Friday 18 March 2011

HORROR CLASSIC: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981)


Film: Happy Birthday To Me ***
Year: 1981
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 110 mins
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Starring: Melissa Sue Anderson, Glen Ford, Tracey E Bregman, Matt Craven, Leonore Zann
Genre: Horror
Format: DVD
Country: USA

Who needs pass the parcel and pink wafers when you suffer from alarming blackouts? Certainly not Virginia, especially as the self-elected 'top 10' at Crawford Academy are being butchered in some pretty grotesque ways, with the finger of suspicion spinning like a game of twister until its pointing right at her.

She could always blame a freak accident not so long ago, leaving her poor old mother dead, and her needing brain surgery. Or she could just go down to Topshop and buy a second pair of gloves, preferably not black and definately not made of leather. Or it might not be her at all, just her so-called friends playing tricks; her birthday is fast approaching, after all...

Directed by J. Lee Thompson of Cape Fear (1962) fame, Happy Birthday To Me is another enjoyable early eighties slasher film that refuses to take itself too seriously, with a likeable cast and some inventive murders culminating in a thankfully bizarre final twenty minutes - resuscitating flashbacks that were as meaningful as birthday cards without money inside.

The big reveal may be a little over the top, and the whole party does drag its heels a little bit, but if you fancy seeing someone strangled by a motorbike wheel, another murdered as they're lifting weights, and best of all, death by shish kebab, then this little oddity will be right up your street. Just don't expect a party bag...

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