Happy Death Day 2U

This sequel has fewer slasher-movie elements than the original and wanders all over the place, even into bad slapstick. But Rothe's extremely strong performance and the movie's vivid emotional center carry it through. Christopher Landon directs again and takes over the screenwriting this time, too; he seems to adopt the "what happens next?" method of storytelling, throwing Tree into one tough spot after another, with little regard to science or logic. It sometimes gets to be a little much, especially during an "algorithm memorizing" montage and a weird slapstick sequence in which Tree's sorority sister (Rachel Matthews) poses as a blind French woman to distract the dean (Steve Zissis) and steal his keys.

But, happily, Rothe tends to hold things together. She's more Meryl Streep than scream queen, amazingly aware of her range of emotions and possessing the skill to pull them off, especially in the uncharted territory of a time loop. Her scenes with her newly resurrected mother (remember, it's another dimension) are particularly moving. Happy Death Day 2U (great title) is no longer a real horror film, though it contains a few well-done stalker-y scenes; now it's more about relationships and humor than it is about being scared of a masked killer. And it's far from a cheap sequel; it deepens the themes of the first film. Its ultimate messages are about kindness, being unselfish, and taking a leap of faith into the future rather than hanging on to the past.