October Horror Challenge 2023 #61: "Happy Death Day"

I just love slashers. There's something about a killer stalking victims until there's one left who has to stand off and fight the killer that just gets me. I have done battle against a lot of evil in my life, and I've managed to pull myself out of the depths to fight another day, so I like to see people fighting evil and (hopefully) winning in the end. Plus it's fun to see how many creative kills the killer can come up with along the way. And it's interesting to see the different masks the killer's wear throughout these movies. The mask for the killer is particularly creepy. I've seen it in previews. It's a big smiley face. Terrifying, right? I just couldn't wait to see this movie, but it kept getting put off every year for some reason, and now it's been like 6 years since this movie came out and I just HAVE to watch it now, because it's been too long. Here we go@

So this movie is a slasher, i know that much, and as much as I hate spoilers, I actually let someone spoil the premise of this movie for me. It's about Tree, a college girl who goes through life stepping on other people, so she's not that likeable. We get to see her use and abuse a few people until she has a run-in with a psychotic killer in a happy face mask, who quickly dispatches her in a gory way. But this movie isn't like other slasher movies, and I don't want to spoil it for you all, so I'm going to put the rest of this synopsis behind a spoiler warning. I don't know if the twist of this movie is common knowledge or something, but I wish I hadn't known what was coming before I saw this movie, so I'm going to give you a chance to have thar experience. Just go out and see this movie, and don't worry about the twist.

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This isn't like other slasher movies, because when Tree gets killed, she wakes up again, and it's the previous morning again, and has to repeat the day all over again, over and over until she figures out a way to defeat the killer. Dude, it's like "Groundhog's Day," but with violent murders thrown in. What a cool idea.

Usually in movies like this, the unlikeable characters get dispatched and then we never have to think about them again. But in this movie, the unlikeable character sticks around and has a chance to live her day again and again and slowly starts to redeem herself as she goes along. It really does remind me of "Groundhog's Day" but the brutal stabbings make it so much better than that one! The mystery of who is killing Tree over and over again is the only mystery I get to puzzle over since someone ruined the twist for me, so I appreciate that this movie has more than one twist up its sleeve. I gotta say, seeing Tree be stalked by a killer in a hospital has serious "Halloween II" vibes, and I really appreciated the callback to movies that came before. This is a clever little slasher, and since it's a slasher it's almost inevitable that I would like it, but I seriously loved every minute of this movie, and I wouldn't mind watching it overr abd over and over again!