Happy Birthday to Me (1981)

At the snobby Crawford Academy, Virginia's group of friends start to go missing years after horrible events that happened to her as a child around her birthday.

Director:

J. Lee Thompson

Writers:

John C.W. Saxton (screenplay) (as John Saxton), Peter Jobin (screenplay)

Stars:

Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Melissa Sue Anderson	...	Virginia Wainwright
Glenn Ford	...	Dr. David Faraday
Lawrence Dane	...	Hal Wainwright
Sharon Acker	...	Estelle Wainwright
Frances Hyland	...	Mrs. Patterson
Tracey E. Bregman	...	Ann Thomerson (as Tracey Bregman)
Jack Blum	...	Alfred Morris
Matt Craven	...	Steve Maxwell
Lenore Zann	...	Maggie
David Eisner	...	Rudi
Lisa Langlois	...	Amelia
Michel-René Labelle	...	Etienne Vercures (as Michel Rene Labelle)
Richard Rebiere	...	Greg Hellman
Lesleh Donaldson	...	Bernadette O'Hara
Earl Pennington	...	Lieutenant Tracy

Storyline

Virginia Wainwright is a spirited young woman who has returned to a private school having survived a deadly accident and regenerative brain surgery. She is proud that she belongs to the Top Ten - the school's inner circle with the best students - and attempts to resume a normal life. But her friends are falling prey to a grueling series of murders, and soon there will be no one left to attend her 18th birthday party. Could it be her? Striving to rekindle the memory of her nightmarish accident, Virginia suffers from memory loss and traumatic blackouts. We soon learn the horrible truth behind her accident and what is going on before her birthday party...

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Plot Keywords:

victim invited to dinner | video nasty | psychotronic film | canuxploitation | slasher | 

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Taglines:

You're invited to the bloodiest party of the year.

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Though the setting is never mentioned in the film, the script for Happy Birthday to Me has it taking place in a town called Exeter, Massachusetts. The location is fictional.

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Goofs

Virginia remembers a car hitting the water upside down. We are shown this memory several times in quick succession, but in the final shot of that succession, the car is right side up.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mrs. Patterson: [to her attacking dog] Winston! Winston! Winston, just stop it, bad boy. Sit down. Sit!
Bernadette O'Hara: Oh, Mrs. Patterson.
Mrs. Patterson: Bernadette O'Hara, do you have any idea what time it is? Where are you going?
Bernadette O'Hara: Well, I, I was just going up to the village to meet some of the kids at the inn.
Mrs. Patterson: You mean the second home for the Crawford top 10, don't you?

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Alternate Versions

UK cinema and 1986 RCA/Columbia video releases were culled from a longer print with slightly gorier footage of the weight-lift and shish kebab death scenes. The DVD releases are the edited R-rated version.

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Connections

Featured in The Cinema Snob: Happy Birthday to Me (2020)

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Soundtracks

Happy Birthday to Me
Music by Lance Rubin
Lyrics by Molly-Ann Leikin
Performed by Syreeta
Courtesy of Motown Records

User Reviews

Nicely done

This is the story of Ginny, the aftermath of a car accident she was involved in and that cause her mother's death. It all started going bad before that, divorced parents, living with an abusive mother, Ginny wasn't popular, didn't have any friends, all in all a childhood to forget. Due to the car accident, she undergone extensive brain surgery, the consequence was frequent blackouts. Once at the Crawford Academy, she finally started getting along with the popular kids but not for long because they all started to mysteriously disappear. Who's to blame, are Ginny's blackouts related to this events??

I consider this to be a very good slasher movie. The cast is as good as it gets in this genre. The killings are original and imaginative. The death of Dr. David Faraday (Glenn Ford) is particularly bloody and Ginny's brain surgery is also pretty graphic and worth watching. The only negative aspect is the exaggerated amount of "twists", it is a good plot but taken a little to far in my opinion. Still a must watch slasher.

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Movie Channel [United States]

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 May 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Happy Birthday to Me

Filming Locations:

Concordia University, 7141 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest Montréal, QC H4B 1R6 Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD3,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), Famous Players, The Birthday Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1