A sequel to last year's time loop slasher HAPPY DEATH DAY hasn't officially received a greenlight just yet, but with the movie having made $115 million worldwide on a production budget of just $4.8 million, it seems like a sequel is just a matter of time.
Director Christopher Landon has an idea for a sequel, he was saying as much in interviews when the film was just being released, teasing that the follow-up would "answer a lot of questions". During a recent chat with Collider, HAPPY DEATH DAY star Jessica Rothe confirmed that Landon has told her what he has in mind:
He did. It’s great! I like it because a lot of times with horror movies, if there’s a sequel, it’s almost a repeat, with different actors and slightly different storylines, but it worked, so you do the same thing again. Chris has done this incredible thing where the sequel, the way he described it to me, elevates the movie from being a horror movie – and I wouldn’t even say it’s just a horror movie because it’s a horror, comedy, rom-com drama – into a Back to the Future type of genre film where the sequel joins us right from where we left off, it explains a lot of things in the first one that didn’t get explained, and it elevates everything. I was really pleased to know that we weren’t just gonna be pushing all the buttons that people loved the first time, over and over again, ‘cause I think that gets old. I’m really excited to see if it comes to fruition and, if it does, what the final product looks like. I hope we get to do it! I had a ball!"
Rothe thinks HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 will happen "if all things work out well", and I really hope it does. While the first film didn't work for Arrow in the Head's own Eric Walkuski (he gave it a 4/10 review), I had a lot of fun watching it – and a lot of that has to do with the great, funny, endearing performance Rothe gave as the flawed girl who becomes a strong heroine. I would be glad to follow her character through another film's worth of laughs and deaths.
We'll let you know if/when the sequel moves forward, but in the meantime HAPPY DEATH DAY is available on DVD and Blu-ray.