Happy Death Day 2U is directed by Christopher Landon and stars Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, and Phi Vu. It continues the story of Tree who, after having survived the first time around, is back to face new dangers, but also might discover a few answers this time around.
The first Happy Death Day movie was an interesting concept, that ultimately fell apart in its execution. I was hoping for the sequel to amp up the horror, while also keeping some of the more comedic elements displayed in the first one.
HDD2U was a dissappointment on many levels. But perhaps the worst part was that the movie had an identity crisis. Even looking at the IMdB page for the movie, it has six categories it is placed under: Comedy, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, and Thriller. Trying to juggle this many different tones resulted in a scatter brained movie that was not quite sure what it wanted to be. The slasher elements that made the first one enjoyable seemed to be an afterthought in favor of the science fiction on display.
Whereas one plothole I may be able to overlook, when a bunch began to pile up it can began to tear the movie apart. Some may be nit picky, but when your mind begins to snag on little things in can distract you from the rest of the movie. The ultimate reveal that comes at the end of the movie is completely unearned and thinking about it for more than a minute has it completely fall apart.
I wanted to like Happy Death Day 2U, but the film's lack of ability to commit to any one genre hampered it from being very good at all. The trailers do not do a good job of advertising this movie, so don't go in expecting what you see in the commercials.
When should you watch it?
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