Film / Happy Death Day

Make every death count.

Carter: The way I see it, you have an unlimited amount of lives. Unlimited opportunities to solve your own murder.
Tree: So I'm supposed to keep dying until I figure out who my killer is?
Carter: You got a better idea?

Happy Death Day is a black comedy slasher film directed by Christopher Landon and written by Scott Lobdell. It was released on October 13, 2017.

Teresa "Tree" Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) is a college student who finds herself endlessly reliving her birthday over and over again. It begins with her waking up in a random guy's bed after drinking and ends with her getting murdered by a masked man. After realizing what is going on, she attempts to figure out the masked man's identity and motives and prevent her death, but it won't be easy.

The film was announced in 2007 under a different name (Half to Death), and was later revived in 2016 after director Landon sent its script to Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, who ended up producing the film. Reported influences on the film included classic horrors like Scream and Halloween alongside '80s comedies like Back to the Future and Sixteen Candles.

A sequel entitled Happy Death Day 2U was released in 2019. A third film, Happy Death Day to Us, is in development.

Previews: Trailer, International Trailer.

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Happy Death Day contains examples of:

• Above the Influence: Carter vehemently denies taking advantage of a wasted Tree the previous night. When she realizes that he genuinely didn't, her opinion of him improves instantly.
• Action Girl: Tree slowly evolves into this after the constant loops, learning to fight and defend herself with makeshift weapons and better reflexes.
• Alpha Bitch: Tree's sorority is full of these, most notably:
  • Tree herself starts off the movie as a total bitch, being rude to nearly everyone and joining her sisters in teasing others. After her Character Development kicks in, she slowly starts to become a better and kinder person and turns against this sort of behavior.
  • Danielle, the sorority leader, is a bossy, jealous bully who continuously picks on her own sorority sisters while focusing mostly on herself, looking pretty, and having the attention of boys.
• An Aesop: Running away from your problems solves nothing.
• Asshole Victim: Tree herself before her character development; she's downright nasty to everyone, including those who are trying to be kind to her, but then she was murdered.
• Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch:
  • Once Tree decides to be nice, she eats junk food, pours chocolate milk on the head of her sorority's president, and kisses Carter- which delighted everyone but Danielle, who openly called Carter a "douchebag" earlier. Prior to this, in at least one loop, she openly flirts with (as in kisses in full view) Danielle's boyfriend at a party and very nearly beds him, with it being implied that she has done this before.
  • In a literal sense, Lori is betraying her bitchy roommate and killing her, mostly through sharp objects. Too bad said roommate is not staying dead.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In the second loop at the party, Danielle angrily texts Tree, demanding to know if Tree is with Nick. Tree lies and says no, and after a few insults between them, Danielle texts back, saying, "I hope you both die!" She never finds out, but at that moment, the killer is stabbing Nick to death and later does the same thing to Tree.
• Beware the Nice Ones: In her few appearances, Lori is depicted as one of the genuinely kindest characters in the film, being the only one to really care about Tree’s birthday and made her a cupcake from scratch to prove it. Hell, she’s so nice that Tree doesn’t even put her on the list of suspects. But unfortunately for her, Lori IS the killer, and that homemade cupcake was the originally intended murder weapon.
• Big "SHUT UP!":
  • One of the first things we hear in every loop is a faded out-of-tune saxophone in another dorm room, followed by a boy's voice shouting "Shut up!"
  • Tree gives four of these to her phone at the start of the fourth loop before throwing it across the room.
• Big "YES!": Tree lets out a loud "YEAH!" as part of her "Hell, Yes!" Moment after escaping from the hospital.
• Birthday Buddies: Tree and her deceased mother shared a birthday, which led to them being super close.
• Birthday Hater: Tree has come to hate her birthday by the time of the film because her mother had the same birthday as her and had died three years before. She even describes it to Carter as "an excuse to eat cake and open presents and shit" and that there's no real meaning behind it.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lori, who seems like the Token Good Teammate of the bitchy sorority, but is actually orchestrating Tree's murder because a guy that she wanted to sleep with behind his wife's back is having his affair with Tree instead.
• Black Comedy: In the Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror, the film clearly leans more toward the former, with deaths Played for Laughs and whatnot.
• Bloody Hilarious: Most blatantly when Tree is repeatedly killed as a pop song plays in the background (one named "Confident", to make things worse...).
• Book Ends: The film starts and ends in Carter’s dorm room.
• Brainy Brunette: The first of many zig-zagged hair colour tropes. Tree proves herself clever at the end, is taking advanced science classes at the beginning and is blonde. Danielle is a brunette and is as dumb as a post. The blond (probably dyed) Ryan is naive in his own way (generously speaking), which makes him less than clever overall. It's played straight with the dark-haired Carter, who provides strategies for Tree, and Tree's roommate Lori, a nursing student. Lori so much so that she outsmarted Carter and Tree for nearly the entire movie.
• Broken Bird: Tree is gradually revealed to be this. Her mother's death affected her so much that she has become the bitter, jaded party girl we see at the beginning of the film.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Tree, as it can't get any worse than reliving being painfully murdered on your birthday... in a different method/set of circumstances each time. It's making her weaker in each iteration as well.
  • Sorority sister Becky also falls into this category, repeatedly suffering Danielle's fat-shaming (thanks to the loop) and at one point, getting accidentally whacked in the head by Tree wielding a baseball bat.
  • For much of the film, Carter exists mostly to suffer at the start of each new loop - Tree always wakes up in his room and grows increasingly more unstable each time, causing him a lot of comedic problems like smacking his head into his desk or having to watch her strip down.
  • Finally Danielle, exclusively from Tree. Tree is in the middle of swiping the guy she likes from her, lies to her via text about doing so, publicly humiliates her with a milkshake in the Golden Path loop, and tells Carter she's a tool (direct quote) during her TV interview at the end. Just for good measure Tree kills her when she mistakenly assumes she's the killer. It's Danielle, though, so who cares?
• Car Fu: The murderer kills a police officer who pulled Tree over by hitting him with his car.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: When Tree investigates Tim, he's about to engage in some self-love... to gay porn.
• Characterization Marches On: In-Universe. It's Character Development to Tree and the audience since the loops happen one at a time. To the other characters in the work, particularly the sorority house, Tree just seems to have changed drastically from Sunday the 17th to Monday the 18th, especially the Golden Path loop.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The birthday cupcake turns out to be instrumental to the killer's plan. It also helps Tree deduce the killer's true identity.
  • Tree gives Nick's bong some cursory focus. It soon becomes a murder weapon.
  • The rolling blackout. It happens at 9:23 p.m. while Tree is in her room before going to the party (and again later in the hospital), then in the penultimate loop, Tree uses the same blackout to get the drop on Tombs in the hospital and kill him.
  • A subtle one, usually only discerned after repeat viewings: Lori changed the ringtone on Tree's phone. How did the killer keep finding Tree, no matter where she went during the loops (like Tim's dorm or the hospital), when 99% of the people on campus would expect her to be at the Kappa house because she lived there, or the Sigma house for the party? Because Lori had enough access to Tree's phone to install a location app without Tree's knowledge.
  • The bell tower. It is seen a few times, usually at the start of the loop. After Tombs kills Carter, Tree hangs herself from the top of the bell tower to restart the loop and ensure Carter's survival.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • John Tombs. Tree first sees the news report about him in the third loop, and he becomes important later when she sees the same news report in the diner with Carter, as she thinks Tombs is her killer. He isn't, though he does come after her and he does almost kill her.
  • Danielle. In the final loop, she knocks on the door of Tree and Lori's room demanding to know what's going on in there, unaware Tree is fighting for her life. This distracts Lori enough for Tree to turn the tables on Lori and send her to her death out of the window.
• Coitus Interruptus: Tree is about to have sex with Danielle's boyfriend, Nick, when two things happen: (1) Danielle texts Tree, threatening her to stay away from him and while the two women are busy text-fighting, (2) the killer shows up and makes short work of Nick.
• Comically Missing the Point: In the third loop, Tree confirms that she has never met Carter until the night of Sunday the 17th, and says in shock, "Oh, my God, this is a nightmare!", referring to her scenario of being trapped in the loop. Carter responds with this: "I'm sorry. You were the one who wanted to come home with me!"
• Continuing is Painful: Every loop starts with Tree feeling what killed her the last time (drowning: she vomits; hanging: she cricks her neck). In the one where she's taken to the hospital, the X-rays show that the internal damage from the last death is still present.
• Cop Killer:
  • Tombs killed one officer in a shootout before being admitted to the hospital, and in the first loop he appears, he also killed the security guard by stabbing him in the back offscreen.
  • The killer mows down the police officer who is in the process of arresting Tree.
• Covert Pervert: Carter's roommate, Ryan. Tree even calls him out on his less-than-wholesome words for women.
  "Hi, I'm the so-called fine vagine, and if that's the way you refer to girls, you and your hand are going to have a very lasting relationship".
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Dr. Butler, despite the fact that he's married. Lori is a female example.
• Crowbar Combatant: Tree gets the drop on John Tombs in the bell tower by whacking him with a crowbar. She stops herself from killing him with it, because she thinks that if she does, the loop will end and Carter will be dead forever because Tombs had earlier broken his neck, so she hangs herself to restart the loop.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tree, with the snark growing along with her annoyance at dying so much.
  Tree: Who takes someone in her first date to a Subway? And it's not like you have a footlong.
• Dark Is Evil: Tombs, when he finally appears, is clad entirely in black.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Used as a plot point towards the end. Every time Tree dies, she wakes up weaker and weaker and she feels the after-effects of whatever killed her last. Additionally, this makes it harder to fight back. It's not clear if Tree has a set number of lives but if it continues, she realises she might not wake up.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Tree starts out as a snooty Alpha Bitch who pushes away anyone who attempts to get emotionally close to her, like Lori and Carter. With each loop, she gradually accepts Carter's assistance out of desperation and becomes nicer to him and to people in general as a result.
• Denser and Wackier: After the first forty minutes or so, the film stops taking itself seriously and starts indulging in Black Comedy and amusing ways for Tree to die.
• Despair Event Horizon: Tree absolutely freaks out and screams that it's hopeless when the loop continues even though she killed Tombs.
• Destination Defenestration: Lori ultimately ends up being tossed out of a window.
• Died on Their Birthday: Tree gets killed over and over again on her birthday.
• Disappointed by the Motive: When Tree finds out she's being killed over and over again because Lori is angry that the (married) guy she wants keeps rejecting her in favor of sleeping with Tree, Tree cannot believe that the motive is so petty.
  Tree: Wait, you’ve been killing me over some stupid guy?
• Disappointed in You: Referenced. Tree tells Carter that she doesn't think her deceased mother would be particularly happy if she saw how Tree turned out after her death, referring to her pre-Character Development self.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Lori's motivation to free Tombs, a serial killer, who goes on to murder several innocent people, all to cover her murder of Tree? Because Tree was sleeping with Lori's boss, who Lori wants to sleep with instead. Even Tree lampshades it — see Disappointed by the Motive and Evil Is Petty.
  Tree: I know I've been a bad roommate, but isn't this a bit much? What the hell?
• Dramatic Drop: Two, both emphasized with slow motion.
  • When Tree streaks across campus, the global warming girl drops her clipboard.
  • The killer drops a lit candle onto the petrol-soaked road in this manner to blow up the police car Tree is trapped in.
• Dumb Blonde: Heavily subverted throughout:
  • Tree may appear a vacuous slacker coasting her way through Gregory's classes in the beginning, but he's a doctor and she's a med student... which takes some brains to get on to in the first place. She pulls off some very smart, well-prepared plans when taking on Tombs, and is very good at gathering clues and taking notes. She also figures out that Lori is the real mastermind is at the end.
  • Dr. Gregory himself, a doctor and university professor, is blond.
  • Ryan actually bleached his hair to become blonde. Fittingly.
  • All of the brunettes on the other hand except Carter and Lori seem to be pretty dim. Tim is too naive to understand that his behaviour is problematic, and Danielle seems to have an IQ of about 4.
• Dutch Angle:
  • After a few deaths and loops, Tree gradually becomes hysteric from her Time Loop Fatigue and the camera angles slowly slant as she walks in the school grounds.
  • Slanted camera angles are also employed in some of the long chase scenes between Tree and the killer around the latter half of the film.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It takes a whole bunch of loops, but Tree eventually solves her murder and breaks free of the loops, getting together with Carter in the process.
• Embarrassing Nickname: According to Tree in the second loop while she and Danielle are texting each other, Danielle's nickname in freshman year was Blowfish. Danielle is not happy to be reminded of that.
• Embarrassing Ringtone: Lori changes Tree's ringtone to be an annoying voice singing "Hey, it's my birthday! And I'm not gonna pick up the phone".
• "Eureka!" Moment: The moment Tree realises that the last time she died it was the only time she actually ate Lori's cupcake. It tips her off that Lori poisoned it and was her killer all along.
  Tree: Thanks, but I already ate it last night. ...Oh my God... I died in my sleep.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Although Tree is not a nice person at the start, Carter, Nick, and Dr. Butler all want her. Emphasized as Nick's girlfriend has dark hair.
• Evil Laugh: Tombs does one as he follows Tree up the bell tower, before Tree hangs herself from the top of it.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Dr. Butler, who acts charming and caring right up until Tree tells him she's through. His last shot at her is that he won't let her coast through his class, which she's already dropped.
  • Lori basically goes through all this trouble of trying to murder Tree because the guy she's into falls for her instead of Lori. When Tree calls her out on how petty this is, her second reason is because Tree is “a dumb bitch, too!”
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After waking up in the loop after defeating Tombs, Tree naturally starts to wonder what the hell is going on, since she thought she got rid of her killer. As she talks herself through it, she realizes that she died in her sleep after doing the one thing she'd never done in any previous loop: eat Lori's cupcake. This clues her into the fact that Lori is the real killer... while she's alone in the room with Lori.
• False Confession: Tree falsely claims she was driving drunk after a cop stops her for speeding, hoping he will take her to jail where she'll be safe. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Danielle says that she knew that Lori was a killer because "she never wore makeup, never posted any cute selfies, and she literally owned a pair of crocs".
• First Girl Wins: Guy in this case. Carter is the first person Tree sees in every loop and the one who shows the most concern and bouts of heroism for Tree's sake. As a result, Tree sees to it that Carter makes it out alive, even killing herself to reset from a loop he dies in.
• Flipping the Bird: Tree does this after breaking up with Gregory, and telling him that she's dropped his class.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: The first thing we hear in every loop is the sound of bells tolling. Towards the end, it lets the audience know immediately that even though Tree killed Tombs, she is still trapped in the loop.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the first loop, when Tree blows out the birthday candle and drops the cupcake in the bin, Lori looks disappointed/annoyed and says, "I made that for you from scratch." The first time you see that scene you probably think that she's just disappointed that Tree threw out the gift she made. In hindsight, she was annoyed that Tree had unwittingly foiled her plan.
  • There are a couple of early hints to the killer's identity. Most obvious is the killer's obsession with Tree's birthday. All of the traps and messages left for Tree relate to her birthday in some way or another. In all of the loops, Lori is the only person on campus shown to actually care that it's Tree's birthday. Secondly, in one of the loops, Tree boards up the windows to her room and barricades the door, blocking the only entrance. The killer still manages to attack her despite both barricades still being intact. This wouldn't make much sense unless the killer was already hiding in the room, waiting for an opportunity to attack, which would be a lot easier to do if the killer had their own key. There's also only one character who could have intercepted the card Danielle left for Tree to leave a threatening message, and it was the one who had to be sharing a room with her. Finally, when Tree is stuck in the police car, the killer lights some gasoline on fire to make the car explode. By using a candle similar to the one that was on Lori's cupcake.
  • Lori tells Tree in the first loop that Tree's relationship with Gregory is bound to have some pretty serious consequences. Tree brushes it off, but it turns out to be the main reason why Tree is being killed.
  • Lori managing to change Tree's ringtone to an Embarrassing Ringtone foreshadows how the killer keeps finding Tree no matter what she does - because Lori installed a tracking software into her phone.
  • In Nick's room in the second loop, there is a skull and crossbones poster, and a "Do Not Enter" sign on the back of the door. Tree doesn't make it out of there alive.
  • In the third loop, after Tree barricades herself in her dorm room, she sees a news report about Tombs. This becomes important in the second half of the film.
  • Before Tree starts making her suspect list, she clears her desk and throws everything out of the window. At the end of the film, Tree kills Lori by kicking her out of the same window.
  • Gregory pulls a Stealth Hi/Bye by suddenly appearing behind Carter when the lights come back on after the rolling blackout in the hospital. Tree later pulls a similar Stealth Hi/Bye on Tombs to kill him during the same rolling blackout in the penultimate loop. Given how badly he treats Carter here, this scene also counts as foreshadowing towards Greogory's asshole nature when Tree ditches him towards the end.
  • After Tree escapes from the hospital and the killer, the killer suddenly arrives in a car, from the opposite direction, hinting that there are two killers.
  • One unrelated to the murder mystery. Whenever Tree changes her clothes in front of Carter, he gets bashful and looks away. Because they didn't hook up the night before, like she assumed. Similarly, in hindsight, the fact that she's wearing her bra and panties underneath the shirt she borrowed from Carter is a pretty obvious indicator that she never took them off to begin with. No girl would remove her bra, and then put it back on before going to sleep.
• Framing the Guilty Party: John Tombs may be a Serial Killer, but he’s only being used by Lori as an obvious suspect for killing Tree.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • There are two books of sudoku puzzles on the bedside table next to Tree when she wakes up. Sudoku puzzles get easier the more numbers you fill in, similar to how Tree's puzzle gets easier (somewhat) throughout the film by eliminating suspects and murder methods until she figures out who the killer is.
  • Tree's surname, Gelbman, is not spoken in the film but appears on Tree's X-rays as seen in the hospital.
• Get Out!: Carter tells this to Ryan in the final scene so he and Tree can have their First Kiss. Ryan is reluctant because he doesn't want to sleep in his car again.
• Gory Discretion Shot: In spite of the film's slasher trappings, it's almost completely bloodless. Whenever Tree is about to be killed, the film cuts away to her awakening in Carter's bed before the fatal blow lands. The only blood we see is one time on the knife, then from both killers in the end.
• Grid Puzzle: Sudoku puzzles are used as a metaphor for The Protagonist Tree's situation —similar to how Sudoku gets easier the more cells you fill, the clues to reveal Tree's murder are made more evident as the day passes by and she discards suspects and killing methods.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: One of Tree's deaths happens as the killer strikes her with a bong.
• Grin of Audacity: Tree gives Tombs one of these during their fight when it looks like he’s about to kill her, only for her stop watch to go off, signaling a blackout that would give her a chance to turn the tables on him.
• Groin Attack: Tree does this to Tombs the second time she encounters him when it looks like he's about to kill her with her own knife. She also kicks Lori in the groin during their final confrontation.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Tree is trapped in a loop, dying every night and waking up on that morning again. Fittingly, the amount of unchanging details is emphasized, such as the activity on Tree's walk to her dorm, or the rolling blackout.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The guard at Tombs' door is killed while checking on him because Lori unshackled him. In real life, this would have been more difficult because guards are kept inside the room as well.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Tree opens the day hungover, in a dorm room of a boy she doesn't know, after a night getting wasted.
• Hard-Work Montage: Tree researching who might be interested in killing her which doubles as a Failure Montage and Death Montage given once a person is crossed off, the assassin shows up.
• Hate Sink:
  • Dr. Gregory Butler. He's cheating on his wife, and the mother of his children, with one of his students. If that's not bad enough, he does so at work. Even worse, he works at a hospital. Most relevant employment contracts focus on "treating patients", not "ejaculating".
  • Danielle is a more conventional example. She isn't involved in the main plot outside of serving as a Red Herring but spends all her screen time acting like a condescending shallow bitchy Valley Girl towards everyone, especially Becky whom she's shown fat-shaming at one point. She acts as a character the audience can hate while the killer is a secret.
• Heel Realization: Going through the time loop makes Tree realize she's become as lousy a person as every other girl in her sorority. It also makes her better.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Tree has one when she escapes from the hospital and leaves her killer behind.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the third-to-last loop, Carter attacks Tombs before he can finish off Tree, and gets his neck snapped for his trouble. Tree wastes no time responding in kind so he can be brought back.
• Heroic Suicide: Tree manages to beat the killer into submission in one loop, but he managed to kill Carter, so she hangs herself so that the loop will continue and he'll be alive again. "See you soon, asshole," indeed. A good thing too, since it wasn't even the real killer.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • In the third loop, when Tree barricades herself in her room, she moves a chest of drawers in front of the door. This comes back to bite her when the killer turns out to have been in the room all along, and Tree is killed again.
  • In one loop, Tree tries to kill the killer with a baseball bat to the head, only to accidentally hit Becky instead. As she leans over Becky, the actual killer shows up, picks up the bat and kills Tree with it.
• Hope Spot: Twice.
  • Tree manages to leave the killer behind in the hospital and is about to be taken into police custody. Then the killer turns the policeman into roadkill and Tree into barbecue.
  • Tree confronts and kills Tombs, only to wake up on Monday the 18th once again.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Carter thinks the killer chose Tree's birthday on purpose. After some investigation, Tree dismisses it. Carter is eventually proven right, to the point the initially intended object of murder was a poisoned cupcake.
• "I Am Great!" Song: "Confident" by Demi Lovato plays during the Hard-Work Montage, with empowering "taking action" lyrics that illustrate Tree's state of mind. And then Soundtrack Dissonance kicks in given she's repeatedly failing and dying.
• Implacable Man: The killer is persistent as hell, most blatantly when Tree escapes from the hospital and sometime later, the assassin shows up in a car of its own. Justified since there are actually two killers.
• Improvised Weapon: A fair few, mainly used by Tree and the killer.
  • In the second loop, Tree is killed with Nick's bong.
  • Tree whacks the killer in the head with a hammer in the third loop, and later tries to do the same with a baseball bat (but accidentally gets Becky instead).
  • Tree also hits Tombs with a crowbar and stops herself from killing him with it believing that killing him will end the loop and Carter, who Tombs had killed moments earlier, will stay dead.
• Innocent Bystander: The killer has no problem killing whoever gets in the way of them getting to Tree. Tree herself accidentally gets Danielle (along with herself) killed in one loop, and hits another sorority sister in the head with a baseball bat in another, believing her to be the killer approaching from behind.
• Inspiration Nod: At the end of the film, Tree has a conversation with Carter in which she mentions that she's never seen any Bill Murray movies; Groundhog Day is mentioned by name.
• Invincible Villain: Not just because of the structure, or that there are two killers. Nothing stops the killer, regardless of what Tree does. She barricades herself in her bedroom? Killer gets in. She hits the killer with a baseball bat then gets arrested? Killer kills the cop then the car in which Tree is handcuffed gets blown up.
• Irony: In one of Tree's loops, she breaks up with Dr. Butler, unaware that her killer was motivated by jealousy of him having an affair with her in the first place. If only Lori had known that she didn't care about him anymore.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Tree says to Tim in the first loop that just because she went on one date with him doesn't mean she has to keep talking to him, especially as she didn't have a good time.
  • At the end, Danielle calls Lori's murder plot lame and stupid, because they're Kappas and supposed to be eating healthy. Tree points it out at the start of the film by throwing the cupcake away.
• Jump Scare: Carter has one in the hospital when, after the lights come back on, he suddenly finds Gregory standing right behind him.
• Kaizo Trap: The penultimate loop. Tree kills Tombs, only to be killed by a poisoned cupcake.
• Karma Houdini: Subverted. Although Tree whacks Tombs with a crowbar in one loop and shoots him dead in the next, the loop restarts, meaning he ultimately survives without punishment - except for the death penalty, given that he's a convicted serial killer...
• Karmic Death: Tree force feeds Lori the poisoned cupcake that Lori made to try and kill Tree with, then kicks her in the chest and sends her out of the window.
• Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand: Tree has a chance to kill her apparent killer and end the loop, but instead chooses to kill herself because otherwise Carter, a boy she technically just met that morning but has fallen for over the course of the Time Loop, will stay dead after he was killed by her potential attacker for trying to help her.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Danielle fat-shames Becky at the sorority lunch meeting when Becky shows up with chocolate milk, and when this happens in the Golden Path loop, Tree stops Becky from walking away, takes her chocolate milk, and pours it over Danielle's head, causing Danielle to run off soaked and embarrassed.
  • When Tree finds out who her killer is, she turns the tables on said killer and sends her to her death out of a window.
• Lifesaving Misfortune: The time loop may be very unpleasant for Tree, but it actually saves her life. Since dying actually causes the loop to reset, Tree continuously comes back to life until she discovers who her killer is.
• Light-Flicker Teleportation: Invoked by Tree during her Golden Ending loop attempt when facing down the serial killer, knowing there will be a rolling blackout at 9:23 PM. She uses it when fighting Tombs by drawing him into a dark hospital hallway with no open windows and getting into a physical fight even though Tombs is physically stronger and gets the upper hand on her, as she had set her wristwatch alarm to 9:23 PM and when it goes off she knows to get ready for the momentary blackout, getting up in the complete darkness and slipping behind Tombs while the latter is caught off-guard so that when the lights turn back on she's no longer on the ground in front of him but now behind him, letting her shoot Tombs dead from behind.
• Logo Joke: The Universal logo restarts about three times to highlight that the movie is centered around a "Groundhog Day" Loop.
• Love Makes You Evil: As described in Evil Is Petty, the reason for Tree's murder: her roommate Lori is angry that the guy she likes only pays attention to Tree.
• Makeup Is Evil: As Tree becomes a better person she begins wearing noticeably less makeup.
• Malevolent Masked Men: The assassin wearing a baby mask (namely, one of the university's mascot).
• The Many Deaths of You: The masked man kills Tree in increasingly creative ways.
• Menacing Mask: The killer wears a plastic baby face mask based on the school mascot combined with a black hoodie
• Match Cut: Tree's head falling due to blunt force trauma changes to it going down to the pillow.
• Meaningful Background Event: As Tree is having an angry text exchange with Danielle over Nick, the killer is slaughtering him.
• Meaningful Name:
  • John Tombs is a Serial Killer.
  • Also, the director said reducing Teresa to "Tree" reflects how "Trees need to grow and you see this character go from one person to another, so there's some symbolism and parallels there."
• A Million Is a Statistic: In the fifteenth loop iteration, Tree decides to die and reset the loop one more time before she attempts to put an end to it because she's trying to reset Carter's death in that loop and she knows that ending the loop now will render his death permanent — the deaths of the two minor characters whom one of the killers, Tombs, has killed in that loop, and whose deaths would also become permanent if the loop ended on that iteration; don't factor into Tree's decision at all, even if Tree does make sure to intervene in time to save their lives the next day.
• Missing Mom: Tree's mother died sometime before she started college. Part of the reason she hates her birthday so much and never has lunch with her father is because they both shared one. This leads to a very touching scene where she finally has lunch with him and confides how much she still misses her mother and how sorry she is for shunning her father.
• Moment Killer: When Tree returns to her sorority, a masked person like the one who killed her appears, so she punches him... totally killing the mood of the crowd that would reveal a surprise birthday party.
• Mood Whiplash: A three-layered version. Tree has a "Hell, Yes!" Moment when she escapes from the hospital in Gregory's car and seemingly escapes the killer, only to then be pulled over for speeding. Then the killer shows up again...
• Murder by Mistake: Tree accidentally kills Becky with a bat during one of the loops, mistaking her for the killer.
• Naked People Are Funny: Tree goes Streaking during one of the loops, garnering comedic reactions from everyone on the walk to class.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: John Tombs. With a name like that, how can he not be a Serial Killer?
• Neck Snap: In the third-to-last loop, this is how Tombs kills Carter. Tree kills herself with one moments later by hanging herself so the loop will restart and Carter will be alive again.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer shows a shot of the "Save the world" girl Tree sees every time she goes outside Carter's building while she and Carter are talking about possible suspects. In the movie proper, she is just a reminder of the loop.
• Nice Guy: Carter is a stand-up gentleman in almost every way. Not only did he refuse to take advantage of a drunk Tree and instead let her just crash in her room, he willingly helped her in every loop he knew about her situation in, and is always genuinely worried when she freaks out in the morning.
• No Bisexuals: When Tree spies on a guy she dated briefly, he is seen watching gay porn. Tree assumes he must be gay, not even considering that he might be bisexual, and the movie never calls her on this assumption. She seems to be right though, judging by his reaction when Tree talks with him about it.
• Not What It Looks Like: First, the very start— Tree is not awaken in Carter's room to spend the night with him, he just wants to help her wasted self and thus sleeps on his roommate's bed. Then, when Tree is attacked by the killer in a bed, a bystander does not stop it because he thinks it's just some kinky stuff, and also because he's drunk.
• Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Tree's two attempts to shoot John Tombs fail due to this. The next time she has the gun, it's off, as she points out in the Pre-Mortem One-Liner.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Tree has many of these, usually when the killer appears, and when she is about to be killed.
  • Danielle and Tree both have one as they realise they're about to be hit by a bus.
  • Tree has one during her "Eureka!" Moment when she realises who the killer is, and that the killer is in the same room.
  • Lori, before Tree sends her to her death out of the window.
  • Tree in the final scene when Carter tricks her into thinking she's still in the loop.
• Passed in Their Sleep: When Tree wakes up in the loop again after seemingly having prevented her murder, she eventually figures out she died in her sleep—poisoned by the cupcake she had never eaten before.
• The Patient Has Left the Building: In the one loop where Tree is hospitalized, she runs in spite of medical orders fearing for her life. She evades the killer in the parking lot... only for a reappearance on the road.
• Police Are Useless: Tree summons a few cops for protection from the Babyface Killer, but none of them prove to be of any use. Officer Santora is killed off by vehicular manslaughter right before he can cart Tree off to jail (which she wanted so she can stay safe). The hospital's security guard, who is visibly fatigued by a lack of crimes, has become sedentary and unalerted. Though in the end, Tree does get Lori to confess by announcing she can bring Lori's cupcake to the police station for study, and even though she kills Lori by throwing her out the window, the police are able to tie together Lori's motive to kill her first and Tree faces no charges for it.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Lori starts calling Tree a "cheap slut" and a "dumb bitch" when Tree forces her to admit she was the killer all this time.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Tree has seemingly never heard of Bill Murray, hence not being familiar with Ghostbusters and (oh, the Irony) Groundhog Day.
• Precision F-Strike: Tree goes "Oh fuck" before the cop car she's in blows up (in the trailer, it's a Curse Cut Short).
• Prefers Going Barefoot: Tree goes barefoot often in the movie, even tossing her shoes away on the day when she tries being nice to everyone.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Two instances, both by Tree:
  • When shooting John Tombs dead: "Safety's off. Thanks for the tip."
  • Later, before feeding Lori the poisoned cupcake: "EAT IT, BITCH!"
• Really Gets Around: At the beginning of the film, Tree is (to varying degrees) juggling four different guys and is slut-shamed by Danielle, who has a bit of a reputation herself.
• Recycled Trailer Music: The trailer has every loop opens with Tree awakened on her birthday by 50 Cent's "In Da Club", whose opening line is "Go shorty, it's your birthday!"
• Red Herring:
  • Tree finds a mask like the killer's in her teacher's drawer. When she attempts to confront him, the killer suddenly kills him.
  • The fugitive who Tree initially thought was her killer, though she figures out that the assassin planned well in making him a scapegoat, and he does nearly kill her once.
  • Tree spends multiple attempts sifting through different red herrings, including Danielle, Tim, and the wife of the professor she's sleeping with, only to find all of them innocent. The masked man who turns to stare at Tree when she's headed to the party also turns out to be a bystander.
  • Tree's first and second loops see her taken to an underpass where a creepy music box plays "Happy Birthday" and is given prominent focus by the camera, with lingering implications that perhaps it has some connection with the time loop, not just the murder scene Tree is subject to. The music box is never revisited after the second loop, and has no supernatural nature.
• Rescue Romance: Tree only falls for Carter once he gives his life to save her—to the point she kills herself to ensure he will be alive again.
• Respawn Point: Tree wakes up in the bed in Carter's dorm room at the start of every loop after she gets killed.
• Rewatch Bonus: Given the story's reliance on the "Groundhog Day" Loop trope, plus all the Foreshadowing, Chekhov's Gun, and Red Herring, there are details and plot points that make sense on a rewatch. At times, these may even be lampshaded, such as Tree realizing that she never ate the poisoned cupcake in most of her previous loops, or her X-ray scan explaining that Tree indeed suffers injuries from her previous loops and justifes why she feels discomfort whenever the day restarts.
• Samus Is a Girl: The Masked “Man” is actually the very female Lori.
• Save Scumming: After a few loops, Tree pretty much memorizes what happens and is able to avoid some problems. However, the masked man does something different in each loop so her preparations are not enough, and she gets weaker on each attempt.
• Say My Name: Tree screams Carter's name in horror after Tombs snaps his neck and kills him.
• Screaming Woman:
  • Tree wakes up screaming in terror at the start of the fourth loop, startling Carter and causing him to hit his head on his dresser.
  • According to Carter, Tree was screaming in her sleep before she woke up from the loop where the police car she was trapped in went up in a fireball.
  • Emily, the headphones sorority girl, screams at the end when Lori's body lands in front of her.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Tree escapes from the hospital because she knows the killer will find her. It doesn't work, as while she does escape, the killer catches up to her and kills her again.
  • In the final loop, Tree crosses the Despair Event Horizon and decides to do this to avoid being killed again. Subverted, as she doesn't leave because she then realises who the killer is.
• Serial Killer: John Tombs, a serial killer who specifically targets young blonde women, and is said to have claimed six victims already. Subverted with the Babyface Killer, who targets Tree and Tree alone (though isn't opposed to killing other people who are in the way).
• Serial Killings, Specific Target: Not only is Tree's would-be killer willing to murder anyone else who gets in the way, they also release a serial killer known for targeting blonde coeds from custody to have either a fall guy or a backup plan.
• Sex Signals Death: Played with. Tree is exactly the kind of shallow, promiscuous party girl that traditionally dies early in slasher movies, but she can't stay dead.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: In one of the loops, Tree confidently struts naked around campus, seemingly enjoying the appreciative stares she gets.
• Shoulders-Up Nudity: When Tree goes Streaking through the campus, she's only shown from the shoulders up, with a quick Toplessness from the Back shot.
• Shout-Out:
  • The shot of Tree and Carter near the end before she eats the cupcake as they celebrate her birthday is reminiscent of Sixteen Candles. A nice bit of Fridge Brilliance is included in this as well, when it's revealed that Tree has died sixteen times. The cake she's given at the beginning of the day has only one candle on it, but at the time of the referenced scene, she's been given it sixteen times. Do the math.
  • Carter specifically mentions Groundhog Day in regards to Tree's situation.
  • A Serial Killer named Tombs.
  • The title of the film is a reference to a song by GWAR.
  • Carter and Ryan's room has posters for They Live! and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie on the wall.
• Sinister Sorority Sisters: Tree's fellow sorority sisters, especially Danielle, are shown to be vindictive and bitchy, with Danielle shaming them all for being "fat" and bullying the others. Tree herself is shown to be bitchy and unpleasant before she Took a Level in Kindness throughout the movie. Even the Token Good Teammate, Tree's roommate, Lori, is working with the Serial Killer to kill Tree.
  Danielle: Lori's little plot was super lame. Poisoning a cupcake? Really? We're Kappas. We don't eat cupcakes.
• Slashers Prefer Blondes: Yes. Yes they do. Tombs focuses on murdering blonde women.
• Slut-Shaming: Tree is called "slut" and "whore" by various characters. Danielle was nicknamed "Blowfish" in freshman year.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The trailers for both films feature the song "In Da Club" by 50 Cent playing over the footage - because the lyric "Go shorty, it's your birthday!" would be adequate for the special date that's the setting if not for how terrible Tree's birthday has been. An ironic tune is also found in the Failure Montage, where a pop song about empowerment plays as Tree turns out to be powerless regarding discovering her killer.
• Spanner in the Works: The killer Lori obviously wasn't counting on Fate, the cosmos, or whatever powers that be to continuously loop Tree's birthday until she deduced her assailant's identity.
• Stealth Hi/Bye:
  • When Tree wakes up in the hospital and the blackout hits, Gregory is suddenly standing behind Carter when the lights come back on, freaking Carter out.
  • Played with. When it looks like Tombs is about to kill Tree, she flashes him a Grin of Audacity before the blackout hits, so that when the lights come back on, Tree has disappeared and is now behind Tombs.
• Stealth Pun:
  • Tree has a scene walking across campus in her birthday suit.
  • Among Carter's movie posters: They Live!.
• Stuff Blowing Up: The cop car, with Tree inside it. Tree manages to say "Oh, fuck" before the car explodes in a fireball.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Tree has a Cat Fight with Danielle in the street and is hit by a moving vehicle (in this case, a bus) within seconds.
  • Tree escapes the killer in one loop by stealing her professor's car. She screams in victory... only to be pulled over for speeding.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Tree figures out that the cupcake Lori baked her was poisoned.
• Tastes Like Disdain: Tree never eats the cupcake that Lori made for her, and even goes so far as to throw it in the trash the first time. The only time Tree ever actually eats it, she finds out that Lori poisoned it, and was the baby faced killer the whole time.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Tree and her professor Dr. Butler are in a romantic relationship, making out in the latter's hospital office and trying to pass off their time together there as just "Academic office hours". The idea of this trope becomes more and more repulsive to Tree as the film progresses because of the time loop.
• Tempting Fate: In the eighth loop, Tree escapes from the hospital in Gregory's car and has a "Hell, Yes!" Moment, thinking she has escaped, and yells, "Catch me now, bitch!" Moments later, she gets pulled over by a cop for speeding, and shortly after that, the killer reappears and kills Tree again.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: The one person Tree never put on her list of suspects was Lori because she's the nicest girl in her sorority. Unfortunately, Lori turns out to be the Babyface Killer the whole time.
• The End... Or Is It?: Twice, both subverted—first, Tree discovers the seemingly Golden Path didn't work out. Then, Carter trolls her into thinking the loop is back.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tree does this a lot. She educates Ryan about respecting women on two separate days, completely destroys Gregory in the Golden Path loop and proves her words aren't even necessary for someone as worthless as Danielle. She gives a brief one to Lori, while Lori is trying to kill her at the end! Hell, she's so good at these that she delivers one to herself when apologizing to her Dad.
• The Reveal: The real mastermind behind the attempts at Tree's life is Lori, which Tree realizes after dying to the poisoned cupcake just when Tombs has been dealt with in the penultimate loop.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Happens twice, both said by Tree.
  • The first is during Tree's "Hell, Yes!" Moment when she seemingly escapes from the hospital and triumphantly yells "Catch me now, bitch!", only to then have an Oh, Crap! when a police car appears behind her.
  • The second is when Tree grabs the poisoned cupcake, snarls at Lori, "EAT IT, BITCH!", and forces it into her mouth.
• Time Loop Fatigue: Tree suffers this, especially after killing Tombs, who she believes is her killer, doesn't end the loop. It doesn't help that she keeps her injuries from previous loops; she continually wakes up in pain.
• Toilet Humor: Tree takes the opportunity to fart absolutely loudly in front of Carter.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After enough deaths, Tree grows from an Alpha Bitch to someone who actually cares about others.
• Toplessness from the Back: When Tree goes walking through the campus naked, one shot shows her naked back as she walks.
• Trust Password: Tree quickly convinces her friend Carter of what is happening by predicting the day's events.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Carter, who believes Tree every time she tells him she's stuck in a time loop and helps her figure out how to get through it. He's not her boyfriend, but he does end up as her love interest.
• Unintentional Backup Plan: Inverted. Lori's first plan to kill Tree is to poison her with a cupcake. When Tree refuses, she concocts an elaborate scheme to disguise herself as a local serial killer and murder her that way. When that fails in the penultimate loop, Tree celebrates by eating the cupcake.
• The Unreveal: Just like its inspiration, the film never explains what caused the day to repeat. The sequel, however, does provide an explanation.
• Vapor Trail: The killer makes the police car in which Tree is being held leak fuel, and eventually lights the trail.
• The Voiceless: Emily, the girl sitting outside the sorority house listening to music on her headphones has no lines except for a scream of terror at the end when Tree kicks Lori out of the window, and Lori lands in front of Emily.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Tree vomits on Carter's floor after waking up from a loop when the killer drowns her in a fountain.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: Along with the fact she always awakens in a dorm room away from her sorority, Tree also once passes out after a loop and wakes up in a hospital.
• Wham Line:
  Tree: Oh my God... I died in my sleep.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: In the first loop, Lori tells Tree what she (Tree) did the night before. Not only did she drink a lot, but also started two fights, ended up dancing on a table, kissed a guy in front of his girl (according to Lori, she shoved her tongue down Nick's throat right in front of Danielle), and vomited pretzels all over the bar. But at least she didn't sleep with Carter.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The protagonist is known as Tree—though it's only a nickname, as her given name is Theresa.
• With Friends Like These...: None of Tree's sorority sisters seem to like each other past a superficial level. They have no problem publicly humiliating one of their own for eating junk food and Tree tries to sleep with Danielle's boyfriend (which according to a text from Danielle, she's done before). About the only one Tree really gets along with is Lori, who she still treats poorly. Of course, Lori does kill her multiple times...
• Yandere: Lori is willing to kill Tree and anyone who gets in her way just because the teacher she's crushing on is having an affair with Tree.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Multiple times for Tree when she thinks she's gotten out of her "Groundhog Day" Loop.
  • One loop Tree manages to escape from the killer at the hospital and she celebrates ecstatically while driving away...only to then be pulled over by the police for speeding. Subverted when she realizes she can invoke Get into Jail Free by claiming to be on all sorts of illegal drugs and be taken into custody and sit in a protected jail cell. Then Double Subverted when the lone officer arresting her is suddenly mowed down in another car and out steps the killer. Due to being handcuffed and locked inside the cop car, she is completely defenseless and can only watch as the killer blows up the vehicle with her still inside.
  • Later on in Tree's Golden Path loop she makes amends with everyone she's wronged in previous loops, which culminates with her shooting the escaped serial killer Tombs. She celebrates with Carter by eating the cupcake her roommate Lori had previously given to her for her birthday...and then wakes up the next morning still stuck in the loop. Tree absolutely freaks out.
  • Near the end when Tree finally gets her killer once and for all and is just exhausted at the whole thing, she again wakes up in Carter's bed with her phone's ring tone still doing "Hey, it's your birthday!" while Carter repeats his first line of the loop. Subverted this time when Carter reveals it's actually Tuesday the 19th and he was just pranking her.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Tree's eventual reaction to why she is being murdered.

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