Happy Death Day 2U is a film that is a sequel to 2017’s Happy Death Day, featuring less horror and more science.
Picking up directly where the original film left off, Happy Death Day 2U follows the same set of characters (led by Jessica Rothe as Tree) except now they are dealing with a new time loop. And alternative universes. Tree once again has to relive the same loop as the first film, except in an alternative universe where things are just a little bit different. Some of her more obnoxious friends are friendlier, her room mate doesn’t have it in for her and her mother is still alive in this reality. Meanwhile, another masked killer is on the loose, gasp!
There are neat ideas and some fun stuff here, it just falls a little bit flat. The film takes a pretty major departure from the more slasher/thriller vibe of the original and goes much harder towards sci-fi and drama. The tension in the film isn’t so much from finding out who the new killer is, but rather on Tree needing to decide which universe she would rather live in and her nerd friends being able to get her back home and solve the loop.
There were moments that made me laugh out loud. I enjoyed the little group of nerdy students trying to save the day, and once again Jessica Rothe carries the film with a solid performance. This felt more like a teen comedy than a slasher or anything to be remotely scared of. And there were the drama elements that just felt far more hammed up than anything in either of these movies.
One thing that this film does that I wasn’t a fan of was the exploration into what exactly caused the time loop. We get more of an explanation and background. It’s the kind of thing that I didn’t really need explained. That shouldn’t be the centrepiece of the movie, the centrepiece of the movie should be the conflict caused by the device that creates the loop – not the device itself. But it’s Hollywood and we need to know everything. We need to know where the xenomorphs came from. We need to know how the rebels got the Death Star plans. And apparently we need to know how Tree got trapped in a Groundhog Day experiment.
There was a lot less tension in this film and I feel like you couldn’t even really classify it as a slasher film at all. The killer in this movie is such a small element of the film in hindsight. And at the end, the film leaves things open for a third installment, and I just felt exhausted. I really enjoyed the first one. This one had its ups and downs, and it wasn’t abysmal, but I was ready to say goodbye once the end credits came. I just don’t think there’s much that a third movie could really accomplish.
Rating: ★★1/2
Zero Stars 