96. Happy Death Day 2U; movie review

HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U
Cert 15
100 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong violence, threat

What do you do when a $5m-budget horror makes $125m? You make a follow-up in a hurry!
Thus, the characters of Happy Death Day 2U are not the only ones who are suffering from deja vu.
No-one can deny that Christopher Landon knows how to make money from making cinema audiences jump. After all, he bled every cent out of Paranormal Activity.
Therefore, it can come as no surprise that tens of millions of dollars have been made from a sequel to an already very profitable movie.
Happy Death Day 2U would make no sense without having seen the original Happy Death Day because it follows straight after it and it is a plank of the follow-up.
This time, Ryan, (Phi Vu) is the unfortunate who suffers a nightmarish groundhog day.
Ryan, those with especially good memories will recall, is the dorm neighbour who burst into the room when Tree (Jessica Rothe) and Carter (Israel Broussard) were canoodling in the first film.
Yep, Tree is back and eventually the focus switches back to her and... a time machine.
That is correct... if living the same day 11 times and being bumped off by a crazed knifeman each time were not wacky enough, this film has literally added a new dimension.
Yet, as with the first film, I surprised myself by not finding Happy Death Day 2U that bad.
Of course, it is utterly implausible but it gently pokes at itself as well as adding a bit of 'don't judge a book by its cover' pathos and some sweet family and friends moments.
And I rather fell for Rothe's performance. She held the first movie together and here she takes what could have been cinematic lameness and drags it up several notches.
In common with Happy Death Day, this is no classic but neither is it awful enough for me to insist people don't watch it.

Reasons to watch: If you enjoyed the first film
Reasons to avoid: If you didn't see the first film

Laughs: Two
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? Happy Death Day 2U writer-director Christopher Landon and producer Jason Blum have already said that they want to make a third movie.

The final word. Jessica Rothe: "I'm still amazed every day that Chris wrote and created such an amazingly vibrant, complex three-dimensional, badass, bitchy, messy, lovable human being. I love that this is a girl who sees the killer, and instead of running away, picks up an axe, and runs towards him screaming." Pop Sugar

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