Written by: Scott Lobdell
Directed by: Christopher Landon
Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
A college student must relive the day of her murder over and over again, in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer's identity.
Verdict
This combines a Groundhog day loop with a murder mystery story. It has enough twists to make it interesting enough, but it's uneven. This kind of story has been done many times, and this isn't the best example of the sub-genre. It throws in a few twists without straying too far from the well-used plot.
Skip it.
Review
It's difficult for this not to feel tired. We've been through this concept many times before. It's easy to determine Tree is a jerk from the onset, causing me to wonder if this experience would cause her to have an awakening and become a better person. The movie isn't that predictable thankfully.
We get the extended scene where she realizes the day is repeating. Tree doesn't enter a phase of apathy. She wants to know who killed her, and just as the movie is about to lose use, we learn she's retaining the damage of the killings and must quickly figure out the mystery. This tries to change the formula just enough, but we don't have a likable character to carry us through the story. Even the enjoyable moments where Tree rejects the jerk she's become and her friends, it's something we saw coming from the start.
This introduces a serial killer that could be a culprit. I wondered who he could track her down every night, but this turns out to be misdirection in one of the better twists of the movie. It was easy to assume that it was just a lapse in the plot. Tree manages to pull night vision goggles out as needed and one of the guys has a dorm room fitted with sound and music. It just doesn't have any logic to it. That helped fool us with the serial killer.
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