I'll just come right out and say it - I enjoyed the first 'Happy Death Day' quite a bit. It was essentially the 'Groundhog Day' concept (living the same day over and over again), but with a horror twist. It was also a pretty self-aware comedy of sorts (full review here). With that exposition out of the way, let's just dive right in. This picks up where the first leaves off. This time around, it starts happening with Ryan (Phi Vu), roommate of Carter (Israel Broussard) and all around secondary (maybe even tertiary) character in the first film. Anyway, he ends up passing the curse it back to Tree, and things start all over again. This time around, however, we're involving science fiction and experimenting with different dimensions. The murderous baby mascot guy takes a complete back seat. So, if you wanna see more of the same idea, you're not gonna get it. It's really hardly even a horror of any sort so much as a sci-fi comedy with horror, and even some surprising drama elements. For the most part, the whole idea is that Tree ends up having to make a very difficult decision as to which dimension she needs to stay in. It ends up hitting you in the feels pretty nicely, and it's easy to empathize with her situation. All the while, it still remains a mystery story, as Tree, Carter and Ryan team up to figure out how to break this loop of perpetual death. It's a difficult film for yours truly to rate. Hand down, I think I liked the first one much better. It just did its thing without need for explanation as to why it's all happening. It was really just a bit of horror/comedy slasher fun, and didn't need to do much to be entertaining. This, however, just goes too deep with things as far as the sci-fi element goes. It kinda blind-sides you. On the other hand, I can't help but appreciate that it tried something different - especially as a movie that's ABOUT repetitiveness. I considered how I felt about the two movies on the whole, and wondered if, in a way, this was just as good as the first. But then I considered my DVD/Blu-ray rack. 'Happy Death Day' might end up on there, if I find it for cheap. 'Happy Death Day 2U' probably won't, unless it's in a combo pack with the first film, also for cheap. Apparently, a third is also in the works, and it's apparently set to also go off the rails a bit more. So there's definitely a side to this wackiness that's intentional. But that doesn't mean I have to just go with it. The first was a lot of fun, but this was kinda just weird to me. Points for the emotional side of things, but that's about all I took away from this that I REALLY liked. Otherwise, it's just a bit over the top for yours truly. I came out of it not knowing at all what to think. It's passable, but it's no 'Happy Death Day'. 3/5
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