to stare ahead and wait for the movie to be over. ‘Happy Death Day 2U’ is ideal for a random Saturday night when you really have nothing else to do and want to kill 100 minutes of your life. The faintest suspicion that there is always something better to do, or something better to see, on TV.