Amanda Berry

Staff Writer

The second installment of “Happy Death Day” premiered February 13, just in time for Valentine’s day. While the first movie was a fantastic mock of modern horror movies, the sequel proves that there never needed to be a second installment.

If you haven’t seen the first movie, you won’t be missing too much because a lot for the second movie is exactly like the first. The main character, Tree, is once again caught up in a replay of her birthday, whereby the end of the night she is murdered only to wake up again on the same day.

This time, the murderer isn’t the same as the previous time. Not only is this different, but Tree’s friends find themselves going through the same thing, at least at first. They discover that Ryan has opened a time loop into a different dimension.

In this alternate world, everything is different for Tree. Her mother is still alive, but now her boyfriend is dating the nasty sorority leader. Tree decides, instead of letting herself be murdered over and over, to help save time until they can figure out to fix things, and that she should just kill herself.

The movie from this point out becomes very cheesy. Even though it’s a mock of the horror genre, the first one was still more enjoyable because it had a better storyline. This time around, it seems as if the producers were just trying to make money by making a crappy sequel.

Tree begins to kill herself off in horror movie-esque ways, like jumping into a tree-cutting machine and skydiving in her lingerie without a parachute.  This kills time while the characters are trying to discover what mathematical sequence will reverse the machine and send Tree back home.

Then, the movie takes an obvious turn when Tree discovers her mother is still alive in this world, and she selfishly wants to stay.

She has her mother, and although she lost her boyfriend, she decides she can live without him. Not long after this decision, Carter, her boyfriend in the other world, explains she is being selfish and living “someone else’s life”.

Carter changes Tree’s mind and she decides to find the killer, fixes the equation and goes back home. The ending was corny but cute.

Overall, the first movie is way better in every way than the sequel. The second movie drags out, is less fun to watch, and seems to be a cheap excuse in making another movie for the franchise.

It is mostly the same as the first, and even though I’d see it again, I wouldn’t pay to see it. If you’re hoping to see this movie, save your money and wait till the second comes out on DVD. Or, just skip the second movie entirely and watch the first because it’s mostly the same, but better.

The first movie builds the characters up, allows them to grow and progress, and in turn fall for each other. It fits with the storyline and is cute without being overly cringey.

The first movie has a huge twist to the ending which makes it all the more enjoyable for a laughable “Scary Movie” kind of horror movie.

Email Amanda at:

aberry1@live.esu.edu