Today's a special day here, Happy Horror faithful (you ARE still out there, aren't you?). Today, July 17th, is Red Hawk's birthday! And so, for a special day like today, I thought I'd cover one of the more obscure "holiday" style fright flicks out there, 1981's slasher special Happy Birthday to Me. How does the film hold up to 22 years of age? In the immortal words of Mr. Owl, let's find out!
The film starts with a young woman, Bernadette, being stopped by Mrs. Patterson, the head of the school she's attending, Crawford Academy, when she trips on Mrs. Patterson's dog's leash. It seems that Bernadette belongs to a group called the Crawford Top Ten, and she's heading to a local bar to meet up with the other nine members. After excusing herself from Mrs. Patterson's company, she walks down to a dark alleyway nearby to get in her car. As she gets in and starts up her car, a pair of hands come from behind her and start trying to strangle her, eventually pulling her into the back seat. She manages to get away once she opens the rear door with her foot, but ultimately falls prey to the unseen to the audience (but recognized by her) killer. Thus begins a series of murders, each disposing of another member of the Top Ten.
This was the first time I've gotten a chance to watch this movie. I've owned it since 2009, and have thought about covering it every year, but stuff got in the way... either other plans came up, or I couldn't find the movie itself to watch, something seemed to always get in the way of me watching and reviewing this film. Well, this year I made sure I knew exactly where the film was when it was time to get it started. So, what did I think of the film? I liked it. I enjoyed it alot. Some of the death scenes were pretty creative, and the film kept you guessing as to who the murderer was and who would be the next villain, right up till the end with an ending that almost nobody saw coming.
Cast-wise, we have an interesting run. Playing our main woman, Virginia, is Melissa Sue Anderson of Little House on the Prairie fame. She was also in a 1986 TV movie, Dark Mansions, a couple episodes of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and in 2006's 10.5: Apocalypse. Glenn Ford played Ginny's psychiatrist, Dr. Faraday. A screen legend with quite a number of film credits to his name, including Experiment in Terror, Superman, and 1980's Virus, a Japanese post-apocalyptic film where he portrayed the president. Lisa Langlois played Amelia. She also played in 1980's Phobia, as well as 1982's Class of 1984 and killer rat film Deadly Eyes.
All in all, I give this movie a 5 out of 5. It's interesting to look back at some of the somewhat lesser known films and see how they stack up to some of their contemporaries, and this one definitely was up there with the slasher mysteries of the same time period. Thanks for reading my review, take care, and this is Red Hawk signing out!
