Happy Death Day is a mysterious thriller revolving around a college girl who lives the same day repeatedly. The protagonist of the movie, Tree Gibson, is a typical, self-centered college girl, who wakes up on the morning of her birthday in the bed of another student named Carter. As the day goes on, Tree deals with unfortunate events, including getting a drink spilled on her, being embarrassed by her friends, having to avoid phone calls from her dad, but things get worse as the day goes on. By nighttime, Tree ends up meeting a weird stranger wearing a mask. This masked stranger eventually takes her life in a brutal attack, but things get even stranger, since Tree wakes up in Carter's room once again, as if by magic. When she awakes in his room again, Tree is unharmed, and as the day goes on, she discovers that she is reliving the same exact day as before. As time wears on, Tree realizes that she may have to relive the same day forever with each day ending with her own death, and the only way to stop the mayhem is by figuring out who the killer is and stopping him or her. 
 

Happy Death Day proves to be a surprisingly entertaining adventure that combines scores of different elements of horror movies to create a movie that doesn't manage to be that serious or hard-core, but it does have a playful spirit and characters that are easy to like. The beginning of the movie does a fairly standard job of jumpstarting the movie and introducing audiences to Tree Gibson, the star of the movie. The middle of the movie does a satisfactory job of progressing things along, but this portion of the movie is slightly generic, and at times, it feels a little excessive. The ending of the movie manages to be quite exhilarating and is capable of taking advantage of all of the thrilling twists and turns that take place. As a mystery, the movie needs to be unpredictable. Luckily, the movie may not have too many shocking surprises, but the few that it does have manage to get the job done. In fact, one terrific twist at the end helps to make the actual mystery a marvelous one and makes the actual conclusion one of the best parts of the entire movie. 
 

Happy Death Day knows that it isn't the most serious of horror flicks, and the movie even manages to poke fun at itself. It isn't afraid of mentioning some of the qualities that it has borrowed from other movies, and this is most evident in the conclusion of the movie where it references how the movie stole some elements from Groundhog Day, a famous movie that was one of the first to revolve around someone who relives the same day. 
 

Happy Death Day may not be the scariest movie out there, but there is plenty of suspense and drama. Unlike other movies that rely solely on jump scares, the movie does benefit from having everything revolve around a concept that is fairly frightening. Despite the fact that the movie really isn't that horrifying, this isn't the most worrisome, especially considering that the movie is only rated PG-13, which means that the movie is intended for a slightly younger audience, making less fear not such a bad quality. 
 

Happy Death Day greatly benefits from a powerful performance from its lead. Jessica Rothe does a spectacular job of transforming into Tree Gibson and is a main reason for the success that the movie has. Without her performance, the movie could just fall into the trap of being a generic horror flick that just steals elements from other movies to make an unoriginal adventure. Although there are a few strong performances from others, her role is one of the few truly notable ones. 

Happy Death Day has the rare ability to say that it was enjoyed by both critics and viewers. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a high 72%, which is actually a fairly exceptional mark, and an outstanding 90% of Google users liked the movie, which is pretty impressive. Furthermore, the fact that such a wide variety of audiences liked the movie should be a good indicator for potential viewers, since it seems like just about everyone found contentment with the movie. 
 

Happy Death Day may not be the most groundbreaking or worth rewatching over and over, like how the lead must relive her day, but it does have the potential to make some people's day a little happier.