Happy Death Day 2U (Review)
Happy Death Day 2U is the Sequel We Hoped For.
One of the most pleasant surprises of 2017 with the original Happy Death Day, which I suppose makes Happy Death Day 2U one of the most pleasant surprises of 2019. Typically, sequels let us down by failing to live up to the original. They try so hard to capture what made the first film great without truly understanding what audiences loved about it to begin with. I’m excited to say that Happy Death Day 2U really gets what made Happy Death Day so special and instead of simply copying that, it builds on it instead.
Christopher Landon returns to direct Happy Death Day 2U and takes over writing duties from Scott Lobdell. Luckily, Landon has a keen understanding of all the characters from the original and his script does each of them justice. Of course, so many of the actors we loved from Happy Death Day are back including Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, and Ruby Modine. While the previous film followed Rothe as her character Tree tried to escape from a time loop in which someone was trying to kill her. Every time she died, she restarted the day desperate to change the events in order to survive. Might sound kind of impossible to do a sequel to a movie like that, which is why it’s so nice that Landon is such a smart filmmaker at the end of the day.
Time loop gives way to parallel universes as Landon manages to create a perfect spiritual sequel with Happy Death Day 2U. Tree is back again and this time she’s forced to relive the same day from the first film, but with a twist, as she finds herself thrown into another universe where so much is the same, but just different enough to make it new again. This ingenious vertical shift branches Happy Death Day 2U from horror to sci-fi while still maintaining the comedic values that made the original so refreshing. This also opens up the movie to introduce new fun and quirky characters, as well as expand on minor characters from the original as they take on new importance. Phi Vu from the first gets a whole new part in the film as it’s revealed he’s actually a brilliant physics student that might have unknowingly had a hand in previous events, along with his classmates played by Suraj Sharma and Sarah Yarkin. I don’t want to give too much away, but these characters fit flawlessly in among all the ones I enjoyed so much from Happy Death Day.
I can’t stress how impressed I am with the genius of Happy Death Day 2U. There isn’t one part of it that feels forced as it seamlessly picks up on tiny details from the first movie to make it seem like a sequel was planned all along. More importantly, it recreates the nightmarish day from Happy Death Day while adding new and memorable sequences as we get to relive events from other’s perspectives. The end result is something new and comfortingly familiar. For me, that meant getting another chance to see a perfectly cast group of actors bring a genuinely funny script to life as they make the absurd seem perfectly plausible. I commend their talent because the core concept of what they’re working with has been done so well so many times before (and since) that they certainly had their work cut out for them from the get-go. Luckily, once again, everything comes together beautifully in such a way that can only be described as brilliant.
Don’t get me wrong when I talk about the genius of Happy Death Day 2U. It is a very smart movie, but it hides it incredibly well behind a keen sense of humor. Rothe is once again spectacular as Tree who is struggling not to let her anger and frustrations get the better of her as she tries to navigate a whole new nightmare. In this regards, she’s the perfect heroine because she’s not a super genius or even someone compelled to do the right thing. However, she’s a survivor and keeps a sense of humor throughout it all, and because of that, I could keep watching her misadventures for years to come. Of course, all the characters are as well developed as she is, which is probably a big reason why Happy Death Day 2U never gets old, no matter how many times we see Tree relive the same day.
As much as I’ve raved about Happy Death Day 2U it’s not a perfect movie. But it’s one that I wholeheartedly endorse seeing. It’s so rare to find a good movie that just wants to be fun. After all, it’s absurd and there are a number of things that don’t make sense within the story, but you’re having so much fun watching it that who cares by the end? Speaking of which, when you see this movie in theaters (and you most definitely should), make sure you stick around for a mid-credit sequence. Hopefully, it’s a teaser for a sequel, because if they keep making movies in the series as good as this one, then I’ll gladly keep paying money to see them.
