Though Paramount and Platinum Dunes had initially scheduled Friday the 13th for release in October of 2017, that sought-after corridor ultimately belonged to another horror title: Happy Death Day.
Blumhouse and Christopher Landon’s sleeper hit took the best elements of Groundhog Day and Scream and wrapped them all up in a thrillingly entertaining package – even if the final product proved too familiar for some. And in typical Blumhouse fashion, Happy Death Day exceeded all expectations at the box office, grossing over $100 million on a production budget of just $4.8 million.
That’s an impressive turnaround in and of itself, but what about the possibility of a sequel? A good question that was recently posed to lead star Jessica Rothe, to which she replied:
It’s great! I like it because a lot of times with horror movies, if there’s a sequel, it’s almost a repeat, with different actors and slightly different storylines, but it worked, so you do the same thing again. Chris has done this incredible thing where the sequel, the way he described it to me, elevates the movie from being a horror movie – and I wouldn’t even say it’s just a horror movie because it’s a horror, comedy, rom-com drama – into a Back to the Future type of genre film where the sequel joins us right from where we left off, it explains a lot of things in the first one that didn’t get explained, and it elevates everything.
Citing Back to the Future as inspiration, Rothe is clearly game for Happy Death Day 2 – providing all of the necessary pieces fall into place.
I was really pleased to know that we weren’t just gonna be pushing all the buttons that people loved the first time, over and over again, ‘cause I think that gets old. I’m really excited to see if it comes to fruition and, if it does, what the final product looks like. I hope we get to do it! I had a ball!
Thanks to Sinister and Paranormal Activity, Blumhouse is clearly not opposed to green-lighting sequels. And perhaps more so than most, Happy Death Day defied all odds to become a time-loop success. But how would you like to see Tree Gelbman return…if at all? Do let us know.
