Happy Death Day Collection

Comedy

Horror

Science Fiction

Happy Death Day 2U

Digital Riot Media

Blumhouse Productions

United States of America

English

Jessica Rothe

Israel Broussard

Ruby Modine

Suraj Sharma

Rachel Matthews

Phi Vu

Sarah Yarkin

Kenneth Israel

Steve Zissis

Charles Aitken

Laura Clifton

Missy Yager

Jason Bayle

Caleb Spillyards

Blaine Kern III

Jimmy Gonzáles

Tenea Intriago

Tran Tran

Rob Mello

Peter Jaymes Jr.

James W. Evermore

Johnny Ballance

Lindsey G. Smith

Wendy Miklovic

Ashley Nicole Hudson

Simon Potter

Tim Bell

Andy Dylan

Preston Schrag

Heather Arthur

Carl Anthony Nespoli

Peter Epstein

Corrina Roshea Bobb

Joe Dryden

Kelly Phelan

Austin Seifert

Mark Ginther

Juliene Joyner

Adam Rivette

Nathan Carlson

Garin W. Sparks

Couper Samuelson

Jeanette Volturno

Jennifer Scudder Trent

Alicia Haverland

Robert C. Bigelow

Andrea von Foerster

Samson Mucke

Vincent Lucido

Erica Severson

Kerry M. Brown Sr.

Jessica Lee

Adele Plauche

Nancy Kirhoffer

Mark Rayner

Joshua M.F. Jones

Fernando Altschul

Mark Rockwell Osman

Chad Chamberlain

Penelope Helmer

Chad Taylor

Jack Bigelow

Dunbar Merrill

Hunter Spears

Craig Serody

Rudy Jones

Mary McDade Casteel

Alessandro Chimento

Jaim O'Neil

Loui J. LeRoy

Quenell Jones

John Scott Williams

Bradley Martin

Russell Beard

Eric DePoorter

Frank Avanzo

Ted Gregg

Nicholas Istas

Mary Ashton Honore

Brian Dallas

Luke Cauthern

Amy Gavel

Jordan Whaley

David K. Nami

Brad Manis

Dallas Hollomon

Natalie Tippett

Eliot Brasseaux

Shane Troxler

Jim Wayer

Lee Jenkins

Laura Faye Sirkin-Brown

Ryan Chamberlain

Nick Nicolay

Scott C. Bivona

Sara Alavi

Erin Burns

Melissa Perret

Elizabeth Coulon

Margeaux Fox

Ally Conover

Lorna Street Dopson

Marta Goldstein

Lisa Latter

Lindsey M. Page

Alexander Salazar

Todd Crockett

Kate Evans

Stacy Fortenberry

Jesus 'Chuy' Rosales

Dee Leveque

S.G. Gallagher

Michele K. Short

Trevor Gates

Daryl Wilsford

Ben Simpkins

Jamie Thierman

Amelia Chen Miley

Derek Larsen

Scot Middleton

Kevi Aragunde

Oliver Taylor

Manuel São Bento

If you enjoy reading my Spoiler-Free reviews, please follow my blog :)

Jessica Rothe leads the follow-up to Blumhouse's surprise 2017 smash hit of riveting, repeating twists and comic turns. This time, our hero Tree Gelbman (Rothe) discovers that dying over and over was surprisingly easier than the dangers that lie ahead. Jason Blum once again produces, and Christopher Landon returns to write and direct this next chapter.

I don’t have a Happy Death Day review online, but I agree with the adjectives above-mentioned. It was one of last year’s surprises, and I genuinely had great fun with it. Overall, I would have rated it a B/B+, in case you’re wondering. But let’s get to its sequel and find out if it stood up to the original’s level…  

Short answer: no. Not even close. Honestly, it even diminishes what the first one accomplished. The 2017 original flick was a refreshing surprise because it took a different concept and mixed a bunch of genres in an unexpectedly entertaining way. It was funny, imaginative and Jessica Rothe proved to be a star in the making. 2U just has Rothe. That’s it. Its comedy bits only worked a couple of times throughout the whole runtime, and there wasn’t a single scary sequence that didn’t remind me of thousands of other familiar scenes done better in other films.

This movie is simply an easy money-grab, and BlumHouse doesn’t mind if it doesn’t stand up to the original as long as it succeeds in the box office, which it already did. Unfortunately, that’s how Hollywood and the world of cinema works nowadays. If an unique and even risky film, one that was only planned to be a single installment, becomes a box office hit, chances are that a sequel is going to be produced, even if it has to wrongly retcon what happened in the original movie, consequently taking some of its value. This rarely works quality-wise, but I can’t deny that, as a marketing strategy, it’s very profitable for studios.

My main issue with Happy Death Day 2U is that it risks too much with no reasonable payoff. Story-wise, it has tons of logical incongruencies, and I don’t buy the ending, at all. Christopher Landon asks too much of the audience since we have to accept so much nonsense in order to actually enjoy the film. In the original movie, the only thing we needed to “go with” was the actual concept, but that was pretty clear from the get-go. In 2U, there’s a compelling and captivating moral dilemma at its core, but that same dilemma becomes less and less like one by the end of it. It’s still a complicated situation, but it’s like they forgot what was really important and went with other poorly explained route.

It doesn’t matter the genre from which you analyze this film. If you look at it as a comedy, you’ll barely laugh. If you think of it as a scary movie, you’ll never get scared. If you want to be intrigued by who the killer is this time around, you won’t be because the mystery is pretty straightforward. I really don’t want to rant on this film because I do love its cast and I really enjoyed the first movie, but it’s really hard not to be upset since it damages an eventual second viewing of the first one now. When the original installment doesn’t have an open door to other adventures, just don’t try to make a sequel for the sake of it. I know, I know… Money. Bah.

I don’t want to end this review on a sad note, so I left the brilliant cast to the end. Everyone is fantastic, and I hope that at least this film can catapult some of these actors into the spotlight, especially Jessica Rothe. She has a tremendous range of expressions and incredible ease in changing between emotions. She can look scared, sad and happy in a matter of seconds, with tears and all. She’s a full package. I hope that she can grab either a major role on a big TV series or a supporting role in a blockbuster or Oscar-bait movie in the next couple of years. Surely, Jason Blum has some plans for her.

All in all, Happy Death Day 2U does not deserve the box office success that it is having. It’s receiving a lot of credit due to the 2017 original’s surprise hit, and that’s unfair to the first installment. This sequel not only wrongly retcons unnecessary plot details of its predecessor, but it makes that correction its main plot, continuously reminding the audience that we just have to accept it. It’s not as funny, scary, unique or surprisingly entertaining as the original, and if the returning cast didn’t deliver strong performances, this would be one of the worst films of the year. Fortunately, there are a couple of good moments here and there, and Jessica Rothe alone saves the movie from a much more negative review. 

Oh, and please, do NOT make a third one! Just leave it alone.

Rating: C-

Gimly

A notable step down from the first _Happy Death Day_ but I was still pretty happy with this. There are some problems though. Calling it repetitive seems like a no-brainer, given the content, but it's not so much that _2U_ is doing mostly the same thing as the first one, as that it's doing the same thing as the first one, and that all of the things that are changed are **worse**. I didn't need an explanation or really much of anything that I saw in _2U_. But I guess something had to give if _Happy Death Day_ was going to get a sequel, and as I said, I didn't dislike this. I actually actively did like it. I just don't think it was up to the standard off the first, which even then, was good but not great.

Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole.

From the start, I was expecting the scenario would shift to another character, instead it went back to the main one from the first film.
Plus, when I heard this sequel was in development, I assumed the plot would focus on Lori trying and failing to kill Tree through the same hilarious scenario.

Still, this was an entertaining sequel.

Happy Death Day 2U - Official Trailer 2 (HD)

Happy Death Day 2U - Official Trailer (HD)

Best Movies

Happy Death Day 2U

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Jessica Rothe

Israel Broussard

Ruby Modine

Suraj Sharma

Rachel Matthews

Phi Vu

Sarah Yarkin

Kenneth Israel

Steve Zissis

Charles Aitken

Box office

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