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Happy Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday to Me

1981
Horror, Mystery
1h 50m
Virginia is proud that she belongs to a clique. The best students at a private school. But before her 18th birthday, a grueling set of murders take place and her friends are the ones who are falling prey (imdb)
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Happy Birthday to Me

1981
Horror, Mystery
1h 50m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 34.75% from 225 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(225)
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Rated 23 Apr 2021
72
23rd
Not terribly made, but the final twist comes out of nowhere and doesn't stand up to the slightest logical scrutiny. They should have gone with the original ending where [spoiler] really was the killer.
Rated 07 Jul 2015
52
24th
It's hard to encapsulate your true feelings for a movie that ends with seventeen straight minutes of shock twists and revelatory character back stories. "Clue" had a more focused ending. Someone should splice in Maury Povich audience reaction shots for each reveal.
Rated 10 Mar 2010
58
52nd
Veteran director Thompson tackles the slasher genre with unusual results. During the films bloated run time we're treated to every cliché of the genre, sometimes played straight, sometimes tweaked ever so slightly. It all culminates in what could simultaneously be described as one of the best and worst endings of the genre, piling ludicrous twist upon twist until your head is reeling. And I liked it. It's entirely possible that there's something very, very wrong with me.
Rated 15 Jul 2018
25
13th
Fairly clever kills with a fair amount of gore But the plot is beyond strange Too many things going on with this movie too make a cohesive story
Rated 23 Jul 2019
5
57th
The last act of this movie has about a million turns and twists and reversals; it’s like the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy of slashers. I don’t mind a twist or two but once a straight-up Mission Impossible mask came into play it took a leap too far. Some pretty good kills like the one with the barbell. I will dock a point from any 80s slasher movie with no nudity though, I don’t give a fuck.
Rated 21 Mar 2009
33
25th
Didnt Really Grab My Interest
Rated 08 Jan 2011
60
35th
For three thirds of this film, which is difficult for me to call a slasher film because of how much everything else besides the kills are emphasised, this is a flawed but very interesting 80s horror film which despite its clichés warms on you. Than all the sudden the ending comes with a plot twist so out of place it damages the quality of what happens before.
Rated 18 Apr 2020
65
45th
There's elements of a clever slasher here, & a lot more attention to story details than meets the eye, but the problem is that there are so many bafflingly stupid writing choices mixed in as well. The needless twists that just keep piling up one after the other, entire scenes & subplots that go nowhere & exist for no reason, characters who just disappear & are never referenced again. It's really confusing, really long, and tries to do way too much. Points for originality, if nothing else.
Rated 19 Dec 2021
70
34th
Released pretty early in the slasher boom, this one was kind of lost in the shuffle, and it predates the laziness generally hidden underneath gore and boobs for the genre, it was a pretty competent slasher. Still, it's easy to see how this one got zero sequels and "Friday The 13th" got ten...it's the gore and boobs, or lack thereof. It did have one decent kill, though.
Rated 28 Dec 2007
32
10th
Full of padding and boring, a bad sign for a horror film
Rated 14 Dec 2008
40
8th
I don't really remember this movie at all, except that I didn't really like it. John Beaird's other movie he wrote (My Bloody Valentine, also 1981) was way better.
Rated 15 Feb 2010
64
23rd
It goes for a giallo angle, but that's no excuse for the 100 minute running time. It's slow, the characters are obnoxious, and it's not very suspenseful. The movie begins to pick up steam when the third act rolls around, but then loses track again with an ending befitting one of Dario Argento's old giallos. The difference being that Argento can pull it off and the cast and crew here can't.
Rated 12 Nov 2010
57
46th
A sullen-looking Anderson stars in this fairly lavish-looking slasher. Overlong but well acted, with good Tom Burman effects and a notably grisly ending sporting no less than four climactic twists!
Rated 15 Dec 2010
60
22nd
Silly film that has a pretty shoddy premise, but some surprisingly tense/twisted scenes, as well. Honestly, I have a soft spot for 80s slashers, so the film had almost won me over with some of its absurd eccentricities until the very final reveal. The ultimate twist is so mind-numbingly stupid that you'll either giggle like a maniac its lunacy or shrug your shoulders in defeat. I kind of did both.
Rated 05 May 2015
75
35th
This movie has perhaps the dumbest/greatest ending i have ever seen.
Rated 21 Jun 2016
40
13th
A pretty weird experience. The majority of it plays out like a fairly typical '80s slasher. It has several twists, but to pull it off the entire thing becomes incredibly convoluted and confusing and doesn't make a lot of sense. That being said, the climax was a lot of fun, and almost worth all the pointless and boring scenes that had come before it. It reminded me a lot of Sleepaway Camp. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a slasher fan, but yeah, it definitely had its moments.
Rated 01 Nov 2019
74
24th
Solid flick but the only really cool parts are the kills. The ending is chilling enough though.
Rated 07 Dec 2020
72
51st
Decent and amusing 80s horror that's almost undone by a ridiculous twist ending. Luckily until that ending there is enough to enjoy including some very well done and effective scares and kills. It's more murder mystery with a clear giallo influence than pure slasher with a clear giallo influence.
Rated 23 Aug 2021
59
63rd
For some reason I hadn't seen this one before. J. Lee Thompson could be a competent director and I think this is one of the better directed / crafted slashers of the 80’s. It has solid production values, suspenseful scenes and inventive kills. Canadian locations add to the flavour. Script provides enough surprises and red herrings, but the last twist takes the film to Scooby Doo territory. Not bad enough to ruin the film, but combined with 110mins runtime it diminishes the rewatchability.
Rated 25 Jan 2022
39
13th
What a bad and boring moive, the twist is...ugh
Rated 07 Dec 2022
55
27th
When someone you know comes into a room wearing black leather gloves they're probably going to kill you in a silly way. Fun slasher that lives up to the hype of the VHS box you saw while flipping through the horror section at the cool video store you went to before Blockbuster
Rated 05 Oct 2011
39
6th
39.250
Rated 27 Mar 2021
38
23rd
It's a well-made slasher movie with one big twist at the end. It's a twist that's thrown in without any foundation, so of course, it's a surprise.
Rated 16 May 2021
73
50th
Feliz Aniversário Para Mim estreava há 40 anos nos EUA e Canadá. Devo confessar que só vou assistir esse hoje porque a direção é do J. Lee Thompson, maio é mês do Festival de Cannes e tem muita obra-prima fazendo aniversário para se perder tempo com slasher. E esse aqui estava com uma construção bem boa até o risível twist final. Box Versátil Slashers Volume 2.
Rated 25 Jan 2022
28
21st
an overlong mess which is more filler than anything, with twist upon twist ending on a big reveal that makes literally no sense and has no real impact on the viewer
Rated 18 Oct 2022
70
65th
Messy, but enjoyably preposterous.
Rated 21 Nov 2023
60
23rd
It's not a bad flick. It's not a great one either. The creative murder set pieces aren't really sensible, given either the killer's motive or the rather clear fact that the murder needs to be male for these scenes to work. The characters are pretty well drawn for this kind of film. but their relationships just change willy nilly as the plot requires, and the whole thing feels pretty loosely plotted to say the least.

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