The Happy Death Day movies may not be dead yet Cinemax
I’m not a big fan of birthdays. For me, receiving greetings (and gifts) from family and spending some time at a restaurant or on vacation are certainly enough. It’s not that age scares me or anything, but I find the situation, sometimes, a little embarrassing. However, I have found a way to accept birthdays with more understanding in recent years. When I need encouragement, I watch clips from the “Happy Death Day” movies again and realize that a birthday can be much worse when it becomes the day of death and we have to relive it day after day to understand who this time is betraying us and trying to kill us.
“Happy Death Day” is an excellent title that perfectly represents the central theme of the film and It is premise. The other good news is that besides the quirky name, the Happy Death Day movies are pretty fun. While it’s a somewhat familiar formula, its application as a fun slasher that’s mostly suited to teens (in the US, the films are rated PG-13), some scenes in Kills are nice and not too scary (did we say PG-13?), there was some tension around the question of who the “Happy Death Day” killer is behind the baby mask, and an excellent Jessica Rothe’s performance made the first film, and to some extent the sequel, a sort of Guilty Pleasure for me. Will we also see a third film?
How were the Happy Death Day films born?
Before reviewing the “Happy Death Day” films in order, our first mission is to understand how this idea was born.
Here’s an interesting fact that’s important to know about the first “Happy Death Day” movie, originally planned in 2007 – a decade before its release. The production of the film, under the name “Half to Death”, was to be entrusted to the grandiloquent Michael Bay, whose films range from the excessive to the unbearable, according to the author of these lines. The first role was intended for Megan Fox, even before she became a sort of horror icon (especially a sex symbol) thanks to “Jennifer’s Body”, released in 2009.
In the end, it was “Bloomhouse Productions” which made the film. They were basically good news for horror fans since “Bloomhouse” is responsible for many hit films we have seen over the past decade, like “Paranormal Activity”, “Insidious,» “The purges,» “To go out,» “We,” “M3gan“ and many more. Some would say that in recent years, “Bloomhouse“ has lost its direction, if not its quality, but it is one of the most important names in the horror universe.
The role of director was given to Christopher Landon, who began his career primarily as a screenwriter (of “Disturbia“ and three sequels to “Paranormal Activity”), then directed and wrote several enjoyable horror comedies: “The Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse“ (2015), “Weird“ (2020), “We have a ghost“ (2023), and more.
The lead role went to Jessica Rothe, a previously relatively unknown actress whose most notable role was a minor role in “La La Land,“ winner of six Oscars (and one more Oscar, the most important of all, which was awarded to him a few 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 matched the irony of the film. After all, a birthday is a lucky day, but according to tradition, Friday the 13th is quite the opposite.
We can say that “Happy Death Day“ brought a breath of fresh air to the slasher genre, which in recent years has rather come to life again. On the one hand, the plot structure is here not new: the heroine lives the same day repeatedly, and must 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 films of the 90s, in my opinion. The same principle, like action films (the fantastic “Edge of Tomorrow“ of 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 resolve this loop: to stop getting murdered every day. On her birthday, she wakes up one morning in the room of her classmate Carter (Israel Broussard). Terri is a slightly troubled girl who likes to party, ignores her father’s calls (her mother died a few years ago), has an affair with her teacher and, most importantly, is murdered on the same day by a killer wearing a baby mask. The only way out of the trap is to find out who is behind the mask and stop them.
Even if the idea of “Happy Death Day”“ is not very innovative, its application to a slasher film was, in my opinion, very successful. Jessica Rothe is excellent in the lead role, carries the film on her shoulders and proves that she has a commanding sense of comedy. The sequel to “Happy Death Day”“ the cast also does a decent job.
Don’t expect a horror film or extreme levels of gore, but a teen comedy with “some“ horror and suspense, including the inevitable question of “whodunnit,“ “Happy Death Day“ definitely gets the job done. Maybe we can guess who the killer is in “Happy Death Day”“ before the final reveal, but it’s still fun.
The film, produced on a reasonably small budget of around $4.5 million, was a success, grossing around $125.5 million worldwide, most of it outside the United States.
Where to watch Happy Death Day?
The movie “Happy Death Day” 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 to rent 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“ was released with a slightly larger budget of around $9 million. Although the general idea was similar, the sequel, also written and directed by Christopher Landon, reprises the film in a different directionmixing more humor and even science fiction.
After Terri apparently manages to escape the loop from the first film, Ryan (Phi Vu), a friend of hers, creates a new time loop following an unsuccessful experiment he conducted in the laboratory. The loop, as you may have already guessed, takes him back again and again to this day, where he is murdered at one point by a killer wearing, as you may have guessed again, a baby mask. The gang attempts to escape the circuit with the help of another machine, which creates a parallel universe that takes them back in time, to and before the events of the first film. Tree Gelbman must make difficult choices, stay alive and this time discover who is behind the mask.
“Happy Death Day 2U“ was a little less successful in most reviews, although it included some thriving comedic scenes, as well as one scene that almost made me (and others!) cry. It grossed approximately $64.5 million, a low amount compared to the first film. On the one hand, it produced very good numbers. On the other hand, it is always currently being determined that these numbers will justify a third film.
In any case, the final scene of “Happy Death Day 2U”, which seems to have come off the production line of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, almost laid the groundwork for a third film.
Where to watch Happy Death Day 2U?
“Happy Death Day 2U” is available to watch online quite easily. You can rent or pay for it through Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Youtube and others.
Will there be a Happy Death Day 3?
Are there other “Happy Death Days”“ films on the radar? Jessica Rothe hopes so, and to some extent, so do we.
In an interview with Screen Geek to promote his new film, “Boy Kills World,“ Rothe was asked about the possibility of a third film in the franchise. “We just have to wait until Blumhouse and Universal get their ducks in a row. But I’m crossing my fingers so much,“ she said. “I think the tree reserve its third and final chapter to end this incredible character and franchise or for a new beginning.
A third film can develop the story and the character of Tree Gelbman a little more, and above all give us some pleasure and guilty pleasure, so I am in favor of it. Maybe it’s better than having birthdaysdon’t you think so?
