The main idea of Death gives you Congratulations, where a protagonist gets stuck in time, having to repeat the same 24 hours every day, is already well beat. But when interpreted in an original way, it is very entertaining. They have already mixed that concept with the genre of comedy (as in Bill Murray’s time-honored movie Time Warp), with the genre of science fiction (as in No Limit of Tomorrow, played by Tom Cruise) , or even with the experimental genre (as in Corra Lola Corra, with Franka Potente). Now it was the turn of Death gives you Congratulations to have your own rereading with the genre of terror.
And it was not any kind of terror chosen by writer Scott Lobdell (known for his work on X-Men), but that of the slasher style (which has the 1996 film Panic as his most recent success example). The fact that terror titles of this type have not been much explored since then give this new production the originality it needs to make a difference. But your success does not stop there.
The film tells the story of Tree Gelbman, played by Jessica Roth, an unfriendly and arrogant person who is forced to experience the same 24 hours before his murder, repeatedly. Always waking up in the bed of a boy he does not know but who believes that he had had sexual intercourse while intoxicated, Tree shows his contempt for others when he despises the boy, who seems genuinely interested in her.
Characters like this always die at the beginning of any horror film, from Tubarão, directed by Steven Spielberg, where a young woman who demonstrates her sexuality ends up eating shark food, or Panic herself, where the character played by Drew Barrymore dies shortly after flirting with phone with a man you do not know.
And here is the movie’s most successful choice: Tree, who would die early in any horror movie, gets a fresh chance to redeem himself. In this way, each time she wakes up, she has the chance to become a better person (of course, always with the difficulty of knowing that she will die at the end of the day).
The film, however, is not perfect. For example, the acting of many of the secondary characters leaves much to be desired, being difficult to believe in them at all the moment. Some scenes are repeated so much that they are monotonous. Others are beaten and easy to predict. Even so, the feature, which has hints of comedy and terror in the right measure, manages to keep the interest and attention of the public.
In addition, the mix of genres does not stop in terror. In the movie you can find moments that recall detective titles where the protagonist tries to unravel the secret (in the case, who killed her), romantic comedy movies (yes, the boy that Tree sees whenever he wakes up, predictably becomes his love ), and still action (which features scenes of exaggerated explosions that resemble movies of the 80s). And it is with this mixture of genres that Death gives you congratulations becomes original and fun.
(article translated from the original version in portuguese, by Google Translate)