Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, Sarah Yarkin, Rachel Matthews, Ruby Modine, Steve Zissis, Charles Aitkin, Laura Clifton, Missy Yager, Jason Bayle, Caleb Spillyards, Jimmy Gonzales, Peter Jaymes Jr., Rob Mello, Kenneth Israel.

There surely isn’t that many people who looked at the classic American comedy Groundhog Day and thought, what would it be like if we ratchet up a notch and added a killer to the storyline, however many did then they would have been satisfied with the result in the 2017 film Happy Death Day; however, with a change of pace and style, with the addition of the knowing glance, Happy Death Day 2U became a finer place in which to make the comparison.

The American slasher franchise has become a victim of own success and quite often its own dull and expected results. It is reviled and treated with reverence in the same breath and appeals to less than a fraction of the population, and yet when created with an eye for its own lampoon, even when unintended, it somehow brings a sense of inclusion beyond its horror infused base. Such a feat of endurance is not unknown, and Happy Death Day 2U fits the mould with sincerity and that elusive knowing glance.

To die over and over again, to be forced to live through the act of someone murdering you every day and until you find the key to the reason why, may not seem to have common ground with Groundhog Day, but if you remove the element to which the slasher film exists and look at it as personal redemption, the understanding that each day is a chance to find another way to live, to improve and to understand, then it becomes, in its own characteristic way, a match, the dark sequel, rooted in fear but with a huge appreciation for its own self-knowing.

It is perhaps down to Christopher Landon’s direction and script, and Jessica Rothe’s performance in the lead role as Tree Gelbman that imbibes Happy Death Day 2U with some of its more polished moments, and alongside Phi Vu’s manic display of intrigue as Ryan Phan, what the film fan will come to enjoy is the various ways in which the victim finds ways to die to move the story along.

It is still rare for a sequel to go one step further than its predecessor, but Happy Death Day 2U leaps, bounds with cinematic opportunity and celebrates the recreation of a genre that has come to be satirised rather than passing away. An honourable film, one that doesn’t prey on the mind.

Ian D. Hall