Imagine, you’re going to the theater to see the new, popular movie. The movie was a such a big hit and a year later, the producers decide to release a sequel. After watching both movies there comes the highly anticipated question, “Was the sequel necessary?” On October 13, 2017, Happy Death Day hit the theaters. Recently, a sequel was released called Happy Death Day 2U. We watched both movies and we are here to answer the burning question, “Did the sequel help or hurt the original?”

Happy Death Day follows a girl named Tree Gelbman. The film starts with Tree waking up on her birthday, Monday the 18th. She wakes up in the bed of another student named Carter Davis. That night, when she is on her way to her surprise birthday party, she gets chased by a guy in a baby mask. He stabs her with a knife but instead of dying, she wakes up again on Monday the 18th. Her day is on a loop and the same events that happened the day before happen again. Tree is killed again and the loop goes on. Throughout the movie Tree tries to figure out how to end the loop. She wants to figure out who is behind the mask in hopes that killing whoever is killing her will end the cycle. As the movie progresses, Tree and Carter grow very close and they develop real feelings for each other. Tree goes through a list of possible suspects to try and figure out who is after her. One suspect is her professor, Gregory Butler, who she is having an affair with. The movie ends with Tree waking up on Tuesday the 19th once again in Carter’s bed. The loop has ended and Carter and Tree share a happy ending…for now.

A year has passed and Tree thought that she was out of the loop. Little did she know, another repeating birthday was just beginning. Just as the first movie ended, Tree is in Carter’s bed and the movie starts right where the last one left off. Also, just like the first movie, Ryan, Carter’s roommate, bursts through the door, interrupting Carter and Tree. The sequel, rather than showing Tree’s day, goes through Ryan’s day. We learn the real cause of Tree’s loop, and now Ryan’s loop. Ryan gets killed by the babyface and wakes up in his car, surrounded by garbage, just like the day before. Tree begins to help Ryan with stopping the loop because she understands what is happening and how to stop it. By helping Ryan, she ends up getting herself stuck in her old loop on her birthday, again. Except this time, Tree is in a different dimension and there are minor differences. The killer is not who it was last time, Tree is not having an affair with her professor, Carter is dating Tree’s house leader, and her mom is alive. Tree has to now figure out how to stop her birthday loop and make a difficult decision, which dimension should she stay in? Tree has to kill herself over and over again to solve the issue that is keeping her in a never-ending loop. The highly anticipated sequel has a happy ending that you don’t want to miss. However, it came out on Valentine’s day so, it won’t be in theaters much longer!

After comparing both movies, all that is left to do is decide, which movie was better and if the sequel was really needed. The first movie kept the audience on the edge of their seats throughout the whole film, constantly wondering who the killer was, and if the loop would end. The movie left the audience satisfied with how the characters solved their problem and we left the theater with no questions. So, why was a sequel released? While the second movie had a good plot, and was enjoyable to watch, we felt that since there was no cliffhanger at the end of the first film, the sequel had no relevance.

Despite the fact that both movies were very well directed and enjoyable to watch, the sequel was not really valuable to the overall concept of the story. However, we agree that the second film had a more intelligent plot and we prefer it over the first movie. We highly encourage you to grab some friends and stream both movies to decide which was better for yourself.