Instead of Dumb In A Fun Way, “Happy Death Day” Is Just Dumb

Each scene seems to demonstrate the film’s perfectly distilled vacuousness more than the last.

By R Mitchell Miller

The premise of Happy Death Day has the potential for dumb entertainment.

A sorority girl named Tree (Jessica Roth) wakes up in the dorm of a guy she met the night before when she blacked out. It's her birthday, and by the end of the night someone will have brutally murdered her.

But then, as the knife drives into her, she wakes up—in the same dorm. She's doomed to re-live the same day, Groundhog Day-style.

Each scene seems to demonstrate the film's perfectly distilled vacuousness more than the last: a character who asks, "Who takes their first date to Subway? It's not like you have a foot-long," or another scene where a character says, "I hope you both die," and then sure enough they both do.

That may sound funny in a kitschy way, but really, it's just an unrewarding slog.

CRITIC'S RATING: 1/4 stars

Happy Death Day is rated PG-13 and now playing at Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Vancouver.

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R Mitchell Miller

R Mitchell Miller

R Mitchell Miller is an old millennial and a transplant from many of the worst places who has decided to settle down here in beautiful Portland. He enjoys sports, history, animals and fiction. He writes about film, stage and other miscellaneous nonsense.

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