User Reviews

Poor Ginny. All she has ever wanted was to be popular. She tried to have a party once, but that didn't turn out so well. She invited the "Top 10", her academies richest and most sought after click to her party, only to be sorely denied. Ya see... one of the other "Top 10" girls was also having a party, so the rest just naturally followed. Ginny's hard boozing Momma didn't like that too much. Not only did she storm over to the girls house with daughter in tow, but she managed to get them both into a nasty little car accident that not only ended her life, but severely messed up her daughters life as well.

Never fear! After some experimental brain surgeries and a few repressed memories, Ginny has emerged years later as a beautiful young woman who managed to get into the "Top 10" after all!!! Hooray! There's just one little catch. Ginny's B-day is coming up again, but her fellow "Top 10" are disappearing one by one. Of course, as the viewer, we realize right away that they are each getting hacked to bits....but who's killing them all?? Could it be that whacko Rudi? Or how about that creepy Alfred? Or is it Ginny herself? "Happy Birthday to Me" emerges from the early 80's genre of horror films as one of the better movies out there. It may not be as gory as some of the others, but it does at least have some character development and some pretty creative death scenes going for it! And that Melissa Sue Anderson...what a looker!! For the DVD release, their has been some drastic change to the original soundtrack. Due to copyright issues, some funky disco music has been added (mostly in the beginning) where there was once only scary music. While many have ranted on and on in previous reviews about how deplorable this is.... for this reviewer it wasn't all that bad. Plus, it's really only in the beginning, which makes it bearable.

In addition, others claim how lame the ending of this movie is. While the ending is "unbelieveable" to say the least- when you have your Jasons, Michael Myers, and Freddy's running around without ever being able to stay put- who can really fault this little gem from its ironic twist of an ending. Sure it's phony, but it's also fun. And most of you will never see it coming. For fans of early 80's style horror, this really is a must see.

If an invitation should happen to present itself, this reviewer would recommend checking this party out!

When I first popped in Happy Birthday to Me, I checked the timer to see how long the film was. I was amazed at the length. Both animated and horror films share a common ground: attention span of the selected audience and that should be at or right around 90 minutes. Anything more, and you'll lose the bulk of your audience.

This 110 minutes, or 20 minutes past its prime was a huge problem for me. I'd like to say half of this movie could've been edited out, but I would be too generous to say that. Go ahead and watch it and tell me how many scenes could've been edited, even without being a film major.

Regardless of the overstayed visit, the movie was below mediocre. It spent all of its time trying to be this huge mystery on which of the "elite 10" is killing off the remaining friends. For the most part, they not only over-do it, but they zoom in on a face and pretty much say "It's this guy! No! It's this gal!" You'll spend more time with the camera misleading you than actually enjoying the movie. And don't get me started on the acting.

Okay, that got me started. I had to laugh in the beginning trying to remember if Melissa Sue Anderson played the character that went blind on Little House on the Prairie (later, research proved my suspicions correct) because all the way through this movie, she genuinely looked blind. Strange, as an established actress, she should've been the best of the group, but turned out the worst. The rest of the staff, aside from Ann (Bregman) was pretty damn bad, too, but she, uh, took the cake.

The movie begins with a group of ten friends, and one's immediately killed off. Barely anyone thinks twice of this "dear" friend's disappearance, so they continue on their merry way. Slowly, then more rapidly, there are revelations about Virginia's (Anderson), the main character, past and her psychologist, who's a tad bit more personal (AND ON CALL 24/7, apparently) than most shrinks. All the while, more and more deaths occur.

What's funny is, just as the first "disappearance," the more "best buds" vanish, the less the rest care. Sure, they give a few seconds of air time to say "Wow, (that person) just wouldn't run off" etc, but then they're back to their sexual ways. And speaking of which, it's probably due to the horrid script, or maybe it was I who was losing interest at minute 30, but it was really hard to keep up with who liked who of the group as they all seemed to be sexual partners of the next or someone would either be freaked out to the MAX by another and best friends the next scene. SEE: the creepy guy that kept a mouse/rat in his pocket – literally – and was the most obvious suspect. I'm giving the film too much credit (and time,) but how he became part of the "elite 10" I'll never know.

But, I digress, there's a mystery here. Why are these kids targets? Why is Virginia thinking she's killed someone, when it was never proved ('till the end) that any of them actually has been slaughtered? And why would the trailer and poster claim these killings to be "Six of the most bizarre murders you will ever see"? Hell, even for 1981, most of these had been shown in any of the first two Friday the 13th films – coincidentally enough, Friday the 13th Part 2 was released 2 weeks to the day of Happy Birthday to Me. Perhaps, they're speaking of when they filmed it months prior, but were late to the, well, party.

When the "secrets" are revealed, trust me, you'll have to rewind 3-4x to actually get the laughable and incoherent motives, and even then, put the subtitles on to get all the mumbling victim/killer's words. Even if you get the first time, it's an unbelievably outrageous and hilarious finale. It's almost worth watching the whole movie again, but as a drinking game.

This birthday gathering should be avoided. It's a horrible and illogical first draft script – please, please know it takes multiple rewrites before the cameras role, it contains either way under acting or extreme over acting and it's 100% unrealistic on how people react in extraordinary circumstances.

Side Note: When I was a kid, or say 10-11 years old, I loved horror films. (Still do, oddly. Definite guilty pleasures, but they are getting harder and harder to watch as years pass.) We got our first VCR, and I taped as many horror films off network (or, EDITED VERSIONS) TV. All I remember of Happy Birthday to Me is getting the last 10 minutes on tape, which scared me to death – and obviously gave away the big mystery on who the killer was. Even though I have seen other clips of this movie, I think this is the first full-length viewing I've had. Thankfully, this awful movie didn't wound me as a child. I am older now, and I can take this trash. But never again.

Side Note 2: That said, that crazy "Happy Birthday to Me" song played in the end credits (and as a score throughout) still creeps me out tremendously. I guess, this movie (or last few minutes,) did have an influence on my childhood. Shame on you, Melissa Sue Anderson!

Virginia Wainwright is a new student at Crawford Academy and she's part of a wealthy group of close friends that are known as the top 10. There's one secret that these friends don't know about Virginia and that's she survived an accident, which her mother died. After trying resume a normal happy life she starts getting flashbacks of her ordeal and also spells of unconsciousness. While, this is suddenly happening the number of her friends in the group are getter smaller, as they disappear one by one. The authorities are clueless and Virginia starts to suspect herself being involved.

Right-o, what a bluff! Well, now this film does leave you with a lot on mind, I guarantee you. Maybe it was too clever and overdone for it owns good, because I was quite liking up until it came to its dawdling final half-an-hour which gets the better of it by catering an climax that's all bit too silly. Abient it's more than surprising and ominous, but hardly plausible. The sudden, sombre ending was nicely staged, though. But that in mind, "Happy Birthday to Me" is an satisfying and well accomplished slasher that has a lot more going for it than most in its rancid field. Director J. Lee Thompson succeeds in giving the film a magnified touch of slickness, but also amongst the panache is some depth. Sure, it doesn't make sense at times and there are lapses aplenty, but they try for a little more detail around the mystery instead of a simple stalk and slash vehicle. Even the pacing isn't that tedious in the first hour, with enough going on in the sub-plots to keep your interest before the next brutal murder. These nasty murders are shockingly enterprising with a real cruel streak that takes effect in the dying stages of the story. They're rather blood soaked deaths with some red paint here and there. But obviously it's been cut down to brief glimpses, but still it has its unpleasant moments within the decent body count. It may not cop out on the frequent violence, but nudity, there isn't ounce of it.

The story by John Saxon provides enough twists and turns, by throwing the usual red herrings around (which are rather effectively done) and providing some psychological edge (which doesn't always come off). It does play around with idea that the main lead might have more to do with it then she knows with the latter half of the flick filled with meaningful flashbacks and a change in personality that we see, but her friends don't. But really underneath that irregular subtext is just another systematic pattern we see in most slashers with obnoxious teens that fit the same old sitting ducks, ah I mean stereotypes, but here it's handled better. Though, the conclusion is totally bananas with a motive that's pure hokum. You'll think you got it figured and BOOM! There you go. The lead girl might be confused to what's going on but also the viewer is in the same boat too. Also surprisingly the script is efficiently stable with pinch of peculiar humour and the performances are more than adequate. Melissa Sue Anderson shines as Virginia and Glenn Ford adds a touch class as her doctor. On show is a nice looking teen cast too.

Director Thompson orchestrates some well-rounded tension in certain sections and paints a forbidding atmosphere to proceedings. He knows how to work in some great visual jabs and some extensively staged stunt action, but there was some pointless dragging in third act. It became rather laboured where the running time should've been cut down. The feature nearly runs for two hours, but here there wasn't enough in the material to hold for that long. The editing was swift, but it could've done without certain scenes. If so it could have been an incredibly taut piece throughout, rather than in blotches. The compact camera-work has some neat fixes in building on the mood and disorientating nature of it all. Like many of its kind you got the killer cam. Backing it up is a strong soundtrack and a rather haunting theme song. Some recent slashers owe a lot to this flicks format and I reasonably enjoyed this slasher that I would rank it as one of the better ones, especially from the flooded 80s.

Above-average slasher that doesn't set the world on fire, but delivers a ludicrous outing with more depth and style to boot.

Always looking for horror films that I haven't seen. Stumbled onto this one tonight. Melissa Sue Anderson....from Little House on The Prairie? In a horror film?

This movie managed to keep my interest even though some of it is borderline ridiculous. The first scene after the girl had been attacked, she manages to run only 10 feet away and then stop and cry about the experience. Maybe should have ran a little farther after such an incident? Maybe kept running? Along with this was the crazy ending that was practically straight out of a bad soap opera storyline.

Again, I found most of it amusing and it was worth the watch for me. 6 Stars.