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If there was one thing missing from the classic Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, it was its disappointing lack of gore. Sure, Phil Connors killed himself a few times to try to escape the endless time loop he was stuck in, but those deaths were more funny than bloody. Maybe it’s just not that kind of movie.
Fortunately, Happy Death Day is.
The 2017 slasher stars Jessica Rothe as Tree, a college student who gets stuck in a time loop on her birthday, which concludes with her murder. Each day she has to wake up and live through her birthday again, which keeps on leading to her death. There’s plenty of blood and gore in the movie, which can also be said of its sequel, Happy Death Day 2U.
Both movies also have plenty of screams, brought to you by Rothe, who has taken on the mantle of “Scream Queen” in recent years. At New York Comic Con, Polygon caught up with Rothe, who was promoting her new film River, to see how she feels about the title, and where she and Christopher Landon, who directed the first Happy Death Day films, are at with a third installment.
Polygon: To get started, can you give any kind of update on Happy Death Day 3?
Jessica Rothe: The main updates I can give are, back in April, Chris Landon and I got together and we broke the third film, which was such an honor that Chris would even ask me to do that with him. We’ve become quite close, but we both feel a different kind of ownership over the trilogy and over Tree and her story. It was really exciting, taking his original ideas and implementing them into a movie we’re both excited about now.
Also, to be totally frank, I’m hoping that, with the acquisition of River and its hopeful success, that Universal reengages with the idea of the trilogy in a meaningful way. Because it’s all there, we’re just waiting for the powers-that-be to get the ball rolling.
How do you feel about being called a scream queen?
I love it. I take it as a badge of honor. It’s funny because I am the biggest chicken — I’m genuinely afraid of the dark. I would have never thought that this would be where I am. But I think scream queens are badass. I think horror is punk rock. Just getting to join this long line of incredible badass women who fight tooth and nail and are resourceful and do not quit — I couldn’t ask for more.
Not only that, but now that they’re finally starting to make movies where there are two scream queens or two final girls together, like the fact that I got to share the screen with Jane Levy in River is unbelievable because she’s an OG and she’s so talented and so kind. It was one of those game recognizes game moments where I was like, “Oh, you go as hard as I go and that’s really fucking hard, so let’s go.”
You said you’re afraid of horror movies, can you watch yours?
I can watch them because I know what’s happening and I’ve gotten better at watching horror movies. My husband is a horror movie aficionado and being best friends with Chris Landon, I have to watch them now. My tolerance has gone up, but there are movies every once in a while that my husband is like, “You shouldn’t watch this. It’s going to be too much for you.” Or, “If you watch it, watch it during the day.” But he got me to watch The Descent, which is pretty scary, and that messed me up for a while.
Was that too much?
I was like, “Oh, I’m having nightmares.” I just have a very overactive imagination, which is super great for this world, but not great for 4:00 AM, after I’ve watched The Conjuring or something like that.
The Conjuring is a rough one.
Yes! The first one! It’s also really good! Some of my favorite horror movies are the ones that pull in real life emotions and take in the horror of everyday life and explore it in a really interesting way.
Like [writer/director Joshua Giuliano] talks about with River — slasher movies are about death. It’s about this faceless entity that is coming for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re good. It doesn’t matter if you’re bad. It eventually will come for you. Sometimes you escape it and sometimes you don’t.
The cool thing about the genre is that, if you told someone, “Hey, do you want to come see this movie about the eventuality of death?” They’d probably be like, “Thanks, pass.” But, “Do you want to come see this movie about a family drama that then turns into a crazy slasher?” “Sure!” People just have an easier buy-in with that, so we get to take them on a rollercoaster, but also there’s some deep self-introspection that can happen at the end.
Do you have a favorite classic scream queen?
I have to go with Jamie Lee Curtis. She’s just so epic and she’s also so funny. She can do no wrong in my estimation. I would die to work with her. She’s such a queen.
