Taking place immediately after the first film, Ryan (Phi Vu) has been working on a new quantum reactor at school. Unfortunately for him and his friends, Samar (Suraj Sharma) and Dre (Sarah Yarkin), their project gets shut down. Suddenly, Ryan gets murdered, only to wake up reliving the same day again, much like what happened before. After Tree (Jessica Rothe) brings him and Carter (Israel Broussard) up to speed, they agree to help Ryan. They manage to stop the killer, but through a series of events, the reactor is triggered and everyone’s knocked out. Tree ends up waking up back in Carter’s bed reliving the events of the last movie, only things are different. Turns out Ryan’s reactor somehow got Tree stuck in an alternate dimension, and she needs to get back. With the help of Ryan and his friends, Tree must return to her dimension while avoiding the killer.

Without getting into spoilers, I’ll first address the fact that this movie is more science-fiction than horror. While there is a killer on the loose and there are some intense moments, there’s very little horror here. That said, the first one combined horror, comedy, and drama, so it doesn’t seem that out of place. For the most part, this movie has more sci-fi and comedy elements, mostly in the form of slapstick. Some of it does fall flat, but most of it works thanks largely to the talented cast. Much like the last film, Jessica Rothe is easily the highlight here, thanks to her energy and charisma. Also like before, she really sells both the funnier moments and the more dramatic moments she has. The rest of the cast also does their job well, though they’re not quite as strong as Rothe.

Returning director Christopher Landon also takes over writing duties, and he takes the story in some interesting directions. It seems like he wanted to make more of a Back to the Future type film than straight horror. Thankfully, the film is written in a way to where it respects the continuity of the first film. This really does feel like a sequel that the people involved wanted to make rather than just a cash-in. While I wasn’t too put off by the lack of horror elements, I can see some people being disappointed. That said, this is a much smarter and more inventive follow-up than you would usually get. Plus, I can respect their decision to go in a whole new direction rather than just retreading the same ground. Overall, while not as fresh or frightening as the previous film, Happy Death Day 2U is still a good time.