Last Friday, on October 13th, Happy Death Day came out in theatres. The comedy-horror flick is directed by Christopher B. Landon and stars Jessica Rothe as protagonist Tree Gelbman alongside Israel Broussard, who plays Carter Davis.

  The plot centers around Tree, a selfish college girl who wakes up in Carter’s room with a strange feeling of déjà vu.

  In a time loop trope that begins to appear in more and more horror movies, Tree finds herself in a vicious cycle as she is murdered by a masked person only to wake up in Carter’s bed. To make matters worse, she has to relive the day of her murder over and over again until she can figure out who committed the crime.

  Worldwide, the movie has already raked in $53 million as people were intrigued by the new take on time loops.

 Despite the time-loop fad, however,  Happy Death Day blends genres as a horror movie with comedic elements and even some romance between Tree and Carter.

  The movie proves that even though it is scary, some lessons can be learned, as Tree learns to change for the better and be responsible by confronting and fixing her problems. Happy Death Day was not just a horror movie—it was able to show how people can grow, as well as show more human sides of characters that got audience members to like and relate to them.

  Jason Marks (11) does not like horror movies, but went to see the movie with a friend. He stated, “[The movie] was really good. There was a really good plot line and it was certainly scary, but not like unbearable … I liked it and thought it was done really well.”

  However, not everyone will enjoy this multi-genre film, even with its life lessons. In addition to that, it would not be a surprise to many if a new horror movie coming out was not as good as it could have been.

  David Montefalcon (12), president of Film Club, stated,“A lot of horror movies nowadays are very gimmicky and [don’t] offer anything that substantial…[His] biggest complaint with most of them [is that they] have a weak story and use dumb tropes like jump scares.”

  Dumb tropes or not, Happy Death Day was the Number One movie on its opening weekend with $26 million, over five times its $5 million budget.

  Catch Happy Death Day at your local theater and determine what it is really about: is it just another weak bundle of jump scares, or is there a greater lesson about human growth with elements of horror and comedy in it too?