Happy Death Day (2017)

Written by beyondthecineramadome on June 20, 2022

Full review: https://www.tinakakadelis.com/beyond-the-cinerama-dome/2021/12/28/kill-me-baby-one-morenbsptime-happy-death-day-review

Happy Death Day works because Rothe is a charismatic lead, invoking the scream queen performances of yesteryear. Most of the other characters are far more secondary, so the burden falls on Rothe to bring life to a grounding role. As the lead, Tree needs to be intriguing enough for the audience to put up with the repetitive nature of the genre, but also pliable enough to allow her character to grow. Her relationship with Carter is particularly interesting because it has to both progress over the course of one day for Carter (who forgets everything as the day resets) and vary for Tree over the many different versions of the one day she lives through. Their relationship must be both a blank slate and feel as though the needle has moved forward at the end of each repeated day. Broussard and Rothe are able to sell it completely from the first time Tree wakes up confused in Carter’s bed.