Happy Death Day Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

4. It's Basically Groundhog Day For Dummies

Countless movies from different genres have appropriated the Groundhog Day time loop gimmick over the years, and to be fair, horror seems like a pretty damn fine fit for it.

However, probably in large part due to the movie aiming itself towards younger viewers, it takes an incredibly superficial and simplistic approach to the familiar premise, literally spelling out the film's logic every step of the way with sledgehammer-subtle exposition.

Whenever a new wrinkle is introduced to the plot, Tree or another character will literally verbalise it to make sure everyone in the audience is keeping up, even if there's nobody else in the room.

Ultimately if you've seen a few time loop movies before, you're probably going to find this treatment a little facile and underwritten.