Happy Death Day 2U

Christopher Landon’s sequel to his 2017 wacky horror comedy Happy Death Day (which blended Scream with Groundhog Day) adds a healthy dose of Back to the Future to an already unwieldy mix. Although the initial sequences transpose the it’s-happening-again business to another character, the focus soon shifts back to Tree (Jessica Rothe), the once mean-girl sorority queen mellowed by the ordeal of being repeatedly stalked and killed by a masked figure in the first movie. Now happy with her geeky boyfriend Carter (Israel Broussard), she is sucked back into the old formula by a science experiment gone wrong, which returns her to the repetitive loop from the original film, but with twists: she is now in an alternate world where Carter is the boyfriend of her sorority-house rival and the killer in the previous picture is still alive—as is Tree’s deceased mother, who she adored. Will she remain in this new universe, or try to get back to her “real” one? The material related to unmasking the new killer is frankly dumb and the more sentimental episodes are mawkish, but the comedic aspects work somewhat better, although familiarity with the original movie and the details of the Back to the Future franchise are almost mandatory to understand the plot convolutions. A teen slasher movie that is cleverer than most, but also perhaps too clever for its own good, this is a strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a gag reel (3 min.), a deleted scene (2 min.), “The Never-Ending Birthday” production featurette (3 min.), and the behind-the-scenes segments “Web of Love: Tree’s Nightmare” (2 min.) and “Multiverse 101” (2 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an uneven chiller.] (F. Swietek)