Released: May 15, 1981
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Screenplay: Timothy Bond, Peter Jobin, & John Saxton
Tagline: "Six of the most bizarre murders you will ever see"
Cast:
Melissa Sue Anderson as Virginia "Ginny" Wainwright
Glenn Ford as Dr. David Faraday
Lawrence Dane as Harold "Hal" Wainwright
Tracey E. Bregman as Ann Thomerson
Frances Hyland as Mrs. Patterson
Sharon Acker as Estelle Wainwright
At Crawford Academy, an elite group of students known as the Top Ten are the envy and admiration of teachers and pupils alike. When a black-gloved assailant begins killing them off one by one, only Ginny seems to feel concerned. But she's battling her own demons, suffering strange memories of a past trauma that her therapist Dr. Faraday is helping her to remember. As her birthday looms, Ginny, a recent addition to the popular circle, becomes unsure of whom to trust, including herself, as she begins to recall a terrible accident, a dramatic medical procedure, and what could be the key to unlocking the motive of the stalk'n'slash campus killer threatening her friends' lives.
Happy Birthday to Me would have been very much at home in the giallo movement of late seventies Italian cinema--classic whodunnit horror films filmed with gauzy lenses featuring nubile young co-eds stalked by vengeful killers wearing black gloves who off their victims in appropriately melodramatic murders. In reality, though, it was one of a glut of responses to the success of Friday the 13th and the new slasher craze that overran horror in the 1980's. It makes use of all the tropes, from our rowdy, incestuous group of attractive teens to killer p.o.v. shots that give the audience a murderers-eye view of the kills and a parade of victims exclaiming "Oh, it's you!" That said, the film walks a fine line between pastiche and parody, never quite committing to either yet still maintaining its sense of dread and fun.
Melissa Sue Anderson, far from the wholesome comfort of Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983), shines as Ginny, who is, at first, coded as our Final Girl and then, about halfway through the film, becomes not only the most likely suspect for the killer, but an on-screen murderer! Or does she? The film's cheesy, Grand Guignol-style ending is notorious among horror fans, in part for its delicious ridiculousness, and in part for being one of the most sinister "body tour" sequences in any of the great 80's slashers. This can't change how illogical it is, however, but the script was rewritten several times during production, and the ending was unknown even at the time of filming; in the end, the production opted for a complex psychological solution rather than a supernatural one as was originally intended. You'll have to judge for yourself whether this was the right call.
"Lighten up, guys, it's a party..."
Drunk on itself, Happy Birthday to Me has a zany charm that has kept it in the eye of genre fans for over thirty years. While it doesn't push any notable boundaries, it does take its viewers on a fun ride, offering a few choice kills, an unforgettable poster, and a gratuitous disco scene that, upon reflection, might be just as iconic as the "see it to believe it" ending. And for the true horror hound, could you ask for a more perfect gift?
Happy Birthday to Me
5-Totally Terrifying
4-Crazy Creepy
3-Fairly Frightening
2-Slightly Scary
1-Hardly Horror
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