Tuesday, January 9, 2018

2017 - IN REVIEW: GUILTY PLEASURE


HAPPY DEATH DAY

Every year I seem to lament the fact that I am calling a film a “guilty pleasure”. Most of the time these movies are the sort that are looked down upon by regular critics, which very often also happen to be horror films in my case. However, there is never a need to feel guilty for liking these films just because they aren't as serious or artistic as films that are looked more highly upon. These so called “guilty pleasures” are made to give the audience a fun and entertaining time, and if they succeed in doing so, they can be considered a success.

Now that I have gotten that off of my chest, the film that I am calling my “guilty pleasure” of 2017 is the very fun and inventive slasher “Happy Death Day” which was directed by Christopher Landon. Interestingly, Landon was the director of my guilty pleasure of 2015 too which was “Scout's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse”, so I think it is safe to say that this director has something that I am drawn to. The plot of “Happy Death Day” is a horror variation on “Groundhog Day” where we see our protagonist, named Tree, brutally murdered on her birthday, only to awaken again to start that day afresh where she is once again killed. Her friend, Carter, determines that she has unlimited lives until she works out who killed her and why, but each time Tree keeps returning, she does so with the “healed” results of her previous murder, suggesting her time may not actually be unlimited as there is only so much her body can surely take.

The biggest threat to these kind of films is that, by their very nature, they have to be repetitive as our main character continually repeats her day. The brilliance of “Happy Death Day” is that there is enough variation to keep the film interesting and while at the start, these variances are small, they end up getting larger as Tree is determined not to die and find out who is trying to kill her. I know that a lot of horror fans were not happy with this film's PG-13 rating, but it did not bother me at all as Landon does an exceptional job of building suspense leading up to each death. We never see the moment of impact, or the bloody horror money shot if you will, but this is because Tree reawakens at this moment. This is the point of contention for some horror fans as they feel it is a cop out, but I thought it works totally within the confines of this story. The fact that Landon does such a great job of building up these terror sequences counts for a lot, and I actually found all the chase scenes to be of quite a brutal nature even though on-screen violence is rare. I actually think that Christopher Landon studied Wes Craven's “Scream” films because the horror vibe and atmosphere was very similar here. This film and that series both have comedic lines within them, but when the horror takes over, the scenes are handled very seriously.

“Happy Death Day” is another in the long line of Blumhouse horror productions. I am actually a big fan of the way Blumhouse makes films, even though I do not like them all. The fact that they make these horror films without ridiculous sized budgets, it gives them a freedom to take a chance on an idea that may be new or outside the usual box, and if it doesn't work, they have not lost too much on the experiment. However, it is proving to be mostly successful because I think audiences crave something new and not have the some old thing crammed down their throats constantly. In my eyes, “Happy Death Day” is a total success. It may not be perfect, but it is so much fun, and a throwback to the slasher films of old whilst giving it a new twist. If you are a horror fan, or particularly a fan of the 80's slasher classics, I think you owe it to yourself to at least check out my guilty pleasure of 2017, “Happy Death Day”, because I think it is destined to become a new horror cult classic.


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