Simply A Masterpiece

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Nothing really to gripe about, nothing too exciting either. Typical eighties. Forgettable and unoriginal. Doesn't add anything to the genre. Mildly entertaining eighties horror. Certainly not the worst, just too middle-of-the-road to care. If you have some time and literally nothing on your wanna-watch-list then go for it.

Trying to move on in her life, a teen's attempts to move past the traumatic death of her mother and fit back in at school leads to a grisly series of murders towards her friends and forces her to question her sanity to stop the rampage.Strangely, this one turned out to be quite an overrated and problematic slasher. One of the biggest issues against it is the fact that this one really tends to drown itself in the idea that the lead is crazy but never does anything terrifying with that idea as all it does is simply throw suspicion onto her and that's it. It's really hard to stay invested here when all it does is continually mention her past yet keeps that out of the main storyline here by simply having her fine one minute and seemingly on the verge of a mental breakdown two seconds later because of the film's utterly contrived notion of having the group continue to pull pranks on each other in such circumstances. Not only does this make them seem utterly crass and deplorable for keeping up such a tradition during times when they're intended victim is clearly distressed, it's hard to take the events seriously when everything is a joke to them. As well, the kinds of ideas that are jokes to them is not in the slightest bit funny and certainly makes it even more questionable why the group would hang out with each other considering this is the type of friendship they provide with each other. Likewise, this really grinds the film to a halt with their being so much around here that's not all that interesting it takes a long time to warm up to it's surroundings and this makes for quite a long amount of time without this being all that enjoyable. There's some good parts to this one, mainly in the stalking which is quite a bit of fun as there's some ingenious set-ups here with the jock in the weight-room and the couple in the bell-tower which are certainly great fun with their being quite over-the-top and decidedly cheesy enough to work while also throwing some genuine suspense into those scenes which is what makes them work. Likewise, the scenes in the house where it's not together clear what's happened has some absolutely enjoyable scenes that come off far more worthy of a different film due to their darker nature that's missing from the lighthearted tone that's employed here. Finally, the film's big finale scores wonderfully with this one really taking it's warped feelings to their grandest stage yet with some really demented ideas, lots of macabre action with the dead bodies and piling a lot of gore into it that matches the rest of the kills for a truly great and exciting ending here that doesn't quite lift this one over its' flaws.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and drug use.

The teenager Virginia Wainwright (Melissa Sue Anderson) studies in the traditional Crawford Academy and belongs to a group of wealthy friends named The Top Ten. Virginia had a serious car accident a couple of years ago where her mother died. Now she lives with her father and is psychologically treated by the prominent Dr. David Faraday (Glenn Ford). She has also frequent blackouts but she is slowly recovering her memory. When one by one of her friends are murdered and disappears, Virginia starts to believe that she is the killer, but Dr. Faraday does not think so. Who might be the serial-killer? "Happy Birthday to Me" is a creepy slasher with a good story with many twists. When it seems to have disclosed the killer and the motive, there is one last unexpected twist that surprises the viewer. The conclusion is extremely dark and makes this movie one of the best in the genre. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Feliz Aniversário para Mim" ("Happy Birthday to Me")

The Canadian movie "Happy Birthday to Me" is above average when it comes to the slasher genre - though it must be admitted that feat wouldn't be that difficult to do, given the generally awful quality of your typical slasher. The movie is not free without problems, however. At 110 minutes, it's much too long and padded out. There are moments that don't make much sense, from the unexplained burying of certain objects on the campus grounds to the explanation from the killer at the climax. On the other hand, the movie looks very nice and slick; it obviously had an ample budget. Also, there are some innovative kills. The main star attraction of the movie, however, is the script, which is filled with many twists and turns that will keep you guessing right until the end. I don't know if this can be considered a "good" movie, but if you are in a mood for a slasher movie, this is definitely one of the better examples and it will probably satisfy. Try to track down the Blu-ray edition if you decide to watch the movie - it makes the movie look brand new and fabulous.