Director: Christopher Landon
Writer: Christopher Landon and Scott Lobdell
Cast: Jessica Rothe, Ruby Modine, Israel Broussard, and Phi Vu
Tree Gelbman is a former mean girl who learned her lesson the hard way by reliving her death over and over again. After escaping from a repetitive time loop, Tree is finally back to living her best life, when a physics experiment goes awry and thrusts her right back into the time loop and through another dimension. She’s been down this road before, but this time she must choose between the life she knows or the life she wants.
Happy Death Day 2U is the second installment of Blumhouse’s comedic slasher series. The movies follow college student Tree Gelbman as she relives the worst and last day of her life over and over again. The films are genre mixing works of horror, suspense, and comedy. This sequel adds elements of science fiction, as Tree enlists the help of three physics students to stop the time loop once and for all. In the first film 2017’s Happy Death Day, Tree is inexplicably forced into reliving her own murder. She spends the entire film trying desperately to find her killer and hopefully get back to real life. Tree isn’t the nicest girl on campus so the suspect pool is vast and it takes her a few deaths to figure it all out. Each day of her nightmare starts the same with Tree, waking up in Carter Davis’s bed followed by an interruption from Carter’s crude roommate Ryan. Through each death, she uncovers clues that ultimately uncover the identity of her killer and reveal parts herself she must repair to move forward. The film ends with her enjoying a brand new day with Carter, presumably getting on with the rest of her life.
This sequel takes place just a few ordinary weeks later, Carter and Tree have a budding romance much to the annoyance of his roommate Ryan, who often has to sleep in his car due to Tree’s presence. Ryan, a physics student, finds himself in his own time loop and enlists Tree’s help in ending it. Unfortunately for them, her assistance restarts her own time loop and she’s back reliving her birthday once again. Having done this once before she attacks the day with a vengeance only to discover that this time is different. This time she not only entered a time loop but an alternate dimension where Carter is dating her rival and her killer is the one being killed. As confusing as all this may seem, the complexity of the plot doesn’t take away from the laughs or suspense. Billed as a slasher comedy this film is a “Scream” and “Groundhog Day” mashup that delivers big laughs and suspense. In addition to stopping a few murders, the alternate timeline affords Tree the chance of a lifetime, to save herself the grief of losing her mother. The first film saw Tree evolving from a mean spirited cynical student into a more considerate thoughtful person. This film continues on that vein giving Tree the chance to confront her grief and place the needs of others before her own.
In addition to the growth of Tree’s character, this sequel also gives up the origin of the time loop, which was purposely left out of the original movie. We also get a peek at another dimension which plays on the multiverse theory, leaving the franchise open to infinite sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. This time around instead of hunting down a killer, Tree orchestrates her own fate by repeatedly offing herself to restart the loop, each time gaining more insight on the cause. This leads to a string of hilarious deaths including a bikini skydive you have to see to believe. Helping her this time around is a team of physics students lead by Ryan and of course nice guy Carter.
Overall Happy Death Day 2U delivers punchlines and death scenes with equal amounts of adrenaline and heart. Though viewing the first film is recommended it is not necessary as there is a full recap early on in this sequel. There are enough laughs, insane deaths and twists to keep even the most dedicated sleuth guessing until the very end. From start to finish expect a madcap romp between genres as this movie takes you on a wild sci-fi escapade through a humorous slasher murder mystery. Happy Death Day 2U is the 2nd installment of a possible trilogy. Having exceeded box-office expectations in the first film, this sequel could be what takes this franchise from popular to cult status, joining the ranks of Scream and Scary movie. Make sure you stick around after the credits for a bonus scene that hints at an insane third and final film.
Happy Death Day 2U hits theaters Wednesday, February 13th, 2019!