Freddy, Michael, Jason, the ’80s were filled with slasher films featuring masked villains, often supernatural, stalking and killing a group of sexually needy teens. Once the major franchises started expanding in numbers, the formula killer+unaware teens was repeated to varying degrees of success. One of the films spawned from this era is Happy Birthday to Me, which takes the basics of the formula and adds a few twists and turns to create a fun film.
Film: Happy Birthday to Me
Directed by: J. Lee Thompson
Year: 1981
Starring: Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane
Best Death: A romantic date leads to a new use for a Shish-kabob skewer.
The opening sequence sets the mood for the rest of the film. A group of school friends seem to have the whole world ahead of them. They are enjoying life, having a few drinks, and have few cares. But on her way home, one of the friends ends up meeting her demise at the hands of the killer. Unlike some franchises, this killer didn’t wear a mask, so the camera is careful to focus mainly on the victim.
The audience is soon introduced to Virginia, and it is clear she’s being established as the film’s heroine. Most of her friends are featured in their death scenes, but her character is the only one we really get to know. One thing we learn is that she and her mother were once involved in a horrific accident, one that killed her mother and left Virginia with deepemotional scars. The audience is also shown flashbacks of Virginia post-accident, and we learn that she underwent many surgeries to help her recover from the tragedy. The audience is meant to root for her and feel sorry for her troubled past.
If Happy Birthday to Me stayed on a typical path, Virginia would continue to grow afraid as evidence began to suggest something was going terribly wrong. But this film has a great twist, one not shown at the very end. After focusing on the victims only during murder scenes, the audience is finally shown the killer in action–and it is Virginia. The rest of the film showcases an even greater mystery for the audience: Why is Virginia killing her friends, and how come it genuinely seems that in some scenes she has no clue of her devious actions??
I won’t spoil what happens in the last few parts of the film, but I will say the final birthday scene is a classic. Plus, if you’re a horror enthusiast like me, you like finding a horror film for every holiday, and I can’t think of a better “birthday horror” than this one!!
Flim Flam Film Talk 