An underrated horror movie is receiving a lot of love on Netflix today.
Time-looping slasher sequel Happy Death Day 2UÂ sadly didn’t match the success of its 2017 predecessor when it released in theaters in early 2019, but at least it’s now finding its audience on streaming. As of this Saturday, the Christopher Landon-directed sci-fi comedy-horror has managed to sneak into the top 20 most popular films on Netflix worldwide, occupying 19th place.
In the first Happy Death Day, bitchy sorority sister Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) found herself reliving her birthday over and over until she could figure out the identity of her masked murderer, Babyface. She eventually solved the mystery, grew as a person and got together with Carter (Israel Broussard). But in HDD2U, Tree finds herself back in the loop, albeit in an alternate universe slightly different to her own, meaning the killer is now someone else.
2U takes the Back to the Future Part II approach to sequels, essentially just redoing the first one thanks to time travel. The movie gets away with it, though, thanks to its tongue-in-cheek nature and increased comedic tone. That put off some horror fans, but while it lacks scares, it makes up for that with a lot of laughs, another great performance from Rothe and a surprising amount of emotion.
Unfortunately, Blumhouse just couldn’t commission the intended closer to the trilogy due to the second film’s poor box office haul, despite Jason Blum really wanting to. He remains dedicated to finding a way to make Happy Death Day 3 happen, however, and has maybe figured out a way to do it. Landon, meanwhile, has continued his partnership with the production company, helming 2020’s Freaky and penning the upcoming Paranormal Activity reboot.
The Happy Death Day movies aren’t currently available on Netflix in the US, but they can be found on various VOD platforms. HDD2U is just $3.99 to rent on Amazon Prime, for example.
