I love horror movies of all kinds, but when it comes to the slasher genre I am all in. The more gore the better, but all I ask is make it good and give me something to enjoy. The latest, Happy Death Day from Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse director Christopher Landon was one I was really looking forward thanks to its new take on the genre, but could it live up to the fun of the trailers or will it be a day that doesn’t deserve repeating?

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Happy Death Day follows a teenage girl, trying to enjoy her birthday, soon realizes that this is her final one. That is, if she can figure out who her killer is. She must relive that day, over and over again, dying in a different way each time but can she solve her own murder? I loved the idea of Groundhog Day meets Scream which essentially this movie is, but sadly it doesn’t fully live up to what I was hoping out of it. Sure there are some great moments and as a whole I had some fun with it, but it just played everything too safe. It never fully can decide if it wants to be a teen dramedy or horror flick and gets lost in the mud of it all throughout.

 

With any slasher flick you have to have a good visual to the killer and I will give them props for that here as it is memorable and offers up a creepy vibe, but the PG-13 rating takes all the clever kill factor out of the equation making it never give up what the trailer promised. I don’t have as much of a problem with the fact that every character here is a cliché to horror films as I have come to expect and even accept it, but none of them really stands out all that well and some of the performances were cringe worthy.

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This is one of those films that could have been a brilliant piece of horror cinema, but instead decided to cater to the mainstream audience and make it end up being just an average film. I will give them props for actually throwing me off the scent for once on how it was going to end which made for a great ending, but still not enough to make it what it could have been. As much as this disappointed me in overall execution I can still see the fun in it all and see this one that will likely become a guilty pleasure over time.