Director: Christopher
Landon
Notable Cast: Jessica
Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, Sarah Yarkin, Ruby Modine,
Rachel Matthews, Steve Zissis, Charles Aitken, Laura Clifton, Blaine Kern III
Blumhouse has come out as, essentially, the new king of
horror in the last handful of years, maximizing minimal budgets to massive box
office results. Quality can be debated from film to film, but the sheer success
that Blumhouse has crafted within the mainstream for horror cannot be
understated. One of the biggest surprises was 2016’s slasher comedy, Happy Death Day. Horror comedies can be
wildly hard to make work on a broader spectrum, but this film took the slasher
concept, injected it with a ton of heart and delivered a surprisingly fun and
clever cinematic vehicle. Although the film was only considered a modest
success in many circles, the general word of mouth and strong legs from horror
fans and critics made it an immediate modern genre classic. It’s not shocking
that the film would eventually garner a sequel. What is shocking is just how
impressive Happy Death Day 2U is in
those regards. Trying to simply recreate the slasher version of Groundhog Day
was going to be difficult, but returning director Christopher Landon takes the
foundations of the idea and runs with it making a stranger and sillier film
that moves the genre lens a bit and continues to find that great blend of style
and substance.