DVD review: Happy Death Day

Reviewed by: Gareth Drawbridge

Review made possible by: Empire Entertainment

How many times have you been at a party, or some kind of social gathering, and heard someone say something along the lines of: “It was the best day ever.

“I wish I could go back and relive it all over again?”

For many cinema-goers the thought of reliving one of the best days of their lives might seem like a dream.

However, what would you do if, by some dark twist of fate, you were forced to relive the worst day of your life, over and over again?

This is exactly what happens to Tree in the horror/mystery/black comedy, Happy Death Day.

On September 18, Tree’s birthday, she wakes up in Carter’s dorm room and can’t remember how she got there.

After an awkward run-in with his roommate, she takes the walk of shame back to her sorority house where her day continues as normal.

Later, during the evening, while walking by herself, she is killed by a hooded figure who is wearing the rather disturbing-looking baby mask of the campus mascot.

On September 18, Tree’s birthday, she once again wakes up in Carter’s dorm room and, despite her initial confusion, she is shocked to discover that she is reliving the previous day’s events.

Once again, the day goes on and culminates in her death.

Stuck in a continuous loop, Tree realises she is doomed to relive her death day unless she can identify the masked assailant who keeps murdering her in random ways – including blowing her up, drowning her and bludgeoning her to death with a baseball bat.

As Tree sets out to track down the culprit, she finds out she is not as popular as she thought and due to her self-centeredness and dismissive and condescending attitude towards just about everyone – including her father – the list of suspects is as long as the queue outside SARS on the day before the final deadline for tax submissions.

As Tree continues to die, she slowly eliminates suspects from her list, but will she solve the mystery before she finally runs out of lives?

Directed by Christopher B. Landon, Happy Death Day can best be described as a darker, slightly sinister version of the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.

Since its release, Happy Death Day has received quite a positive response from several critics and self-proclaimed film buffs.

If you are looking for something not so serious to end off your weekend – a probiotic to the Monday blues if you will – then this is an ideal choice.

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