Universal Pictures UK, out now

Theresa ‘Tree’ Gelbman wakes up on her birthday in the room of classmate Carter Davis. She walks home, ignores her father’s call, abandons him at the restaurant for a birthday meal, throws away her roommate’s cup cake and is stabbed to death.

Then it happens again.

And again

And again.

Slowly, and with the frequent help of Carter, Tre starts to realize why she’s being killed, who’s behind it and how to stop it. Or at least, she thinks she does…

With a very similar premise to Before I Fall, Netflix’s take on the idea, Happy Death Day needs to distinguish itself straight out of the gate.

It does.

A fearless performance from Jessica Rothe anchors the entire movie. Tree’s transition from typical mean girl to complex heroine is brilliantly handled and Rothe throws herself at every scene. Balancing rage, humour, tragedy and exuberance she’s absolutely the reason the movie works. Her scenes with Broussard especially crackle with tension and energy.

But there’s more here than just that performance. The time loop exposes different characters’ stories in different ways and Lobdell’s script wraps at least two twists I didn’t see coming around the familiar premise. Landon’s direction is top notch too, balancing some straight ahead, well shot action with the increasing unreality of Tree’s situation.

Verdict: This is vintage Blumhouse; light on its feet, big on invention, pleasingly nasty. It has a couple of problems (the premise just kind of happens although a sequel would apparently explain why Tree was caught in this time loop) but nothing to get in the way of enjoying a fun, enjoyably nasty and blackly funny horror movie. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart