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‘Happy Death 2U’ lacks the simple structure of its predecessor

By JASON GUYER
iRATE
“Happy Death Day” is one of my favorite horror films of the last few years. Naturally, that means I was looking forward to the sequel, “Happy Death Day 2U.” Sequels are one of the hardest types of films to get right and there have been far more failures than successes. They are all graded on the curve and are judged relative to the original sets and often with a higher standard and much more scrutiny.

“Happy Death Day 2U” follows Tree Gelbman again. Tree in the first film was a unapologetic self-centered collegian who woke up on her birthday in the bed of a student named Carter. As the day progresses Tree gets eerie dejà vú and feels that she’s experienced the events of this day before. 

Enter a horror film staple, the masked killer who suddenly takes Tree’s life in a brutal attack. Tree magically wakes up in Carter’s dorm room unharmed. 

Repeat, à la “Groundhog Day.”

In the sequel “Happy Death Day 2U,” Tree having learned a new perspective on life in the first film is excited to start her life with Carter who she fell in love with in the first film. In Tree’s timeline though, the film is only on the next day. Just as Tree and Carter are looking to start that next day, Ryan enters. Ryan claims he is reliving the day and has a masked killer after him. Tree, having lived the experience and tries to save Ryan.

We find out Ryan is a scientist and his project has caused both Tree and himself to be stuck in these death loops. All three people, Tree, Carter and Ryan aim to fix it once and for all.

A plan goes awry and sends Tree to a parallel universe where she essentially starts the events from the first film over again, only with slight differences to characters and storylines that a parallel universe might bring.

The biggest changes are with boyfriend Carter, who is now with someone else, and her friends seem to be completely different versions of themselves. Tree soon realizes that she must die over and over again to save everyone and get back to her universe.

Reprising her role as Tree Gelbman is Jessica Rothe. Rothe made the original “Happy Death Day” the fun farcical horror film it was. And gave Tree a likeability through what could be considered a hateable personality. The Tree character also grows as in character throughout the first film.

In “Happy Death Day 2U,” you lose that grounded storyline and it is replaced by even more farce. This does not make the film better. I really enjoyed the first movie because of its simple and effective premise. Girl dies, repeats day, dies many times on way to finding and beating her killer.

Instead of a horror film killer like Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees who kill many characters, in “Happy Death Day 2U” Tree is the all of character deaths. She is the many deaths of the film, repeatedly and in many different ways. Blumhouse productions, who single handedly saved a stagnant horror film market, gave us a fun, interesting and often whimsical horror film.

“Happy Death Day 2U” can not and does not live up to the original or Blumhouses growing horror film reputation. The problem is repetition. Storyline and character repetition is normally a story killer and in almost all formats and mediums. There is nothing I hate more than repeated storylines, especially in the same film franchise or television show.

However, there are exceptions and you have to feel them out and know when you have one. The biggest example is “The Hangover” franchise. The first film was comedy brilliance, the second film was the exact same plot line and story structure but almost as funny. People complained about how similar one and two were and that led to “The Hangover 3.”

The filmmakers took the complaints of the audience and changed the format and gave them an entirely different film. It was worse. Fewer people saw it, most people hated it.

The same goes here for “Happy Death Day 2U.” I get why “Happy Death Day 2U” did it and yes the film sort of does a genre jump from horror film to science fiction film. It is just not necessary or better for the film. The introduction of parallel universes overcomplicates a schtick that worked best in simplicity. Girl dies, repeats day, dies many times on way to finding and beating her killer. The repetition of days needs no explanation. It is not necessary, especially a complicated one like parallel universes.

I feel like the majority of the population likes horror films for three reasons. The deaths, to be scared, and the whodunit. The original “Happy Death” had all three and was simplistic in its delivery of that on screen. “Happy Death Day 2U” overcomplicates all three, leading to less scary moments, fewer deaths, and erases any value to the whodunit because it doesn’t matter, as the goal is no longer whodunit. The goal is now for Tree to get back home to her parallel universe.

“Happy Death Day” worked best in its fun, whimsical, farcical, bloody horror film way. What “Happy Death Day” had is what “Happy Death Day 2U” needed to be a good film. They created a structure and format with “Happy Death Day” that they should have stuck to, repetition. Working in an industry that uses them, sometimes when have a template it is best to use it.

They didn’t. Leaving “Happy Death Day 2U” in need of its own repeat. One that it will get with a trilogy, as planned.

 

IRATE SCORE: 2/5

 

Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the graphics department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected].

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