"Happy Death Day" To You!

Happy Death Day (2017)

Rated PG-13

Starring Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Charles Aitken,

Directed by Christopher Landon

The Story:

Tree (Rothe) wakes up in Carter's (Broussard) dorm room. She partied way too hard the night before. Not the most illustrious way to start out her birthday, but by the end of the night, she faces the prospect of dying at the hands of a mysterious murderer! Once she has been killed, she wakes up, and relives the day over and over again. Can Tree solve her own murder and possibly end the time loop she's stuck in?

It's always good to find a "Best of the Year" candidate in January.

I absolutely loved this movie, from start to finish.

I even watched the alternate ending on YouTube and didn't hate it nearly as much as the test audiences did. : )

But anyway, Christopher Landon helms his next great horror comedy (The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse) and it is a lot of fun.

Red herrings galore as their is an infinite number of suspects that crop up as Tree goes through her day, then eventually tries to track down  her murderer.

There's a lot of fun and humor in each of her situations as she tries to avoid being killed, then as she eliminates suspects, has to endure another day.

Sure, it sounds like Groundhog Day, but that's because if you're going to have a plot where you relive a day over and over again, that comparison is always going to be made. The point is, can you make one that is enjoyable for the audience, because the formula works, as long as you don't deliver a snoozer of a film.

Rothe is fantastic as Tree. She's really quite unlikable when we first meet her, then as her days repeat, she wins the audience over as she both becomes a better person and we endure the mystery of trying to find her killer at the same time.

So, enjoy the spot at the top of the list for now; Marvel Studios is sending 3 definite contenders, but I'm pretty sure this one will still end up on the Top 10 list by the end of the year.

To be even more fair to the film, I want out and bought a copy of it over the weekend.

Plus, the rest of the family that has seen it, they all loved it as well.

Can't ask for much more than that from any film!

Not sure how they'll work with the inevitable sequel, but if it's half this good, it's going to be a lot of fun.

Final Grade:  A-