Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

Director: Christopher Landon
Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, Sarah Yarkin, Rachel Matthews, Ruby Modine, Steve Zissis, Charles Aitken, Laura Clifton, Missy Yager, Jason Bayle, Rob Mello
Rating: PG-13

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

Released in 2017, Christopher Landon's Happy Death Day was enthusiastically received by both critics and audiences for re-energizing Groundhog Day's familiar premise as a modern black comedy slasher. After catching up with it far later than expected, what jumped out most was that you could literally sit anyone in front of it with complete confidence they'd enjoy themselves. Being universally recommendable isn't a small compliment, as this proved the rare instance where that dreaded 'PG-13' rating actually served the material, foregoing a reliance on kills and gore to instead exploit the premise's sharp humor for all it's worth.

Now, after waiting even longer to finally see its sequel, 2019's Happy Death Day 2U, confirmation arrives that it's just as crazy as everyone says. While it may lack its predecessor's sense of discovery and a flawed protagonist's exciting transformation, Landon does something really interesting here that you don't frequently see from most sequels, horror or otherwise. He dares to make a totally different movie, expanding his pre-existing universe while making viewers call upon all their knowledge of the previous film. You can't just sit anyone in front of this one if they haven't seen the first, and that's what makes it so strangely appealing.

Abandoning many of its horror elements to go full sci-fi and draw from 80's teen comedies like Weird Science and Real Genius, the sequel's essentially a love letter to Back to the Future Part II, complete with alternate timelines and parallel universes. The script even acknowledges it outright, while making no apologies for wanting to do more than repeat the original. But more impressively, it accomplishes this by still doing exactly that.  

Waking up in his car on Tuesday, September 19, Bayfield University student Ryan (Phi Vu) returns to his dorm room to find roommate Carter (Israel Broussard) with girlfriend Tree (Jessica Rothe). After going back to work on his experimental quantum reactor with friends Samar (Suraj Sharma) and Dre (Sarah Yarkin), Ryan's killed by someone in a Babyface mask before waking up again on the same day. Upon hearing Ryan's story, Tree realizes he's now stuck in a time loop eerily similar to the one she experienced on Monday the 18th. The group's effort to close the loop instead results in a lab disaster with the machine, sending Tree back to relive that original day, but in an alternate timeline. 

With people she knows now suddenly occupying different roles and functions in this new reality, Tree must deal with the fallout and find help to get back, assuming that's what she wants. Complicating matters is that the Babyface killer is on the loose, with their identity and motives suddenly again a mystery in this alternate dimension. Faced with a nearly impossible choice, Tree's desire to escape this loop isn't so cut and dry, as this reality offers her a second chance at something she never thought she'd experience again. 

In attempting to give a complete explanation for what happened in the preceding entry, it tries more than most sequels, leaning so far into the sci-fi component that you question whether it's actually more information than necessary. While everything involving the reactor machine is silly and probably makes even less sense than most time travel plots, that's kind of the point, transforming what was previously a dark slasher comedy into an ambitious, entertaining farce that enables Landon to use every creative tool at his disposal to construct a viable follow-up. 

The idea of an alternate timeline seems very much inspired by BTTF Part II, and at first glance seems to be an odd fit with the Groundhog Day meets Scream approach of the original. But it all works to the film's advantage, as Landon's script finds fresh ways to repurpose nearly all the supporting players in new roles that depart heavily from how they were previously portrayed. The result is a story that's able to return to the settings, places and people of Tree's seemingly endless Monday the 18th, but with the added twist of everything being just a little off and her having to navigate through it again. 

Familiar enough, but containing just enough surprises, the script manages to substantially build on everything that happened before, giving supporting players like Tree's sorority sisters Danielle (Rachel Matthews) and Lori (Ruby Modine), Dr. Butler (Charles Aitken) and escaped serial killer Tombs (Rob Mello) a fresh coat of paint. It also again puts the masked Babyface killer's identity in doubt, even if that sometimes takes a backseat to some of the comedic shenanigans involving Ryan's science buddies and the school's hapless Dean (a scene-stealing Steve Zissis). There's a goofy sequence where he's distracted by a "foreign exchange student" that has no right being as funny as it is and yet it completely works. It's also tough to recall a sequel that has this much of its original cast return, right down to even the smallest of cameos, making the plot's machinations sturdier.  

Falsely teasing roommate Ryan as the main character was a good idea since it not only reels us in, but creates worry as to whether Tree will be sidelined, only to change course and enable viewers to make the discovery along with her again. If Tree's relationship with kind, nerdy Carter proved to be the glue that held the first film together, it's now as if that never happened, at least for this version of him, who has a life that definitely doesn't include her. This means she'll have some work to do, all while facing a reality in which her late mom (Missy Yager) is still alive, after that tragic loss already shaped what she's become. 

After transcending the confines of the genre to portray a completely different type of scream queen in the first film, Jessica Rothe's versatile performance as reformed sorority mean girl Tree Gelbman is somehow even better this time around. In one particularly dramatic scene, she believably registers a whole spectrum of emotions you just can't imagine getting from another actress in any similar role. She does this and alternately displays unmatched comedic chops in a memorably hilarious suicide montage wherein Tree continuously and creatively offs herself to get to the next day. How Rothe isn't in demand for every project out there boggles the mind, as we're once again given front row seats to what should be the breakout of a major new screen star. On one hand, you want to see her continue along this route because she's so good at it, but it's impossible not to wonder how much untapped potential still exists should she decide to tackle entirely different roles. 

The screenplay sets up a choice at the end that's handled really well, while also having something smart to say about the comfort of looking back versus embracing what lies ahead. Despite a post-credit scene setting up another sequel, this one's somewhat lackluster box office haul temporarily put those plans to bed. Luckily, Landon's subsequent success with 2020's body swap horror comedy Freaky did resuscitate that conversation, along with rumors about some kind of crossover between the two. Given how each  subverted their genres so similarly, it would probably work as a single outing. Whatever disappointment horror fans feel about Happy Death Day 2U rarely qualifying as a full-blown slasher are offset by everything else it does to differentiate itself as a sequel. So while it may be easier to prefer the ride we're taken on in the original, it's tough to blame anyone who far prefers the risks this takes instead.