Synopsis
Virginia is proud that she belongs to a clique. The best students at a private school. But before her 18th birthday, a gruesome set of murders take place and her friends are the ones who are falling prey. Could it be her? She suffers from blackouts due to a freak accident one year earlier. We soon learn the truth behind her accident and what is going on.
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Cast
- Melissa Sue AndersonVirginia Wainwright
- Glenn FordDr. David Faraday
- Lawrence DaneHal Wainwright
- Sharon AckerEstelle Wainwright
- Frances HylandMrs. Patterson
- Tracey E. BregmanAnn Thomerson
- Jack BlumAlfred Morris
- Matt CravenSteve Maxwell
- Lenore ZannMaggie
- David EisnerRudi
- 40
Washington Post
This film will be a treat for those to whom the highlight of the dramatic season so far was "Friday the 13th, Part 2." [15 May 1981, p.19] - 30
The New York Times
As written by a gang of three totally confused writers and directed, without apparent style, by J. Lee Thompson, it's a mystery-horror movie with a fatal flaw - the denouement, in which a half-dozen grisly murders are explained, requires almost as much footage as the murders themselves. - 30
Washington Post
Happy Birthday to Me is a cheesy tease from the outset. The opening sequence entraps the first victim, then allows her to escape, then entraps her again and allows her to escape again. By the time the filmmakers get around to making a murder scene stick, you're already fed up with their methodology and wondering why the movie wasn't called something like "The Coed With Nine Lives." [15 May 1981, p.F4] - 25
TV Guide Magazine
Another dull slasher movie (this one less gory than most). - 10
Variety
Certainly, there’s nothing to be said for the acting, direction or story, which is monumentally stupid, dependant throughout on a frail girl to kill and carry the bodies away so they can’t be found, taking time out along the way to dog up a casket and haul away the contents. In her film debut, Melissa Sue Anderson clumsily carries the suspense of whether she is or isn’t the killer, with director J. Lee Thompson helping her with clouds of confusion that just get dumber and dumber until the fitful finale.
