Happy Death Day 2U
Universal Pictures | Release Date: February 14, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
11
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
86
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiFeb 12, 2019
Although it’s almost too much story, too much humor, and too many ideas for one movie to contain, the breathlessness of Happy Death Day 2U is irresistible. This is one frightfully clever sequel that audiences will want to revisit again… and again… and again… and again… and again… Read full review
85
IGNMeg DowneyFeb 12, 2019
The level of risk-taking is refreshing, even when it's not completely successful at every single turn. Read full review
83
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonFeb 12, 2019
It’s a pleasure to report that Happy Death Day‘s unexpected delights were in no way a fluke, and Happy Death Day 2U builds on its off-the-wall concept to even greater effect. Read full review
80
EmpireBen TravisFeb 13, 2019
What could have been a simple retread or by-numbers continuation instead throws itself headfirst into time-twiddling absurdity. High art? No. A total blast? You bet. Read full review
76
The VergeJesse HassengerFeb 14, 2019
Happy Death Day 2U pulls off a trick that isn’t especially easy for original movies, let alone direct sequels: it makes all the laborious world-building and storytelling effort feel like fun. Read full review
75
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpFeb 21, 2019
Happy Death Day 2U makes deliberate moves away from horror, adding both science fiction and comedy to muddle the original mixture for better and also worse. For better: The film is even more of a gas than its predecessor. For worse: It’s not as much of a horror movie. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineHenry StewartFeb 13, 2019
Happy Death Day 2U pushes further than even matters of life and death into a realm in which stakes don’t even really apply anymore, concerned as it is not with how we live our best lives, but with how we can be the best possible versions of ourselves. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 13, 2019
A cheerfully twisted horror/comedy/sci-fi mash-up with a surprisingly sweet heart lurking beneath all the bloody-rinse-and-repeat hijinks, which aren’t all that bloody anyway. Read full review
75
The PlaylistWill AshtonFeb 12, 2019
Landon uses this winning sequel opportunity to not merely redo his refreshingly animated original film but challenge it— building upon its kooky, evergreen foundation and expand the story in scope, scale, genre, and tone. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzFeb 12, 2019
Writer-director Christopher Landon’s quick-turnaround sequel is pure self-knowing nonsense – a smoothly executed, briskly paced mash-up of horror tropes, time-travel paradoxes and silly campus slapstick. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 13, 2019
Stalk-and-kill movies bear some resemblance to classic farces, but no horror movies have taken the similarities as far as Happy Death Day and its busier, just-as-fun sequel, Happy Death 2 U. The new film repeats some of the original material but with even more madcap permutations. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKimber MyersFeb 12, 2019
Like most sequels, Happy Death Day 2U can’t quite replicate the feelings of joy and discovery of the original, but Landon deserves credit for varying the tune, while still playing the hits that will please the fans of its predecessor. Read full review
70
ScreenCrushMatt SingerFeb 12, 2019
The cast was the original’s greatest asset, and every single character of note is back, along with the original film’s mordant sense of humor and surprisingly charming sentimentality. Best of all, 2U weaponizes your knowledge of the original — your confidence that you have seen this all before and you know what’s going to happen — and uses it against you. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoFeb 12, 2019
Happy Death Day 2U is a more ambitious, more entertaining - albeit less horror powered - time-warp sequel that proves Jessica Rothe's blinding talent no matter what dimension she's in. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Feb 12, 2019
The happy surprise of Happy Death Day 2U is that it does find ways to tweak the formula of its predecessor, to break the cycle of franchise redundancy. Read full review
65
The AtlanticDavid SimsMar 1, 2019
It’s one thing to make fun of the repetitiveness of a second movie, but this one manages to do that while actually expanding its storytelling horizons. Read full review
63
Washington PostPat PaduaFeb 13, 2019
Ultimately, Happy Death Day 2U doesn’t live up to its aspirations. Landon’s script may be better than his direction, but he leaves a potentially resonant subplot — one that involves existential questions — flat and lifeless, as if our most important choices were of no more consequence than a joystick maneuver. Read full review
60
CineVueChristopher MachellFeb 15, 2019
Despite a few sentimental missteps and a second-act move away from horror that will upset some hoping for more slashing, Happy Death Day 2U is a fluffy and surprisingly smart, if shallow, tumble through genre tropes. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanFeb 12, 2019
Happy Death Day 2U is more complicated than the first “Happy Death Day,” but in this case more complicated means less fun. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeFeb 12, 2019
Along the way, though, 2U throws enough wrinkles into the first film's action — if you don't remember it well, rewatch it before seeing this — to engage us. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 14, 2019
Happy Death Day 2U is a passable way to throw away 100 minutes if you’re willing to turn off your brain and pretend it’s making sense. Read full review
50
The New York TimesGlenn KennyFeb 14, 2019
Jessica Rothe as Tree is still an appealing presence. But the film is overstuffed with unfunny self-parodying gore slapstick, half-felt sentimentality and semi-meta sci-fi. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 13, 2019
Credit returning director Christopher Landon and screenwriter Scott Lobdell (Landon co-writes this time) with trying something different with the story. Blame them for not doing something better. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubFeb 12, 2019
The “Happy Death Day” franchise isn’t going to revolutionize filmmaking. But the uplifting vibes — and occasionally absent slasher — haven’t come close to overstaying their welcome. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyFeb 12, 2019
Look, no one is expecting much from a movie called Happy Death Day 2U. Certainly not air-tight logic. But this chapter feels phoned in. And unless you’re really, really desperate for a new horror movie to check out, you might want to think twice about accepting the charges. Read full review
42
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 12, 2019
When it works, it’s never better than a loving retread of the pleasures of the first film; when it doesn’t, it’s a head-scratcher of the highest order, a film that exists to push forward a franchise that seems to have already lost its way. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleDanielle WhiteFeb 14, 2019
There’s a distinct Eighties vibe that appeals to the intended demographic, especially in the bumbling school administrator Dean Bronson (Zissis, more stooge than villain), the sexual politics between the characters (they are in college after all), and the delicious bitchiness of mean girl Danielle (Matthews). Yet for all its ambition with loopy timelines and dubious scientific explanations, convenient logic only justified in pushing the plot along, the actual world-building falls flat. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfFeb 12, 2019
It's diminishing returns for a horror sequel that grinds the original premise into the ground while shirking on scares. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 13, 2019
Writer-director Christopher Landon is better at calling for cute camera angles and 360 degree pans and plotting — silly and farfetched as it is — than he is at jokes and zingers, which made the first film stand out. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyFeb 13, 2019
If you can fend off the recurring bores of Happy Death Day 2U, Landon and Lobdell have some chuckles reserved up their sleeves. Read full review
20
The GuardianBenjamin LeeFeb 12, 2019
An inevitable yet staggeringly unnecessary follow-up to the surprise horror hit turns a nifty concept into an exhaustingly convoluted mess. Read full review
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