Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Happy Death Day!
We talk a lot about the massive horror hits in recent years like IT, Get Out and A Quiet Place, but there are other horror movie successes that flew under the radar. Among them was 2017's Happy Death Day, a darkly comedic Groundhog Day-like tale which did well enough to warrant a sequel, the aptly titled Happy Death Day 2U. The first poster for the sequel has arrived and it calls back to the original film and a specific plot point. Take a look.
The poster for Happy Death Day featured a birthday cake with a kitchen knife stabbed into it, teasing the premise of the horror flick, while also cluing audiences in to a story that doesn't take itself too seriously. This poster for Happy Death Day 2U is in much the same vein, maintaining the birthday theme with the '2' candle, fitting perfectly with the obvious, but still appropriate title of the film.
The candle on the poster rests on a red velvet cupcake, and if you've seen the first film, you know that the cupcake has major significance. In Happy Death Day, Jessica Rothe's Tree Gelbman is going about her birthday generally being a terrible person when she is killed on her way to a party. Over the course of the film, she dies and dies again, each time gathering information to try and discover the identity of her killer, stop him, survive and break the loop.
Eventually Tree discovers that the killer is in fact her roommate, Lori, played by Ruby Modine, who tries to kill her with a poisoned cupcake. At the end of the film, Tree stuffs the poisoned cupcake in her roommate's mouth and kicks her out a window, delivering sweet justice, saving her life and breaking the loop.
The cupcake on this poster for Happy Death Day 2U is the perfect way to remind audiences of the danger lurking in the most unexpected of places in this film. We don't know too much about the plot for Happy Death Day 2U, but it will again follow Jessica Rothe's Tree Gelbman as she discovers that her countless deaths in the first film were easy compared to what she now faces.
The first Happy Death Day was a sneaky success at the box office, earning $122.6 million on a $4.8 million budget. The film also did fairly well critically, earning decent reviews for Jessica Rothe's performance and the film's dark humor despite its seemingly overdone premise. Happy Death Day 2U once again stars Jessica Rothe, and director Christopher Landon returns to write and direct the sequel.
Happy Death Day 2U slashes into theaters on Valentine's Day 2019. For all of next years' biggest movies, take a look at our 2019 release schedule.
