Happy Birthday to Me [Blu-ray]

Overview

Certainly the low point in Glenn Ford's acting career, this Canadian production is, nevertheless, one of the slickest-looking slasher films from that subgenre's early-'80s heyday. The plot (what one can make of it) involves an unseen killer stalking a group of college students at the prestigious Crawford Academy. The well-staged murders are mysteriously linked to the slightly off-kilter Virginia (Melissa Sue Anderson, formerly of Little House on the Prairie), whose disturbing past holds the key to the killer's identity. Though this film brought nothing new to the psycho-horror field, it did feature one of the more interesting ad campaigns of the period. One-sheets loudly boasted, "Six of the most bizarre murders you've ever seen!" and barred all late-arriving patrons from entering the theater during the final ten minutes (a promotional stunt stolen from Psycho). This hype proved less than apropos since the murders in question are not particularly bizarre or original (aside from the shish-kabob impalement depicted in the ads), and the film's climax is so painfully contrived that latecomers may be more able to comprehend it than those bemused viewers who watched the film from the beginning.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/15/2019
UPC:	0683904633545
Original Release:	1981
Rating:	R
Source:	Sony Pictures Home
Language:	English
Time:	1:50:00
Sales rank:	23,682

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Melissa Sue Anderson	Virginia
Glenn Ford	Dr. Faraday
Lawrence Dane	Hal,Hal
Tracy Bregman	Ann,Ann
Jack Blum	Alfred
Matt Craven	Steve
Lenore Zann	Maggie
David Eisner	Rudi
Lisa Langlois	Amelia
Frances Hyland	Mrs. Patterson
Sharon Acker	Estelle
Michel Rene LaBelle	Etienne
Richard Rabiere	Greg
Lesleh Donaldson	Bernadette
Earl Pennington	Lt. Tracy
Murray Westgate	Gatekeeper
Jerome Tiberghien	Prof. Heregard
Maurice Pedbrey	Dr. Feinblum
Vlasta Vrana	Bartender
Griffith Brewer	Verger
Alan Katz	Ann's Date
Ron Lea	Amelia's Date
Terry Haig	Feinblum's Assistant
Karen Stephen	Miss Calhoun
Louis Del Grande	Surgeon
Nick Kilvertus	Anesthetist
Damir Andrei	Junior Surgeon
Gina Dick	Waitress
Stephanie Miller	Nurse
Steven Mayoff	Police
Aram Barkev	Conventioneer
Alan Barnett	Conventioneer
Paul Board	Conventioneer
Marc Degagne	Conventioneer
Bruce Gooding	Conventioneer
Victor Knight	Conventioneer
Rollie Nicheri	Conventioneer
Keith Sutherland	Conventioneer
Herbert Vool	Conventioneer
Len Watt	Conventioneer
Joe Wertheimer	Conventioneer
Walter Massey	Conventioneer
Karen Hynes	Cheerleader
Tracy Marie Langdon	Cheerleader
Debbie McGellin	Cheerleader
Kathy Reid	Cheerleader
Cori Timmons	Cheerleader
Debbie Tull	Cheerleader
Lynn Wilson	Cheerleader
Richard Rebiere	Greg
Bo Harwood	Composer
Lance Rubin	Composer

Technical Credits

John Saxton

Timothy Bond

Peter Jobin

John Beaird

John Dunning	Producer
Andre Link	Producer
J. Lee Thompson	Director
Stewart Harding	Producer
John Saxton	Screenwriter
Timothy Bond	Screenwriter
Peter Jobin	Screenwriter
John Beaird	Screenwriter
Richard Lightstone	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Happy Birthday to Me stands out from the slasher movie pack of the early '80s because it pushes all the genre's elements to absurd heights. The murders, plot twists, and, especially, the last-minute revelations that are dished up in the final reel don't just deny credibility, they outright defy it. However, this quality doesn't make Happy Birthday to Me unwatchable. In fact, this film can be quite entertaining if viewed in the proper tongue-in-cheek frame of mind. The background performances suffer from the thin characterizations they are saddled with, but the lead performances are quite good. Melissa Sue Anderson wisely plays the material straight and comes off quite sympathetic, and Glenn Ford's solid work as Dr. Faraday lends the film a much-needed element of credibility. Behind the camera, J. Lee Thompson allows the pace to be a bit too slack, but brings an old-fashioned "studio director" sense of polish to the material and stages the film's show-stopping murder scenes with gruesome aplomb. Most importantly, the screenwriters work overtime to create a story line that will keep viewers guessing, despite its often ridiculous excesses, and pepper it with plenty of solid shocks (squeamish viewers should beware the infamous shish-kebab scene). The end result is often quite silly, but anyone with a soft spot for 1980s horror will find it difficult to take their eyes off the screen. Ultimately, Happy Birthday to Me is probably a little too over-the-top and relaxed in its pacing for most modern audiences, but it provides an interesting history lesson for new horror fans who think the slasher genre begins with Scream.

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