Virginia Wainwright is a new student at Crawford Academy and she's part of a wealthy group of close friends that are known as the top 10. There's one secret that these friends don't know about Virginia and that's she survived an accident, which her mother died. After trying resume a normal happy life she starts getting flashbacks of her ordeal and also spells of unconsciousness. While, this is suddenly happening the number of her friends in the group are getter smaller, as they disappear one by one. The authorities are clueless and Virginia starts to suspect herself being involved.
Right-o, what a bluff! Well, now this film does leave you with a lot on mind, I guarantee you. Maybe it was too clever and overdone for it owns good, because I was quite liking up until it came to its dawdling final half-an-hour which gets the better of it by catering an climax that's all bit too silly. Abient it's more than surprising and ominous, but hardly plausible. The sudden, sombre ending was nicely staged, though. But that in mind, "Happy Birthday to Me" is an satisfying and well accomplished slasher that has a lot more going for it than most in its rancid field. Director J. Lee Thompson succeeds in giving the film a magnified touch of slickness, but also amongst the panache is some depth. Sure, it doesn't make sense at times and there are lapses aplenty, but they try for a little more detail around the mystery instead of a simple stalk and slash vehicle. Even the pacing isn't that tedious in the first hour, with enough going on in the sub-plots to keep your interest before the next brutal murder. These nasty murders are shockingly enterprising with a real cruel streak that takes effect in the dying stages of the story. They're rather blood soaked deaths with some red paint here and there. But obviously it's been cut down to brief glimpses, but still it has its unpleasant moments within the decent body count. It may not cop out on the frequent violence, but nudity, there isn't ounce of it.
The story by John Saxon provides enough twists and turns, by throwing the usual red herrings around (which are rather effectively done) and providing some psychological edge (which doesn't always come off). It does play around with idea that the main lead might have more to do with it then she knows with the latter half of the flick filled with meaningful flashbacks and a change in personality that we see, but her friends don't. But really underneath that irregular subtext is just another systematic pattern we see in most slashers with obnoxious teens that fit the same old sitting ducks, ah I mean stereotypes, but here it's handled better. Though, the conclusion is totally bananas with a motive that's pure hokum. You'll think you got it figured and BOOM! There you go. The lead girl might be confused to what's going on but also the viewer is in the same boat too. Also surprisingly the script is efficiently stable with pinch of peculiar humour and the performances are more than adequate. Melissa Sue Anderson shines as Virginia and Glenn Ford adds a touch class as her doctor. On show is a nice looking teen cast too.
Director Thompson orchestrates some well-rounded tension in certain sections and paints a forbidding atmosphere to proceedings. He knows how to work in some great visual jabs and some extensively staged stunt action, but there was some pointless dragging in third act. It became rather laboured where the running time should've been cut down. The feature nearly runs for two hours, but here there wasn't enough in the material to hold for that long. The editing was swift, but it could've done without certain scenes. If so it could have been an incredibly taut piece throughout, rather than in blotches. The compact camera-work has some neat fixes in building on the mood and disorientating nature of it all. Like many of its kind you got the killer cam. Backing it up is a strong soundtrack and a rather haunting theme song. Some recent slashers owe a lot to this flicks format and I reasonably enjoyed this slasher that I would rank it as one of the better ones, especially from the flooded 80s.
Above-average slasher that doesn't set the world on fire, but delivers a ludicrous outing with more depth and style to boot.
Right-o, what a bluff! Well, now this film does leave you with a lot on mind, I guarantee you. Maybe it was too clever and overdone for it owns good, because I was quite liking up until it came to its dawdling final half-an-hour which gets the better of it by catering an climax that's all bit too silly. Abient it's more than surprising and ominous, but hardly plausible. The sudden, sombre ending was nicely staged, though. But that in mind, "Happy Birthday to Me" is an satisfying and well accomplished slasher that has a lot more going for it than most in its rancid field. Director J. Lee Thompson succeeds in giving the film a magnified touch of slickness, but also amongst the panache is some depth. Sure, it doesn't make sense at times and there are lapses aplenty, but they try for a little more detail around the mystery instead of a simple stalk and slash vehicle. Even the pacing isn't that tedious in the first hour, with enough going on in the sub-plots to keep your interest before the next brutal murder. These nasty murders are shockingly enterprising with a real cruel streak that takes effect in the dying stages of the story. They're rather blood soaked deaths with some red paint here and there. But obviously it's been cut down to brief glimpses, but still it has its unpleasant moments within the decent body count. It may not cop out on the frequent violence, but nudity, there isn't ounce of it.
The story by John Saxon provides enough twists and turns, by throwing the usual red herrings around (which are rather effectively done) and providing some psychological edge (which doesn't always come off). It does play around with idea that the main lead might have more to do with it then she knows with the latter half of the flick filled with meaningful flashbacks and a change in personality that we see, but her friends don't. But really underneath that irregular subtext is just another systematic pattern we see in most slashers with obnoxious teens that fit the same old sitting ducks, ah I mean stereotypes, but here it's handled better. Though, the conclusion is totally bananas with a motive that's pure hokum. You'll think you got it figured and BOOM! There you go. The lead girl might be confused to what's going on but also the viewer is in the same boat too. Also surprisingly the script is efficiently stable with pinch of peculiar humour and the performances are more than adequate. Melissa Sue Anderson shines as Virginia and Glenn Ford adds a touch class as her doctor. On show is a nice looking teen cast too.
Director Thompson orchestrates some well-rounded tension in certain sections and paints a forbidding atmosphere to proceedings. He knows how to work in some great visual jabs and some extensively staged stunt action, but there was some pointless dragging in third act. It became rather laboured where the running time should've been cut down. The feature nearly runs for two hours, but here there wasn't enough in the material to hold for that long. The editing was swift, but it could've done without certain scenes. If so it could have been an incredibly taut piece throughout, rather than in blotches. The compact camera-work has some neat fixes in building on the mood and disorientating nature of it all. Like many of its kind you got the killer cam. Backing it up is a strong soundtrack and a rather haunting theme song. Some recent slashers owe a lot to this flicks format and I reasonably enjoyed this slasher that I would rank it as one of the better ones, especially from the flooded 80s.
Above-average slasher that doesn't set the world on fire, but delivers a ludicrous outing with more depth and style to boot.