4th of July 2025 Marathoning

The one thing I never want to be is some Hype Machine. There are plenty of critics out there and lots of Letterboxed folks who will either come out of the gates with plenty of general praise or poo-poo the newest horror/comedy release, Happy Death Day (2017). I can tell you that this early afternoon when walking out of the theater, the buzz was excited and faces were ecstatic, with plenty of chatty banter talking pleasantly about the experience. Stumbling on the Groundhog Day premise and adding the slasher spin to it gave the proper novelty that could just be enough to make Happy Death Day an early fall hit for Blumhouse. Jessica Rothe is in the lead, a blonde sorority sister banging her married professor, not in the mood to celebrate her birthday due to her mother’s being dead now three years, and dismissing most folks she encounters because they all annoy her. She rolls her eyes a lot at the beginning, all surly and selfish. But as she is killed by someone in black hoodie and doll-face mask over and over in one way or another, Jessica begins to re-evaluate her life and treatment of others. I’ll leave it at that until later for an official review because I really don’t want to go too in depth considering it just came out this weekend. I will say that it doesn’t push the PG-13 with its violence. It is off-screen. The slasher outline is here but the violence and nudity is not. This is really about Rothe’s incredibly versatile performance and how she transforms her character as she dies every day, and the little surprises that are unearthed as she alters each day from how it was previously. This film cares more about the Groundhog Day part of the premise and the “whodunit” twist regarding the identity of the killer from its slasher outline. And the film tosses a couple red herrings at you to keep you honest (the film includes the finding of a doll mask in a desk drawer and the obligatory serial killer held prisoner in the hospital room) along with clues that might help figure out the killer (knows of her birthday being this repeated day, would have access to her room, would know her schedule and where she might walk, drops a little candle on a gasoline line leading to car she’s held in…). But this film is clearly more interested in Rothe’s gradual change from stuck-up diva to humbled, regretful, and even eventually grateful. She makes realizations, comes to terms with past behavior, rights wrongs, throws caution to the wind, challenges her sorority attitudes, and eventually embraces the possibilities that come with change…so just running around like Sidney Prescott while hoping to avoid daily knife-stabbings isn’t really the personality of this film. It is about how Rothe adapts and responds to quite an extraordinary situation that happens on repeat until she can figure out who it is that is offing her on Monday the 18^th. And as you might expect she takes Israel Broussard off to the side and predicts everything that happens right before it does because she has relived the 18^th over and over much to his astonishment…it was a given a scene of that nature would be included in this film. Rothe is a revelation.