I hate my birthday. Surprise parties, cake, and presents given by family and friends has never appealed to me. Tree Gelbman, a college student in the movie “Happy Death Day”, has the same disliking. Although her reasons seem unclear in the beginning, by the end, she definitely has a better reason to resent it than me.

On the day of her birthday, Tree is woken up in the room of someone who later becomes her friend. While making her way to her sorority house, she encounters sprinklers, car alarms, and a global warming sign up. It was easy to tell from the beginning that Tree isn’t the nicest and isn’t liked by many people. That night, while heading to her surprise party, Tree takes a desolate route where she encounters a masked individual who ends her life. However, she wakes up the next morning in the same place, with the same reoccurring events, and on the same day. Throughout the movie she is repeatedly killed and tries to make things right while realizing that she wasn’t the best person.

Personally, I enjoyed the movie because there were only a few jump scares. Since the movie came out on Friday the 13th of October, I was a little hesitant about seeing it because I thought it was going to be really scary. While I liked that the movie wasn’t very frightening, there were some parts that confused me. For instance, I didn’t understand why she had to keep reliving the same day over and over again. Ben Gibson explained, “Every time that she died, she would relive the same day because it was her birthday and it was special”. From the start, Tree is given a cupcake and a candle to blow out and make a wish. The saying “be careful what you wish for” and the belief that you shouldn’t tell someone what your wish is, or it won’t come true, may have some explanation as to why she is living in a cycle, but it’s a bit of a stretch.

Overall, if you are looking for a cheesy horror movie, I would definitely recommend “Happy Death Day”. This movie would be great for those that get scared easily because it only has a few scary parts. It was almost more funny than frightening to watch as a result of all the different ways that she tried to make things right. Although it may have been confusing, the ending definitely made up for it with the message that you need to think more about others and not just yourself.