Happy Death Day 2U is a mystery/thriller film that was released on February 13th of 2019, serving as a sequel to 2017's Happy Death Day. The first movie can be described as a horror version of Groundhog Day, it's even lampshaded by one of the characters at the end of it. It pits a woman named who goes by the nickname "Tree" in a situation where she's murdered on the night of her birthday, which causes the night to reset. This happens over and over again until Tree is able to discover who is killing her and break the loop. The sequel takes this same scenario and adds to it, giving us a much more suspenseful experience overall. Happy Death Day 2U was written and directed by Christopher Landon, with a score composed by Bear McCreary (of The Walking Dead fame), and is based on characters created by Scott Lobdell. The director has announced plans for a third movie, but, until then, how does this one hold up? Let's talk about it.
The first thing I'd like to give praise to is the performances by the cast. They do a phenomenal job! Setting the main characters to the side for a few minutes, the background characters and the extras deserve my full props. A lot of the movie revolves around a time loop, which means that certain events are repeated multiple times. The background cast and secondary characters do a great job of selling it, doing things like giving off the same inflections in their voices in multiple line reads along with other subtle similarities that do a lot to give this universe more realism. And the main characters are great, as well, especially Jessica Rothe as Tree. She did a good job in the first movie, but she certainly one-ups herself with her performance in this film. She sells her character's anger at being stuck in the same situation again so well. Rothe handles the comedic scenes very well, and she really shines in the more dramatic scenes. There were a couple times when she had me pretty close to tearing up with her acting, but I'll get to that later on. Jessica killed it in this movie, and so did the other main characters. Israel Broussard is good as Carter, Phi Vu is good as Ryan, Ruby Modine is good as Lori. The returning actors are still just as enjoyable as they were in the first film. Along with thatm, the newcomers fit in very well in this movie. Suraj Sharma (who you might know from Life of Pi) is very good in this movie. He gets a couple funny lines, he doesn't disappoint in the dramatic scenes, he plays intelligence very well. I have the same level of praise for Sarah Yarkin as Andrea. Aside from the odd bland line read, the actors do their parts exceptionally. Also, props for keeping the same cast as the first film. That was a smart move.
I really like the story presented in the Happy Death Day movies, and this one doesn't disappoint. If the first movie was a horror-themed Groundhog Day, then this one is a horror-themed Back to the Future: Part II (which is a joke made by Carter in this movie). It opens with Ryan being murdered by the baby-masked killer, only to wake up back in his car and repeat the same events again that led up to his death. He meets up with Tree, who explains to him what the situation is and what needs to be done to fix it. The movie doesn't waste any time getting to the good stuff, which is very welcome. I also liked how Tree ran down the events of the first film, in case some of the people in the audience weren't entirely up to speed with the narrative. There's talk about parallel dimensions, and then we get straight into the main bulk of the movie. There's a couple differences between the loop of the first one and the loop of this one (and these changes are revealed to be due to the fact that this loop exists in an alternate dimension), with the most prominent changes being Carter being in a relationship with Danielle instead of Tree, Lori no longer being the killer, and Tree's mother still being alive. That last one is arguably the most important change, since it has the biggest effect on later story elements. It leads to a truly beautiful scene when Tree tells her Mom exactly how much she means to her. It's well-acted, well-written, perfectly-paced. It's my favorite scene in the whole film. This is where Rothe's acting is at its best. It had me teary-eyed, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. It was an adorable scene.
Alongside the mystery and suspense, there's a solid element of comedy sprinkled into the mix. This movie is pretty funny. There's a really funny montage in the middle of it, similar to the one in the first movie, but it replaces murders with suicides. Somehow, this movie made suicide funny. The methods of death include: Turning on a hair dryer in a bathtub (resulting in frizzy hair when she wakes up), jumping out of a plane in a bikini (giving us a very funny slow-mo shot of her flipping the camera off before she splats on the ground), choking down drain cleaner in front of a confused old man (resulting in her having to chug a whole bottle of water when she wakes up), among others. It's a fun sequence that's home to some big laughs. Tree's reactions when she discovers she's back in the same loop were great. They're well-written, well-acted, they felt natural. The best bit was when Tree screamed "You are gay" in Tim's face. I loved that "O Fortuna" played when Tree first sees Carter and Danielle kiss, that was a nice touch. When the jokes worked, they worked well. There were only a few jokes that flatlined, which is a good thing.
But, sadly, Happy Death Day 2 isn't a perfect sequel. It drops the ball on more than one occasion. Most of the jokes land nicely, but there are a few that don't. For example, there's an unbroken nearly 30 second longtake of a police officer urinating while Tree holds a gun to the back of his head. It's slightly made tolerable by Tree's impatient facial expressions, but it goes on for far too long. Speaking of things that drag, how 'bout that third act? It's about 20 minutes too long, if you ask me. The stuff with Tree and her parents was nice, but everything else felt like fluff and filler to pad the runtime. The movie could've ended before the "steal the science machine" sidequest, but it didn't. Also, it can be argued that the repeated plot elements can be annoying for some people. It didn't bother me that much, though. That "Stayin' Alive" cover in the end credits was just awful, but the original score was very nice. Another joke that horrifically bombed is the nearly 20 minute "Danielle pretends to be French skit". It was funny for about four minutes, then it got old. It got old rather quickly. The third act was already dragging at that point, then it came close to a complete stop for twenty entire minutes. The actress, bless her heart, she tries her hardest to make it work all the way through, but it just doesn't. Her saying "gracias" in a French accent was funny, though. Also, I sure am glad that it's never explained how two versions of Ryan could exist in the same dimension, but Tree is only allowed to trade places with her other version. I'll assume they're saving that for the third one.
For everything the film does wrong, it does even more things right. To end on a high note, this movie has a surprising amount of heart to it. Tree's first reaction to seeing her mother alive and well was so cute. I still love Tree and Carter's relationship, as well as their friendship with Ryan. Andrea and Samar (Suraj's character) have good chemistry. Tree's dilemma is tragic, and Jessica does a great job of expressing it. The moment when she has to choose between staying in the dimension in which her Mom is still alive and going back to her normal world was heartbreaking to watch. It gets worse when she decides to stay with her Mom and Carter calls her selfish for it. You an understand where both people are coming from, which makes it an even more difficult scene to watch. I also really liked the cinematography. There's a really cool shot where Tree falls off of a ledge and lands on her bed. The change in scenery is so good, it's easily my favorite shot in the whole film. There's also a good use of close-ups to show a character's facial emotions, as well as some lovely longtakes and wideshots that allow for a better view of the environments.
Happy Death Day 2U was pretty good. I'd argue that it's better than the first one in terms of quality. It has better laughs, more heart, a more interesting mystery, better-written dialogue. I think it's an overall better movie, and I'm very excited to see where this series goes from here. I'm gonna give it a 7.5/10. If you have the time, I recommend it. This was a very good movie. Jessica Rothe deserves at least an Oscar nomination next year. I'll let Clair Foy's First Man performance getting snubbed slide, but you better recognize Rothe's talent. Thank you for reading, I have a handful of drafts getting worked on that I'll be focusing my time on until I catch another movie. Go see Happy Death Day 2U.
