Happy Death Day (2017)
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A college student must figure out how to survive her birthday when she finds herself trapped in a deadly time loop.
The story
After a night of drunken partying, college student Tree Gelbman wakes up on her birthday and finds herself in a bizarre situation. When she is murdered on her way to a party by a masked figure, she unexpectedly wakes up in a classmate's bed, only to find the previous day's events repeating themselves. Realizing she is trapped in a time loop, Tree must navigate the recurring events of her birthday, identifying the killer's identity and finding a way to break the cycle before she is killed again in the next iteration.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Tree Gelbman is caught in a time loop on her birthday after being murdered by a masked figure. After several deaths, she realizes she is repeating the day and begins investigating her surroundings with the help of her classmate, Carter. She identifies a serial killer, John Tombs, as a suspect and rushes to a hospital to warn of his escape. After a confrontation where she believes she has won, she realizes she must make a sacrifice to ensure Carter survives. She eventually discovers that her sorority housemate, Lori Spengler, is the true killer who poisoned her cupcake and framed Tombs. Tree manages to defeat Lori and break the loop. In the final scene, she discovers that the next day is actually the following day, and Carter's 'prank' about being in a loop was just a joke.
- Original title
- Half to Death
- First release year
- 2017
- Runtime (minutes)
- 96
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Christopher Landon
- Writers
- Scott Lobdell · writer
- Cast and characters
- Jessica Rothe · Tree Gelbman; Israel Broussard
- Genres
- black comedy; slasher; horror; mystery; science fiction
- Tone and mood
- fun; silly; terrifying
- Premise and plot tags
- time loop; slasher; mystery; comedy
- Source material / true-story basis
- original story
- Franchise connections
- Happy Death Day
- Reception
- The film received generally mixed reviews from critics, while audiences gave it a positive rating.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 58 · scale: 100 · review count: 26; CinemaScore · score: B · scale: A+ to F; PostTrak · score: 52% · scale: recommendation percentage
- Production trivia
- The film was originally titled Half to Death.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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