It's Groundhog Day, but with murder! Tree is a self-centered, horrible, drunken disaster of a sorority girl who wakes up on the morning of her birthday in some random guy's dorm room. She does her walk of shame back to her sorority house, trades barbs with her roommate, goes to a sorority meeting, and heads out to a party in the evening. She's then killed by someone in a creepy baby mask (the school mascot is the Baby).

She immediately wakes up in the random guy's dorm again. Was it a bad dream or has her day somehow reset herself? The first option seems more likely, but as the day goes on and Tree keeps seeing eerily familiar moments, she wonders if it wouldn't be a better idea to change her evening up a bit, just to be safe. Except the killer in the Baby mask somehow manages to find her again.

So begins Tree's quest to identify her killer and somehow survive to see the day after her birthday.

Yes, I'm on a horror kick right now - just prepping for October, my favorite month. I wish I could enjoy more genuinely scary horror movies, but I'm having fun catching up on some classics and all the horror comedies that have come out in recent years.

This particular movie leans more heavily on the comedy aspect than the horror. Yes, there's a serial killer, Tree dies repeatedly, and innocent bystanders occasionally get killed as well, but for the most part there's surprisingly little blood and nothing very gross or gory. This could have been a gross showcasing of Tree's many deaths, so I was glad that those moments didn't get as much attention as they could have.

It's actually a fairly heartwarming horror movie, as Tree begins to reevaluate her life, her relationships with others, and the choices she's made over the last few years. I kind of wish that Tree and Carter hadn't ended up together, though - it felt a little too much like a "reward the Nice Guy" moment. Plus, Carter technically didn't know much about Tree except that she was pretty, working on being less stereotypically awful, and had some issues related to her mother's death. I could believe Tree falling for Carter, but not so much the reverse.

I enjoyed the various twists, although I'm not sure the timing of everything worked out. I suppose it's one of those movies where it's best if you don't think about it too hard. Overall, it was fun, especially as Tree became more likable.

Extras:

Alternate ending and deleted scenes, "Worst birthday ever!," "Behind the mask: the suspects," and "The many deaths of Tree."

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )