NOTE: This wasn't on the Netflix queue. We rented it on a lark after My Bloody Valentine 3D was sold out.
Happy Birthday to Me (1981) follows a prestigious Canadian prep school's "Top Ten," the students belonging to the richest and most influential families on the school's board. Though apparently rich and influential, the Top Ten seems to be made up of losers, loners, geeks, and annoying jokesters, which makes it easy when they start turning up missing (although the audience knows they've been murdered) one by one.
We soon learn that one of the Top Ten, Virginia, has a tumultuous past, including an accident that took her mother's life and left Virginia half brain dead. A controversial and experimental treatment regimen restores function to Virginia's brain, but at what cost? As the days count down to Virginia's birthday, more students disappear, and we learn more bits and pieces of Virginia's past. Pretty soon, all clues point to her as the killer. But did she really do it?
This film was just so-so for me. Much of the film made little sense, as the audience is bounced from killing to killing and around Virginia's past. At times, it's not even clear if events are really taking place or if they're some figment of Virginia's shattered psyche.
And the ending...... don't even get me started. Most horror/slasher films of this nature have a twist at the end. We expect it. But the twist, while sometimes surprising, is usually within some realm of believability. Happy Birthday's twist, hurriedly written and filmed at the last moment, is unbelievable (in a bad way), laughable, and makes about as little sense as the rest of the film.
Happy Birthday might be good for a laugh or two if watched with a group, but it's not much good for anything else.
The Reverend says: 4/10.
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It's also worth noting:
ReplyDeleteApparently, in the 1980's...when multiple students turn up missing it's not a reason to worry. Seriously.....these kids could not have been more apathetic about their friends disappearing. That element of the story probably would have just elongated every scene.....which leads me to my next point.
THIS THING WAS ALMOST 2 HOURS LONG....For crying out loud....The story could have been told in like 45 minutes.....but every scene was draaaaged out waaay too long. Plus, there were a lot of scenes that were just not necessary. (What kind of prep-school has a motor-bike team?)
Haha. Yeah, they dragged that one out. And the entire scene in the bell tower..... not only was it way longer than it needed to be, it also was totally unnecessary and didn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the film.
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