Happy Birthday To Me (1981)

Because of the bizarre nature of this birthday party, pray you're not invited.

Welcome to Day 3 of 31 in my 31 Days of Horror...Reviews!

Let's look at the poster for a second, see the top where it says John?  There is no one named John in this movie, meaning this John person isn't the guy that gets shish kebab'd.  Let's start!

"Say hello to George"

We open with a girl, Bernadette, leaving her dorm when she bumps into one of her teachers, Mrs. Patterson, who tells her she needs to be back by midnight.  Bernadette is going to a meeting of the Top Ten, which is a group of wealthy and popular students who meet every night at a pub.  After leaving Mrs. Patterson, Bernadette heads to her car and is about to leave when hands wrap around her neck, she manages to escape.  She runs into someone she knows, but we don't see who it is, and it's the killer who kills her.  At the pub we meet, Ginny, our main character, and the rest of the Top Ten club, they end up getting into an argument with some old guys and get booted out.

They then play this game, where they jump a draw bridge, it ends up freaking Ginny out, so she runs out of the car and ends up in a graveyard.  In the graveyard is where her mother, Estelle, is buried, she then heads home, where her father, Hal, is waiting up for her.  They have an argument over Ginny going to her mothers grave, but eventually make up, Ginny heads upstairs and starts undressing for a bath.  Etienne, a member of the Top Ten club, has climbed through her window and steals her panties, however Ginny never sees him.  The next morning, the Top Ten gathers in  Biology class for a lecture from Mrs. Patterson, who I assume is the dean of Crawford Academy, she leaves and class starts. 

"A guinea pig?"

While the teacher is lecturing them, a red light suddenly takes over Ginny's face and we are transported to a lab where test are being done on a younger Ginny.  What?  Ginny is then in a room with her therapist, David, in present day, and he is telling her about Salamanders.  So Ginny is a Salamander?  No, but seriously I am really confused right now.  Apparently she was an experiment,  she is starting to remember being an experiment, and they keep talking about an accident, but she doesn't remember it yet.  After her session she heads to some type of dirt bike race, which Etienne wins, Ginny goes to congratulate him, he pulls out her panties from his shirt.  She gets pissed and leaves, while all this is happening Alfred, another member of Top Ten is stalking them, could I assume he is the killer? 

The Top Ten then start getting killed off one by one, Etienne gets killed by his scarf, and Greg by his weights.  Ginny ends up agreeing to meet up with Rudi at a church, on his way there he hides something in a bush.  At the church, he ends up pulling a knife out, and we fade away to blood drops.  We then see Ginny running to David's, meaning she probably killed Rudi, and may be the killer.  She starts remembering the experimenting again, and them cutting open her skull, then she starts screaming at David to help her.  The next day the cops show up and they are all questioned about everyone, the cops find Etienne's scarf in the bush's, which I can assume is what Rudi was hiding.

Ginny stays in the library, while everyone rushes outside to see what the police are digging up, when Rudi pops up alive!  They head out and we find out the cops discovered a skull, but it's a fake, property of Crawford Academy.  Later that night they get high in the school pool area, when Ginny sees a girl drowning, but the girls faking, still Ginny ends up running off to her mothers grave.  Alfred ended up following her, and we see Ginny stab him with a pair of gardening shears, so she is the killer?  The next day Hal has to leave, and we find out it's Ginny's birthday on Sunday, which her dad wont be making because he has to leave.  That night the gang, or what's left of the gang, goes to the schools dance, Ginny ends up leaving with Steve and heading back to her place. 

"I killed her"

Ginny makes shish kebab's and she feeds Steve, leading to her sticking the shish kebab down his throat killing him.  The next morning, Ann arrives and asks about Steve, which Ginny doesn't remember, Ginny throws the keys down, and Ann comes in while Ginny goes to take a shower.  In the shower, Ginny gets flashbacks of the day of the accident, on her birthday her mom invited the 6 that are dead, none of them show up, because there was a party at Ann's house.  Her mom drives over and they are not let in which leads to her mom going over the draw bridge and they end up getting stuck between the lifting bridge and fall in.  This is actually a funny scene as we see the car fall from several different angle and in each angle the car falls on it's roof, but in the final angle it lands straight down, not on the roof.

Ginny manages to escape the car, and we are taken back to real time, where we see Ann dead in the bath tub.  David eventually shows up, Ann tells him that she killed Ann and that she is up in the bath tub, David drags her up to the shower, and Ann isn't there.  David tells her she's imagining it because they are attached to the accident thing, she ends up killing him with a fire poker.  Her dad actually manages to make it home for her birthday, unlike the day of the accident, he heads up to Ginny's room and discovers the blood splatter.  Ginny is no where to be seen and Hal heads out to look for her, he stumbles upon Amelia, another member of Top Ten, who is still alive, and David, who is dead.  He heads to the cottage, that is on they're property, and inside are the 6 that are dead, plus Estelle. 

"Happy Birthday to me"

Ginny comes into the room singing 'Happy Birthday' to herself holding her 18th Birthday cake.  Hal asks what he did wrong for her to end up like this, she doesn't like that and kills him.  Ginny heads over to Ann's body, and lifts her head up, and it's Ginny, huh?  Yes, the Ginny dressed as Ann is the real Ginny, while the killer Ginny is a doppelganger.  Turns out doppelganger is Ginny's sister, she then takes her face off, and she's Ann.  Ann is doing this because her dad cheated on her mom with Ginny's mom, and Ginny is actually Ann's dad's daughter, and Ginny is the reason Ann's mom left them.  Are you guys getting this? 

"What have you done?"

Ann then tells Ginny that she did all this so she could frame Ginny for the murders.  Ann rises the knife up to kill Ginny, but Ginny grabs for the knife and stabs Ann, killing her.  At that moment, the lieutenant that has been running this investigation walks in and asks Ginny what she's done?  The screen fades to black as Ginny singing 'Happy Birthday' plays us out.

The End.

 

Wow!  Where do I start with this movie?  I had no idea where this movie was going, and then when I thought I did, I still had no clue.  I still don't fully understand the reasoning behind the brain thing either.  The movie was good though, it had it's moments when it was slow and dragging at times, but the method of the killings were cool and I liked the twist ending.  Tell me what you think of the movie in the comments, on Twitter (@SilentToHughes) or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SilentToHughes).

Hope you all have a great night!