Trish has coped with the maniac who tried to kill her on her own birthday, and has escaped the time loop. But that’s not the end, because now he’s after her friends. Which means that in order to win, the girl will have to face him again, and not just on the same day, but in a parallel reality, all because of her friend Ryan’s little science project.
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It is difficult to count the number of times the technique of looped time has been used in cinematography, when the characters have to return to the same day over and over again, trying to find an opportunity to escape from this trap once and for all. On a similar artistic basis can build a picture of any genre, including comedy (“Groundhog Day”) and a spectacular sci-fi blockbuster (“Fringe of the Future”). And even the invincible ancient Greek warrior Xena could not avoid the time loop, by the goodwill of the writers found herself in its networks in one of the series. Also interested in the possibility of systematic return to the same point and the famous Hollywood producer Jason Bloom, actively promoting the idea of high-quality low-cost horror, which can collect fabulous money at a wide distribution, not much inferior to the profitability of major studio projects. Never one to turn down lucrative artistic experiments with minimal financial risk, Bloom reasoned that his company would do well to pick up another time loop project that has been in development since 2007. Joining forces with director Christopher Landon and screenwriter Scott Lobdell, to the surprise of many, the producer introduced to the public one of the most memorable and mischievous youth slashers in history, known as Happy Death Day. Spiced with a fair amount of suspense, the story about a young girl who literally has to die every day turned out to be a real box office winner and showed that Jason Bloom has not yet lost his flair for interesting stories that can and should be developed. And while the ending of Happy Death Day didn’t involve a direct sequel, its writers didn’t want to turn down the opportunity to play out this charming madness once more, thus getting to work on a sequel. This time, Christopher Landon not only directed, but prepared a full-fledged synopsis of the project, and the main actress Jessica Roth seems to have cheated the time, with which she has to fight in the frame, and not aged a minute, staying in great physical shape and pleasing her fans with her fighting posture, without which she can not do, because she finally has to take the fate of her character and win in an endless sci-fi battle.
So the plot of the movie brings us back to the story of student Three (Jessica Roth), who just recently had the most unforgettable birthday party of her life, which turned into a series of endless deaths of a girl caused by murder at the hands of an unknown man hiding behind the mask of the local basketball team mascot. Going through the same events day after day, Tri was finally able to figure out who was behind her time travel, and it seemed that all the adversity was behind her, a new boyfriend was in bed and you could enjoy the serene sunny days, as the unforeseen happens. The time loop makes itself known again, and the birthday is looped again. But the main problem is that the events Tri knew by heart are no longer predictable. So now she has to find a completely different way out of the situation and pay much more attention to those acquaintances who were previously on the periphery of her attention. And since it is impossible to fulfill all her plans in one day, even with a great desire, the heroine begins to have fun, not thinking at all about the consequences for the psyche of others, because until she does not solve the puzzle, the day will restart over and over again. However, having learned completely other facets of the world, which turned out to be much more complicated than she had known before, it is necessary to decide what decision to make at the most important moment, because games over time give not only pain and fear, but also hope, realization of the most daring dreams and the opportunity to learn life from the side, which seemed long forgotten.
The creators of the sequel decided not to depart from the precepts of the original and closely wove its events into the context of the original. It seems that there is no time gap between the first and the second part and we find ourselves back in the same day and in the same room, where Tri and her boyfriend found themselves by the end of the original movie. The director meticulously recreated absolutely every detail, including the hairstyles and clothes of the characters, and the actors themselves seem to have refused to grow old, confidently playing the roles of students in their already mature years. Of course, not so much is left of the former plot simplicity, which gave a feeling of freshness and enticing unexpectedness, as one would hope, but this is a problem of most sequels. The creators needed to diversify the story somehow, to include elements which were previously out of focus, so that the audience would have a new, much more intricate and unpredictable puzzle in front of their eyes. So the viewer will have to keep a little more in mind while watching it, but it doesn’t mean that Christopher Landon wrote the script in agony and saturated the narration with absolutely unnecessary details. Yes, the plot has several layers, and if you do not watch the picture carefully, you may not catch some nuances, but on the other hand the film is worthy to leave aside the weight of extraneous matters for a while and enjoy directly what is happening on the screen.
The biggest problem with “Happy New Day of Death” is its very strong attachment to the original, which makes it hard for outside viewers to like the story, the characters and the suspense. Of course, the creators were not lazy to make a short retelling of events, and yet only watching the first part is able to cause real interest in the sequel, and you can’t help it. It is for the knowledgeable audience that the most memorable jokes were designed, because many well-known to us scenes were transformed into unpredictable moments, able to cause both a sincere smile and a hoot. Of course, there is a lot of black humor in the film, but it is also nice that the creators paid enough attention to the development of the character of the title character, who at the end of the last part went through the real purgatory, and now consolidates and even extends the lesson learned, taking advantage of the unexpected possibilities of the rediscovered time loop. And while such moments may not seem to be the most important in a Groundhog Day story with bloody consequences, they allow us to conclude that this is far from primitive entertainment, but in fact an interesting, fascinating and lively film.
It was definitely gratifying, too, that Christopher Landon far from artificially expanded the storylines of the secondary characters, which played with entirely different colors of meaning. In particular, Phi Woo finally got his moment of fame, playing the same negligent roommate who keeps getting pushed out of the room. From now on, his appearance in the story has a special weight and is not strictly comedic.
In summary, I’d like to say that Happy New Day of Death successfully continues the original, answering many questions but leaving enough mystery within itself that the story doesn’t end with the second film.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (84.9 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles
English SDH.
