Movie · Horror, Comedy · 2017 · PG-13

Happy Death Day: parents' guide

13+our pick

Best for ages 13 and up. Rated PG-13 for violence/terror, crude sexual content, language, some drug material and partial nudity.

A playful slasher comedy for teens who like a little scare with their laughs. A self-absorbed college student relives her birthday over and over, murdered by a masked killer each night until she works out who it is. The killings are mostly bloodless or off-screen, but she dies many times, and in one loop she deliberately hangs herself to reset the day. Expect crude sexual jokes, an affair with a married professor, a naked walk across campus with nothing explicit shown, one f-word and college partying. Her grief over her late mother is part of her turnaround. Thirteen fits the PG-13 mix.

What's in it

Violence

Moderate

The heroine is stabbed, bludgeoned and killed repeatedly by a masked killer; others are hit with bats and pipes, run over, poisoned or thrown from a window. Blood shows on knives and in brief spatters, but most stabbings happen off-screen.

Language

Moderate

One f-word and about a dozen s-words, with frequent 'bitch,' 'slut,' 'whore' and 'asshole,' a crude word for female anatomy, roughly a dozen misuses of God's name, and one obscene hand gesture.

Sex and nudity

Moderate

Constant crude jokes about hookups, genitals and masturbation. The heroine has an affair with a married professor (kissing only), wakes in strangers' beds, and walks naked across campus with only her back shown. A male student cues up porn showing two men kissing.

Drinking, drugs and smoking

Moderate

College partying: she wakes up hungover after a drunken night, students drink at a party, and a dorm room holds a large bong. She tells a police officer she is drunk and high so he will arrest her.

Scary or intense scenes

Moderate

A baby-masked killer stalks her through a dark tunnel, a hospital and her dorm, with jump scares and chases. She hangs herself in one loop to undo a friend's death, and quieter scenes deal with grief over her mother.

Sensitive topics

  • Suicide
  • Death of a parent

Worth talking about

Each do-over pushes Tree to be kinder. Ask what your teen would change if they could replay a day, and talk about how the film treats suicide as a reset button, something real life never offers.

Where to stream →

On our lists

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Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Plugged In, movieguide.org, Wikipedia, the MPA, bbfc.co.uk. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.