I know it has been a very long time since I’ve reviewed a movie on The Horror Times. In the past it’s always been children’s movies with some scary elements to it. Since my kids have been home due to schools being closed and that no theaters are open I’m going in a different direction. Granted not to the extreme horror that many fans of this site enjoy or that Baron Craze likes to review but I feel all movies even with a light horror theme to them deserve to be reviewed as well. So, this brings me to Happy Death Day from 2017. I first saw this movie in the theater with a couple of friends and then I just saw it again when I was going through my husband’s movies. I call this a horror version of Groundhog Day.

Happy Death Day was directed by Christopher Landon who directed some of the Paranormal Activity movies and also the sequel to this film. The movie opens with a female college student (Jessica Rothe) waking up in Carter’s (Israel Broussard) dorm room that wasn’t where she normally would ever sleep. She’s not a friendly or nice person and wants to get out of there as soon as possible. She gets back to her sorority house and lots of questions are asked of her and she just runs off upstairs to her room. Her roommate wants to wish her a “Happy Birthday” with a cupcake but she just throws it in the trash and goes on with her day. At the end of that day we see that someone wearing a mask is trying to kill her and then she wakes up in that same dorm room and the events that occurred the previous day happened all over again. Each time before she wakes up she incurs the nightmare of someone trying to kill her each time. This happens countless times.

First she thinks it’s the teacher (Charles Aitken) who she’s having an affair because she’s the same mask in his desk at the hospital. Then after doing some research she thinks it’s the serial killer that’s recovering in that same hospital. In the end it is someone different that you wouldn’t expect.

It’s really not a horror film but it has thriller like qualities with a whodunit plot line. If you like the original Groundhog Day movie with Bill Murray this would be a movie for you.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5308322/

IMDb Rating: 6.5/10

3C Rating: 7.0/10