I once left a review for Tomboy by Céline Sciamma that read, “I think Céline Sciamma is my new favorite genre of film.” I don’t quite know how to explain that other than there’s just something special that all of her movies share that I profoundly relate to and love for some reason. I’ve said on a handful of occasions that I believe that Sciamma is the most talented filmmaker working right now. So, I guess it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that she is my favorite genre of film — I promise I’ll have more on Sciamma coming soon. However, it does come as a bit of a surprise that Christopher Landon fits that same description, as his recent movies are slowly becoming my favorite genre of horror flicks right now.
We should probably get Both Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse out of the way before we get into the good stuff. I don’t really count them as what I am talking about because they are so clearly different from his last three films. Scouts... isn’t terrible, and I have never been a huge fan of the Paranormal Activity franchise, but for the sake of brevity, we’ll be ignoring those two and everything else he made before 2017.
Landon wasn’t even on my radar until 2017, when he released Happy Death Day. In general, I feel like I have good taste in movies. Words like movie snob or pretentious probably aren’t super out of line most of the time. I tend to go for the art-house film over the blockbuster 99% of the time. For the most part, my ratings are pretty close to the consensus on Letterboxd. Not a perfect metric, but I think the best one we have right now. All that being said, this is a good movie, and I will not hear otherwise. This is by far the “worst” movie (according to Letterboxd) that I actually love. I thought it over and even rewatched it to see if it was actually bad, and I just ironically liked it the first time. Nope, I genuinely love this movie, and I will not apologize for it. It is truly a crime that it is rated so poorly.
Happy Death Day is a time-loop movie. As we established nearly a year ago with Palm Springs, I am a sucker for anything time-loop-related. The movie follows Tree, played brilliantly by Jessica Rothe, waking up hungover on her birthday at some random guy’s (Carter) dorm room. She keeps getting killed at the end of each day, and the cycle repeats until she kills the person responsible for the loop.
The movie works so well because of how effortlessly it blends comedy and horror. It is still undoubtedly a horror movie, but it was a fascinating decision to rate it PG-13 because of a surprising lack of blood compared to most other films in the genre. The risky decision by Landon paid off because the movie is all about the lead-up to the kills more than the deaths themselves. If we know the deaths aren’t real, then it would be a waste of time to focus on them. Jessica Rothe was also incredibly charismatic, and I know this is the case with the majority of movies, but it completely falls apart without her presence.
For some reason, Landon got away from the successful formula for the second film in the franchise, Happy Death Day 2U. It was still a time loop because, of course, it was, but the film leaned more on Sci-Fi than the original. It played with a parallel universe, and Tree again had to die repeatedly to solve the problem, but the horror aspects, and the plot itself, went to the wayside in favor of the Sci-Fi elements. It was still a very good film, but this time it was pretty much solely because of Jessica Rothe.
Landon followed Happy Death Day 2U with Freaky, another movie about a played-out genre, but he was able to flip it enough to make it intriguing. Freaky follows Millie, played by Kathryn Newton, a shy, unpopular high schooler. The Blissfield Butcher, a serial killer played by Vince Vaughn, stabs her. When The Butcher stabs Millie, the two switch bodies and hijinks ensue.
The body-swap comedy has been played out countless times, most notably in Freaky Friday and one specific episode of Community. On its own, it is a tiresome concept, but Landon pulled it off brilliantly because of the stark differences between Millie and The Butcher. It helped that he got outstanding performances out of both of his leads. Kathryn Newton wasn’t really on my radar going in, even though I later realized she was the daughter in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and in Lady Bird.
Vince Vaughn wasn’t as much of a revelation because I know that theoretically, he is funny from his work in Wedding Crashers, Anchorman, and Dodgeball, but it has been over 15 years since those movies. He was considerably better than I expected, and the dynamic between him and Millie’s best friends, Nyla and Josh, was delightful. The showdowns between Newton and Vaughn were outstanding. Landon made sure to follow the formula that worked in Happy Death Day by getting the perfect percentage of comedy to supplement his horror.
Landon deviated from the Happy Death Day formula a bit by going all-in on the gnarly kills in Freaky. He explained that if a serial killer switches bodies with a teenage girl, we need to see the same level of gruesome kills that we would see if he was in his own body. The movie starts with a handful of brutal kills from The Butcher himself, one of which includes a wine bottle that I still think about. We also get a homage (wheater direct or indirect) to Candyman when Millie murders with a hook reminiscent of his, The most devastating death is probably when the shop teacher is cut in half by the saw.
Despite the significant difference in the deaths and the rating itself is different, it is clear that the films share a similar vibe. It turns out that they share the same universe as well, as Landon revealed that they are in the “same spiritual universe.” That begs the question of what’s next? It has been rumored since the release of Happy Death Day 2U that Landon and Blumhouse want to complete the trilogy. Both say that it is up to Universal to greenlight it. Jessica Rothe and the rest of the cast have said that they are fully on board with finishing out the story. Freaky seemingly set itself up for a sequel of its own, but Landon quickly shot down those ideas. However, he did tease the idea of Millie crossing over to be in the third Happy Death Day movie.
Forget any rational analysis or reporting; I want to end this by wild speculation about what a third Happy Death Day movie could look like. It is tentatively titled Happy Death Day to Us, which depending on who the”us”is it sorta ruins my entire idea, but hear me out. We are obviously going to see Tree and Carter end up together because it is the finale. Landon teased the two of them potentially teaming up, but I love the idea of Millie being the villain. He could do some sort of scene where The Butcher and Millie somehow switched again (or some other serial killer), and Millie, now off to college, shows up on campus and joins Tree’s sorority. Similar to the first movie, Tree spends a bit of time trying to figure out who the killer is, while we see Millie trying to fit in with the sorority while also being, you know, a serial killer. I can’t envision them killing Millie, so the movie could end with Tree finding the dagger that switched the bodies, finding the serial killer, and going from there for the final showdown. Regardless of the exact film, I am very hopeful that Christopher Landon is able to finish out this trilogy and give it the ending that it deserves.