Director: J. Lee Thompson
Writers: John Beaird, Timothy Bond, Peter Jobin, and John C.W. Smith
Starring: Melissa Sue Anderson and Glenn Ford
Body Count: 9
Review: Apart from a few cool (but very unrealistic) death scenes and the Scooby-Doo-like double-twist ending, there's not much to like about Happy Birthday To Me.
The story is about a girl who has suffered amnesia as the result of a car accident many years prior, and has since worked her way into the "in" crowd at her prep high school. As soon as the movie begins, members of that said crowd begin to disappear one-by-one...
which would be a great idea for a slasher movie, if it were done just a little bit better. The problem with Birthday... is that it takes too damn long for things to happen. The murders are spread out by almost twenty-five minutes for the first half of the movie, and the exposition is just not satisfying enough to keep you interested.
Now, like I mentioned above, there are a few cool things--the death scenes are good, and the twist ending is neat, but it doesn't quite work. In fact, it's all just a little too confusing for the viewer to really enjoy the movie. Too bad, too, 'cause I can guarantee you'll never guess what the surprise twist actually is. Unrealistic as it may be, it's still quite a shocker.
