Freaky director Christopher Landon's Happy Death Day franchise is a rare series beloved by both horror and rom-com fans alike for its unique premise, but how many times does series heroine Tree (Jessica Rothe) die in Happy Death Day and its sequel Happy Death Day 2 U? Released in 2017, Happy Death Day was a low-budget horror-comedy with a killer hook. Thanks to its ingeniously simple genre-fusing conceit, the movie went on to become a runaway success and spawned a sequel in the form of 2019's more sci-fi oriented Happy Death Day 2 U.
Happy Death Day tells the funny, scary, and surprisingly sweet tale of Tree, a hard-partying college girl who wakes up after being killed by a masked murderer only to relieve her eponymous death day repeatedly. She's trapped in a time loop, continually searching to discover the identity of her killer. The franchise’s two movies mine the premise for all it's worth and both won critical acclaim as a result, with Happy Death Day 2 U avoiding the sophomore slump via a lot of multiverse-hopping sci-fi additions.
Trapped in a Groundhog Day-style loop, Tree ends up reliving her death over and over and, after some soul searching, finds not only her killer but also herself. There’s also a genuinely charming romantic subplot featuring To All the Boys I Loved Before scene-stealer as Tree's well-meaning love interest, Israel Broussard. That said, both movies are anchored by central performances from breakout star Jessica Rothe. As Tree, Rothe combines world-weary sass with superb comic timing, keeping proceedings funny despite her character’s countless deaths. And there really are plenty of them, with Tree’s deaths alone bringing the body count of the Happy Death Day series higher than most Friday the 13th installments.
So, how many times does Tree actually die in the two Happy Death Day movies? According to Rothe herself, viewers don’t necessarily see all of her character’s many Happy Death Day 2 U deaths, whereas the audience is privy to every demise she endures in the first movie. Whatever the case, Tree dies onscreen 11 times in the first Happy Death Day and a comparatively demure and bloodless eight times in the movie's less horror-centered and more sci-fi focused sequel.
As both Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U are PG-13 - and great horror movies, despite the much-maligned rating - the majority of Tree’s Happy Death Day death scenes are relatively bloodless stabbings. Five of them, to be exact, one via bong. The rest is accounted for by one drowning, one car explosion, one poisoning, one hanging, and one instance of being flattened by a bus. The more adventurous deaths of Happy Death Day 2 U, in comparison, see her endure two deadly falls, electrocution, another explosion, drinking bleach, a dive into a woodchopper, a parachute-free jump from a plane, and another car crash, although a lot of these are accounted for by a rapid-fire death montage that Tree undertakes voluntarily, Edge of Tomorrow style. While Happy Death Day 3 has been discussed, it's unknown what that will mean for Tree - and her death count - in the franchise's future.