MAY #4: Happy Death Day

            

              We’re all in a time warp now. Nothing is happening, the days are all the same, and it’s been this way for an eternity. Some people want to use this abyss of time to become better people, and others are just fed up, and some of us just want to watch a lot of horror movies. Times like these call for a good Groundhog Day story, or maybe a nice slasher film. Luckily, we can have both.

              The time loop premise of Happy Death Day is cute and all, but the real substance comes from its character work. Slasher movies love a messy bitch, and boy how do they love to kill her (God rest yr soul, Barb from Black Christmas). But hear me out, what if the messy bitch could also be the final girl. Sorority girl Tree is an asshole in a sea of assholes. She goes to your archetypal hard-partying college with the world’s creepiest mascot. Her assholery is mostly of the benign and delightful variety – she owes no one, not her roommate, not her sorority sisters, not the guy who keeps texting her, a happy smile or the time of day. But she also blows off her dad’s attempt at buying her birthday lunch (free food, Tree, come on!), is hung up on her mom’s death, and sits quietly by at the high assholery of the sorority queen bee, who slips a smidge into parody. Tree is murdered on the night of her birthday, but then wakes up on the same morning to do it all over again. And again, and again, which is a cracker of a premise, and well-executed.

Seriously tho this is a terrible mascot

              In true Bill Murray fashion, Tree eventually uses her predicament to become a better person. This is the most delightful part of the film by far. Tree’s snide, sarcastic edges are not sanded off to make her a “good girl” as I feared they would be. For her, becoming a good person is about walking naked through the quad and flashing fingers guns, embracing her no-consequences world of daily resets. It’s also about facing trauma, making amends, and sacrificing for others. Her journey doesn’t feel like a transformation; it’s just Tree coming into self-consciousness of her flaws, and putting in real, shitty work to be better for the people around her. It’s a coming-of-age film but you’d never know it from the snappy presentation, the wry jokes, and of course the many kills. This is largely thanks to the strengths of Jessica Rothe’s performance which, frankly, slays.

              Few horror-comedies strike a perfect balance between the two, and this is no exception. The horror element feels like a light dusting on the comedy, and occasionally it’s part of the punchline. But truthfully, I didn’t mind. I felt like I was back in the basement with my middle-school friends, chomping on Doritos and Skittles and reveling in the silliness and pleasure of a good teen flick. Thanks, movie. I needed that.

Vibecheck: Big sleepover energy

Scare Factor: This is a PG-13, and a pretty soft one at that, so it’s a pretty bloodless affair. Some of the chase scenes and kill sequences are suspensefully shot, but they’re gripping in an action movie way, not a horror movie way. It will be sending no one behind a pillow.  

Pairs Well With: My favorite horror comedies are Scream and Cabin in the Woods and, fun as this is, if you pair it with either of these it’s going to be way overshadowed. But sometimes you need a fun and frothy slasher, and that’s when you watch Scream 2, with which its campus setting and yeah-sure-I-guess-so ending is a suitable match. Tonally, it is closest to silly horror-comedy Tucker and Dale vs Evil and secret teen classic Jennifer’s Body, (Megan Fox was at one point supposed to play Tree!), both of which I love. And honestly, if I’d seen this in theaters with a lively crowd, it would have had big H40 (aka Halloween 2018) vibes, since both are modern slashers that get the job done, H40 in scares and Happy Death Day in laughs, like two halves of a whole.

But how gay is it?: In subject matter, it isn’t (and even dances the line of biphobic obliviousness), but Jessica Rothe’s tremendous performance as Tree should in a just world catapult her to Laura Dern status.

Girlfriend’s Corner: This is a good concept for a movie, and I am sad I missed it! It sounds extremely Safe For Girlfriend. Incidentally, I haven’t watched Groundhog Day since I came out and started HRT, and I wonder how well it holds up? I remember really loving it, but I also seem to remember that the emotional stakes really depend on you finding Bill Murray’s character grating and narcissistic but redeemable at the beginning, and the longer I live as a woman, the less I feel like extending that latitude to casually sexist men. Maybe Bill Murray’s charm will carry the day, though? Damn, I need to rewatch Groundhog Day.

Anyway, this sounds like it was a good movie and I wish I’d watched it but instead I was playing the part of Zelda where Link gets force femme’d. Three stars!