HAPPY TIMES (2019) (Artsploitation Blu-ray Review)

HAPPY TIMES (2019) 

Label: Artsploitation Films

Region Code: A

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 93 Minutes 
Audio: English & Hebrew DTS-HD MA 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1) 
Director: Michael Mayer
Cast: Michael Aloni, Liraz Chamami, Iris Bahr, Alon Pdut, Stéfi Celma, Ido Mor, Guy Adler, Shani Atias, Daniel Lavid, Mike Burstyn, Ziv Berkovich

In the super dark dinner party horror-comedy Happy Times (2019) a wealthy Israeli American couple, Sigal (Liraz Chamami) and Yosi (Ido Mor), living in Hollywood invite a group of close knit friends and family to their mansion for what was supposed to be a quiet Shabbat dinner party. Among the guests we have struggling real estate broker Ilan (Guy Adler, Big Bad Wolves) and his free-spirited wife Noya (Shani Atias), an actor Michael (Michael Aloni, Out in the Dark) who brings along his black girlfriend Aliyah (Stefi Celma), a former lawyer turned housewife Hila (Iris Bahr, The Last Exorcism) and her husband Avner (Alon Pdut, Out of the Dark) who is a vet with a tinge of PTSD, and a young man named Maor (Daniel David) who is an employee of Yosi. 

This cynical chamber piece starts off fine, the family and friends gather around the dinner table and the delicious looking spread and each other's company. They're cracking jokes and making humorous observations, but as the evening wears on it all begins to devolve. Tensions are ignited over dinner when Michael mocks the family's faith, and things are brought to a proper boil when Yosi catches his wife and Maor in a moment of infidelity in the kitchen, but the violence absolutely erupts when a practical joke involving a dicpic with potentially career ruining after effects goes a bit too far.  

Throughout the night inflated egos, sexual lust, greed and envy continue to fuel the murder and mayhem, with formerly hidden grievances and distaste for one another now made known. The carnage is not exactly a gore-fest by horror standards but there is plenty of practical bloodletting by way of gruesome blunt force trauma, multiple gunshot wounds, stab wounds from knives and gardening shears, bolts from a crossbow, electrocution and even the implementation of seemingly 

innocuous religious symbols used as blasphemous and deadly weapons.

I found the humor to be trashy but fun, everyone becomes so petty and overexaggerated in their reactions to what would normally be considered a harmless insult hurled at a moment of anger and hurt, but the writing, which is more witty than clever, kept me laughing throughout. This is not the sort of film that is going to be revelatory or original in any way but it's a comedic and bloody thriller with some fun horror elements that kept me quite entertained from start to finish, even though I could see some of the twists and turns coming a mile away. Early on a character intentionally stops up the toilet with toilet paper in a display of passive-aggressive rage, and I said to myself, "well, that's definitely gonna come back to haunt someone", and sure enough, it does. 

Audio/Video: Happy Times (2019) arrives on Blu-ray from Artsploitation Films framed in 2.39:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. The digital-shot film obviously has no issues with source damage and the colors are strong with pleasing fine detail throughout. Audio on the disc comes by way of both Hebrew and English, both language are spoken in the film, via a DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio with two subtitle options, you can choose subtitles for only the Hebrew dialogue or choose subtitles for all the dialogue. 

Extras come by way of  a brief alternate scene and a deleted scene, both running about a minute each, pus eight-minutes of bloopers and four Artsploitation trailers for An Exquisite Meal, Red Christmas, Beasts Clawing At Straws, and The Dead Ones. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, the disc inside features an excerpt of the same key artwork. 

Special Features:

- Scene 26 (Alternate Cut) (1 min) 

- Scene 32 (Deleted Scene) (1 min) 

- Bloopers (8 min) 

- Trailers: An Exquisite Meal (1 min), Red Christmas (2 min), Beasts Clawing At Straws (2 min), The Dead Ones (1 min) 

Happy Times (2019) is a fun, biting and bloody dinner-thriller with some fun gore and plenty of people behaving badly, a fine entry in the sub-genre of dinner parties that went to Hell. I could see this having broad appeal for fans of stuff like The Invitation, Mayhem and Very Bad Things, a definite recommend.

More screenshots from the Blu-ray: