Happy Death Day Movies May No Be Dead Yet
I am not a big fan of birthdays. For me, receiving greetings (and gifts) from the family and a little time at a restaurant or a vacation are definitely enough. It’s not that age scares me or anything, but I find the situation, sometimes, a bit awkward. Nevertheless, I have found a way to accept birthdays with more understanding in recent years. When I need encouragement, I watch clips from “Happy Death Day” movies again and realize that a birthday can be much worse when it becomes the day of death and that you have to go through it day after day to understand who this time is betraying us and trying to kill us.
“Happy Death Day” is a great title that perfectly represents the movie’s central theme and its premise. The other good news is that besides the original name, the Happy Death Day movies are pretty fun. Although it’s a somewhat familiar formula, its application as a fun slasher that’s suitable mainly for teenagers (in the United States, the movies are rated PG-13), some scenes Kills are likable and not too scary (did we say PG-13?), there was some tension surrounding the question of who is the “Happy Death Day” killer behind the baby mask, and an excellent performance by Jessica Rothe made the first film, and to some extent the sequel, a kind of Guilty Pleasure for me. Will we also see a third movie?
How Happy Death Day Movies Were Born?
Before reviewing the “Happy Death Day” movies in order, our first mission is to understand how this idea was born.
Here is an interesting fact that is important to know about the first film of “Happy Death Day,” which was initially planned in 2007 – a decade before it was released. The film’s production, under the name “Half to Death”), was supposed to be entrusted to the bombastic Michael Bay, whose films range from excessive to unbearable, according to the writer of these lines. The first role was intended for Megan Fox, even before she became a kind of horror icon (especially a sex symbol) thanks to “Jennifer’s Body,” released in 2009.
In the end, “Bloomhouse Productions” made the film. These were basically good news for horror fans since “Bloomhouse” is responsible for many of the successful films we have seen in the last decade or so, like “Paranormal Activity,” “Insidious,” “The Purge,” “Get Out,” “Us,” “M3gan“ and many more others. Some would say that in the last few years, “Bloomhouse“ has lost its direction or even quality, but it’s one of the most significant names in the horror universe.
The director role was given to Christopher Landon, who started his carreer mainly as a screenwriter (of “Disturbia“ and three sequels of “Paranormal Activity”) and then directed and wrote several enjoyable horror comedies: “The Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse“ (2015), “Freaky“ ( 2020), “We Have a Ghost“ (2023), and more.
The leading role was given to Jessica Rothe, until then a relatively unknown actress whose most significant role was a minor role in “La La Land,“ winner of six Oscars (and one more Oscar, the most important of all, which was given to him for a couple of minutes by mistake).
How Many Happy Death Day Movies Are There?
Happy Death Day (2017)
The first “Happy Death Day“ was screened worldwide on Friday, October 13, 2017. Of course, Universal Pictures chose deliberately and corresponded with the movie’s irony. After all, a birthday is a day of good luck, but according to accepted tradition, Friday the 13th is the complete opposite.
We can argue that “Happy Death Day“ has brought quite a refreshing breath of fresh air to the slasher genre, which in recent years has been instead coming back to life. On the one hand, the plot structure here is not new: the heroine lives the same day repeatedly, and has to change something to Get out of the loop. The film most associated with this structure is “Groundhog Day“ from 1993, one of the most influential movies of the 90s, in my opinion. The same principle, like action films (the fantastic “Edge of Tomorrow“ from 2014 with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt), the youth thriller “Before I Fall“ (2017), and others.
In the case of “Happy Death Day” movies, the film’s heroine, Tree Gelbman (Rothe), has an excellent reason to solve this loop: to stop being murdered every day. On her birthday, she wakes up one morning in the room of her classmate Carter (Israel Broussard). Terri is a somewhat troubled girl who likes to party, ignores her father’s calls (her mother died a few years ago), has an affair with her lecturer, and, most of all – is murdered on the same day by a killer in a baby mask. The only way to get out of the loop is to find out who hides behind the mask and stop him.
Although the idea of “Happy Death Day“ is not too innovative, its application to a slasher film was, in my opinion, very successful. Jessica Rothe is excellent in the lead role, carries the movie on her shoulders, and proves she has an imposing sense of comedy. The rest of the “Happy Death Day“ cast also does a decent job.
Do not expect a scary movie or extreme levels of gore, but as a teen comedy with “some“ horror and suspense, including the inevitable question of “whodunit,“ “Happy Death Day“ definitely does the job. We can maybe guess who is the killer on “Happy Death Day“ before the final revelation, but it is still fun.
The film, produced with a reasonably minimal budget of about 4.5 million dollars, was successful, earning about 125.5 million dollars worldwide, most of it outside the United States.
Where To Watch Happy Death Day?
“Happy Death Day” movie is available on many platforms, so you can easily find the best option. You can buy it on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube, and more.
Another option is renting the movie, which you can do with the same media services, like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube, and others.
You can find more details here.
Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
Two years later, “Happy Death Day 2U“ came out with a slightly larger budget of about 9 million dollars. Although the general idea was similar, the sequel—also written and directed by Christopher Landon—took the film in a different direction, combining more humor and even science fiction.
After Terri seemingly manages to get out of the first film’s loop, Ryan (Phi Vu), one of her friends, creates a new time loop following an unsuccessful experiment he conducted in the lab. The loop, as you may have already guessed, takes him back to that day time and time again, where he is murdered at a particular time by a killer wearing, as you may have guessed again, a baby face mask. The gang tries to get out of the loop with the help of another machine, which creates a parallel universe that takes them back in time, up to and before the first movie’s events. Tree Gelbman has to make difficult choices, stay alive, and find out who hides behind the mask this time.
“Happy Death Day 2U“ was a little less successful in most opinions, although it included some thriving comedic scenes, plus one scene that almost made me (and others!) cry. It grossed about 64.5 million dollars, a low amount compared to the first film. On the one hand, it made pretty good numbers. On the other hand, it is still being determined that these numbers will justify a third film.
In any case, the ending scene of “Happy Death Day 2U”, which seems to have come off the production line of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, pretty much laid the foundations for a third film.
Where To Watch Happy Death Day 2U?
“Happy Death Day 2U” is available to watch online pretty easily. You can rent or but it via Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Youtube and others.
Is There Going To Be Happy Death Day 3?
Are there more “Happy Death Day“ movies on the radar? Jessica Rothe hopes so, and to a certain extent, so do we.
In an interview with Screen Geek to promote her new film, “Boy Kills World,“ Rothe was asked about the possibility of a third film in the franchise. “We just need to wait for Blumhouse and Universal to get their ducks in a row. But my fingers are so crossed,“ she said. “I think Tree eserves her third and final chapter to bring that incredible character and franchise to a close or a new beginning.”
A third film can develop the story and the character of Tree Gelbman a little more, and above all provide us with some pleasure and guilty pleasure, so I’m in favor. It may be better than having birthdays, don’t you think?
