Like most of you probably are, I have been thinking a lot about Groundhog Day lately. Being stuck inside seemingly living the same day on repeat has become something of an obsession of mine lately because of current events.
Upon revisiting the film in several guises over the last few weeks I’ve come to have a newfound appreciation of the trope of The Groundhog Day and some of the lessons that we can learn as writers from the piece if we wanted to tackle penning our own version of the looped day narrative.
Today we’ll be looking at Happy Death Day and what we can learn from its structure if you wanted to write your own version of A Groundhog Day.
ACT I – EMBODIMENT OF EGO
At the beginning of a narrative your protagonist starts with a strong and dominant EGO. It is not necessarily that this is a wholly negative trait, but it is something which is holding them back from becoming a fully actualised version of themselves. This is then accompanied by a powerful EGO DEFENCE which is stropping them from growing beyond the person that they are at the moment when the audience first meet them.
It is within the repetition of the looped day that our protagonist is confronted with their imperfection and therefore develop and grow. They have to finally challenge the egocentric being that they have become and develop beyond some of the more poisonous behaviours that they exhibit because of it.
As Groundhog Day screenwriter Danny Rubin said during a panel at the Austin Film Festival:
“…what I thought was interesting was just the process of repetition caused him to go through these big changes in the way he looked at his life and that included his coming around to losing his ego and starting to notice other people and trying to join civilization instead of prove himself to it.”
Everything about the ORDINARY WORLD which your protagonist inhabits allows for them to exist in this egocentric state. For example, in Happy Death Day, Tree is deceitful, ungrateful, spiteful and appears to be proud of some of her more questionable behaviours. As the number two in her sorority she is there as an enforcer of the status quo and is quite happy to fulfil that role and enjoy the privileges it affords her. All of these things assist in keeping people at arm’s length from her so that she doesn’t have to form lasting and meaningful relationships.
As the narrative progresses this defence that your protagonist has in place is gradually weakened and then finally broken down.
The Journey
During their journey in the ADVENTURE WORLD your protagonist will transition through four stages of change. These are:
Physical, Emotional, Psychological and Spiritual
As your protagonist passes through each of these stages it becomes increasingly harder for them to continue moving forward in their desire to break the loop without further opening themselves up to the possibility of changing a fundamental part of who they are.
Currently though, your protagonist is not stuck in their loop, or is unaware that they are in it and are therefore not concerned about their need to change.
However, their CALL TO ADVENTURE comes and they are now thrust into THE ADVENTURE WORLD or have an understanding that this is where they were stuck when we first met them. Importantly for us, they go forward towards…
ACT II – PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATION
In this ACT our protagonist moves into their ADVENTURE WORLD. This place is the antithesis of somewhere where our protagonist’s Ego can exist comfortably, and their previous defences are now a hindrance to them.
In A GROUNDHOG DAY this transition must take our protagonist into the worst day possible for them. With Tree in Happy Death Day this is initially represented by her waking up in the dorm room of this nerdy guy who she doesn’t know the name of. Importantly though it is also her birthday which we will come to learn has a huge amount of significance to the relationship that she has with her family.
Our protagonists realise that something is strange and start to come to terms that they are stuck in a loop. Initially they will attempt to solve the problem that they face in the most direct way possible which involves doubling down on their egocentric identity in the face of the challenge to it.
In Happy Death Day, after the initial shock of waking up in the same day and changing some superficial physical behaviours Tree still continues to betray her sorority sister and act in the same way as she did on her first navigation of the loop.
Eventually our protagonist must accept that they are stuck in their loop and have to begin to invest in their journey, first by trying increasingly extreme measures to alter their physical route that they take through their “day” in the hope of escaping it. At one-point Tree barricades herself inside her room in an attempt to stop the murderer being able to get to her.
However, all of these attempts to thwart the loop fail and she is still doomed to repeat the same day over and over.
In frustration our protagonist realises that they have to try something different and transitions to…
ACT III – EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT
In A GROUNDHOG DAY narrative this emotional investment usually comes in our protagonist’s interaction with their MENTOR figure who they first met during their initial transition into the ADVENTURE WORLD but are yet to fully acknowledge that this will become a significant relationship to them.
In Tree’s case her mentor is Carter, the guy whose dorm she has been waking up in at the beginning of each of her loops.
In a similar way to THE ADVENTURE WORLD, Carter is the antithesis of those that Tree usually hangs around with. The interactions that she has with him allows for her to continue on her journey to defeat her ego, now with her looking to understand the emotional relationship that she has to her birthday which she is in the process of trying to run away from. Offering up his assistance he tries to get her to examine the connections that she has with those around her and gets her to reassess some of the more damaging assumptions that she has about herself and her behaviour. This culminates in her outlining a list of suspects who might be trying to kill her which has her reflect on how her past actions have impacted those around her.
Believing that she has done enough to break the loop, Tree also hits the MIDPOINT of the narrative and enacts her ‘easy plan’ of trying to tick off the list of those who she thinks might be her killer.
However, each and every one of them isn’t actually out to murder her and the stakes are now raised as we begin to understand that there aren’t unlimited loops that Tree has to be able to complete her mission. She has her I’ve only got so many of these left in me moment when she visits the hospital and understands the damage that this situation is doing to her body.
Tree then learns that simply emotionally understanding that there is something missing in her life isn’t enough and she moves into…
ACT IV – EXPLORE HER PSYCHOLOGY
During this ACT our protagonist dig deep into their vulnerabilities as they are now the most exposed that they have ever been having lost so much of their ego defences on their way to this point.
In the diner scene in Happy Death Day, Tree opens up about her mother and the fractured relationship that she has with her father. Furthermore, during this ACT she understands the key message of all Groundhog Days:
“You know it’s funny you relive the same day over and over again you start to see who you really are.”
This revelation coupled with a greater understanding of who the killer might be propels her into her ONE LAST DAY where Tree has to finally try and put her deamons to rest and confront her ego head on.
She is able to use all of the knowledge that she has gained in THE ADVENTURE WORLD to assist people who in the beginning of the narrative she either ignored or went out of her way to hurt. In healing herself, she is now able to begin assisting others in tearing down their own ego defences.
However, this is nothing compared to the FINAL BATTLE which will require her to fight through the part of her ego what she has yet to confront.
For Tree, this is attending the meal with her father and finally admitting her vulnerabilities and expose the truth about the hurt that her mother’s death caused her. In purging herself of her neurosis she is now finally able to at least partly let go of it.
With her inner journey complete, she is now able to attempt to finish her external journey and stop her murder that happens at the end of each of her loops.
However, in order to fulfil the conventions of the horror genre, in this instance of THE GROUNDHOG DAY there is a false resolution before the “true” one.
Now with the killer dealt with, we arrive at…
ACT V – SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION
Here Tree exhibits the traits which she has been cultivating since first challenged to grow when she entered into THE ADVENTURE WORLD and the GROUNDHOG DAY loop where she is able to showcase her spiritual acceptance of her new self. She also importantly looks back at her old life and the egocentric being that she was during ACT I with distain. This is necessary for us to understand how far she has come since we first met her.
She is then rewarded for changing with the promise of a new and exciting life outside of the loop.
Until she wakes up in the sequel…