This film is Groundhog Day meets Scream.
Theresa "Tree" Gelbman wakes up on Monday the 18th, which is her
birthday and it is also the day she gets murdered … and immediately wakes up on
the same day again. She must relive the day of her murder over and over again,
in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer's identity.
The character of Tree starts off as this
unlikeable character that represents the selfish but pretty blond girl whom you
expect to be killed in slasher films. Which is exactly what happens to her, the
only difference is she doesn’t stay dead and when the day loops backs she’s
only one to remember the event. This sends Tree on a journey of highs and lows,
at first she’s in denial, then she’s traumatised and then she starts to enjoy
it. As she begins a murder mystery to hunt down who’s going to kill her. Until
all her previous deaths begin to take a toll on her physically and mentally,
she realises she can’t keep looping too many times. Through this we see her
grow as a character and become the heroine we all route for.
Newcomer Jessica Rothe delivers a great
performance, with some great comedic timings as well as some really emotional
moments. She also makes Tree’s arc believable making it feel natural rather
than forced, letting us follow her on her journey while buying into her
complexities as a human-being before we get into her backstory.
It follows the Groundhog Day formula well, with a few differences such each death
having repercussions on her next loop, as well as a very clever twist as to
when the loop will finally end. Each repeated day is well done, never feels too
repetitive and each time she wakes up represented differently depending on her
state of mind with different camera shots and sounds.
The film also has the advantage of being a
comedy/horror as it never takes itself too seriously and is always self-aware.
Like the Scream franchise it’s a
slasher with a murder mystery plot as well as a satire on horror, along with
that it fits well with other recent self-aware comedy/horrors like Cabin In The Woods, Tucker And Dale Vs Evil and The Final Girls.
