Trivia / Happy Death Day

• Banned in China: Not the movie itself, but the shot of Tree's nude backside when she goes Streaking.
• Common Knowledge: It was widely thought that Tombs' first name was Joseph, with many articles, and even several wikis formerly referring to him as 'Joseph Tombs' despite being called 'John Tombs' in both the film and the end credits.
• Dawson Casting: The two leads were way past the ages they were supposed to be portraying, with Jessica Rothe already 30, and Ruby Modine being 27.
• Focus Group Ending: The ending of the film has Tree figure out who her killer is and get rid of them, finally breaking the loop she was stuck in. However, it was originally then going to have Mrs Butler, the wife of the professor Tree had an affair with, killing Tree, and this time either killing Tree for real this time or starting a new loop. Test audiences hated this ending because it ruined the happy feeling of success. That part of the ending was removed, and Tree was allowed to keep living and have a scene with Carter in a café.
• Logo Joke: To tie in with the movie's "Groundhog Day" Loop plot, the Universal Studios fanfare briefly skips for a few seconds before playing the fanfare proper.
• Method Acting: In the scene were Tree goes streaking, Jessica Rothe was actually naked during filming. She described it as a liberating experience because the female crew members were very supportive and helped cover her up so that nude photos of her would not leak out.
• Real-Life Relative: Rachel Matthews, who plays Danielle, is the niece of director Christopher Landon.
• Saved from Development Hell: Platinum Dunes announced Half to Death in 2007, hired Christopher Landon for rewrites, but nothing came out. Years later, Landon had lunch with the original producer, she reminded him of the project, so Landon brought it to Blumhouse Productions and the thing finally got into production, coming out a whole decade after the first announcement.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The scene after the killer dies was supposed to be in the sorority house. However, once it was time to shoot the filming permit in the campus was over, so Tree and Carter watch the fallout in a diner (which not only was in Los Angeles, far from the Louisiana location, but had also appeared in another Blumhouse production, Split).
• Throw It In!: Jessica Rothe improvised a few of her lines, most notably "Who takes their first date to Subway? It's not like you have a foot-long."
• What Could Have Been:
  • Megan Fox was considered to play Tree, and Michael Bay was also originally set to produce.
  • The killer originally wore a pig mask, most likely changed to deviate from Blumhouse's The Purge sequels that also depict serial killers dressed like pigs.
  • Originally, there were two killers, with Gregory Butler working alongside Lori to murder Tree. Landon wasn't fond of this idea and had it removed from the final draft.
  • In the scene where Tree is drowned, she would take off the mask to learn who the killer is - but given her head was underwater, she couldn't discern the face. Budget and time constraints forced the idea to be scrapped.
  • The ending was originally going to involve Tree waking up in hospital and receiving a fatal injection from the wife of Dr. Butler.
• Working Title: Half to Death.

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