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, and to no surprise, it means that we’re now getting a sequel. Or at least, we think we are. Nothing’s been officially announced just yet, but Bloody Disgusting reports that a production listing has revealed that Happy Death Day 2 will head in front of cameras this May, with shooting taking place in New Orleans. Furthermore, Christopher Landon will return to both write and direct.
Unfortunately, we don’t have much more to go on other than that, but it does at least confirm the sequel’s existence. Speaking of which, Jessica Rothe (Tree) recently outlined a tentative pitch for Happy Death Day 2, one that may well spawn a horror sequel inspired by Back to the Future. Where do we sign up?
“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.”
Happy Death Day is currently available on Blu-ray and DVD (buy it here), meaning you can now take home one of 2017’s undisputed sleeper hits.
