Blumhouse’s spunky time-loop thriller Happy Death Day plays like a CW-ized Edge Of Tomorrow rehash with the heart of Scream Queens – except, like, totally without self-awareness. Whether Christopher Landon’s vision takes itself too seriously, not serious enough or just plain skimps on horror, Scott Lobdell’s story is basic with a capital “Blah.” That’s not to say fun isn’t had, it’s just all a collegiate Mean Girls schtick that never matches up to university slaughterers like Sorority Row. For a movie about temporal anomalies and never-ending birthday horrors, there’s something unjustly mundane about a glorified slasher drama without the decency to get wild with kills. Not that its PG-13 rating would dare show such bloodshed anyway…

Jessica Rothe stars as Tree Gelbman, a Kappa sorority girl who wakes up in Carter Davis’ (Israel Broussard) dumpy dorm room after yet another drunken blackout. She scurries...