Genre blending and upending in 'Happy Death Day 2U,' 'Isn't It Romantic?'

Fans of “Back to the Future Part II” will have fun with “Happy Death Day 2U,” the comedic slasher sequel that takes the 2017 original’s time loop premise and knots it into even more absurdity.

The first “Happy Death Day” made no apologies for being a horror movie version of “Groundhog Day,” with a few of the characters even referencing the Bill Murray classic by name. “Back to the Future Part II” gets name dropped in the sequel, and there are some not-so-subtle musical cues that will most definitely conjure memories of Marty McFly.

“2U” doubles down on the science fiction to explain how sorority girl Tree (Jessica Rothe) re-enters a time loop where she continues to repeat the same day (which also happens to be the day she’s terrorized and murdered by a psycho killer in a creepy baby mask). Discovering and stopping the murderer in the first film ended the loop, but things are much more complicated this time around, because sequels.

Neither film would be much without the humor deployed by writer/director Christopher Landon. The movies can’t help but comment on the ridiculousness of the premise, and all the characters, especially Tree, have a vibrancy typically unseen in studio horror movies.

As in the original, Jessica Rothe is a breakout star here. Armed with impeccable comic timing and a perfect face of irritated exasperation, Rothe knows exactly how to sell this material, finding a good balance between goofy and earnest. The timeloopiness of the sequel also leads Tree to face some past emotional trauma, and Rothe handles this material with equal authenticity.

“Happy Death Day 2U’ barely qualifies as a slasher movie, as the baby-faced killer becomes a bit of an afterthought behind the newly infused science fiction. Those looking for horror thrills might be disappointed, but it’s not like many modern slashers can generate thrills without the crutch of buckets and buckets of blood anyway.

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In “Isn’t It Romantic?” Rebel Wilson (“Pitch Perfect”) gets trapped in the ultra-idealized world of a New York City-set romantic comedy. Her crummy apartment becomes gigantic, her new mega-closet suddenly fills with designer clothing and shoes, and the dashing new client at her architecture firm (who mistook her for a coffee girl the day before) has now fallen hopelessly in love with her.

That premise combined with the sharp comedic talents of Wilson seem like a natural fit, especially as Wilson’s R-rated Natalie realizes the romantic comedy she’s trapped in also happens to be PG-13.

Yet something fails to click in the first hour of director Todd Strauss-Schulson’s romantic-comedy-about-deconstructing-romantic comedies. While it points out several cliches of the genre, the movie doesn’t build much humor around those observations beyond the obvious. Wilson feels restrained for much of the movie, and the supporting characters don’t make any kind of comedic impression either.

The last half-hour works better, but oddly, that’s the part of “Isn’t It Romantic?” that operates more like a traditional romantic comedy. There are a couple of musical numbers in this final 30 minutes too… one of them sparks the movie alive for the home stretch, but the other plays out like an afterthought (to be fair, it does occur over the end credits).

Wilson has the chops to be a breakout comedic lead, but “Isn’t It Romantic?” is unfortunately too uneven to push her quite into that next level just yet.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com