Totally Killer
A time travel slasher that, like, totally rocks.
Kiernan Shipka needs to find a killer and some acid wash jeans in Nahnatchka Khan's Totally Killer.
Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka) just wants her mother Pam (Julie Bowen) to get off her back. Jamie has to tell her mom where she’s going, who she’ll be with, and she’s been in self-defense classes since she was little. Also, most Halloweens her mother keeps her home, where she can pass out candy instead of go collect it.
But Pam has a reason for her rules.
In 1987, three of Pam’s best friends were brutally slaughtered by a masked assailant who became known as the Sweet Sixteen Killer. The trauma has always stayed with her, and though Jamie rolls her eyes, Pam remains insistent that since the killer was never caught, they could always return.
Unfortunately, Pam’s right.
The killer is now back, and apparently ready to take out the Hughes women if nothing is done. While Jamie is fleeing the killer, she manages to stumble into the high school science fair where her best friend happens to have a time travel device (apparently Gen Alpha has grown beyond the baking soda volcano).
Jamie accidentally activates the device while fighting for her life. Instead of dying, she ends up in 1987, the day of the first Sweet Sixteen killing. Can she change the past and re-write the future? Will Jamie find a way to connect with her mom? Why has no one seen Back to the Future yet?
More a sci-fi comedy than a legitimate chiller, Totally Killer is a winning combination of smart writing and solid performances. Director Nahnatchka Khan weaves together a genuinely funny fish-out-of-water comedy that wryly observes just how wild and lawless the 80s would seem to a modern high schooler.
Have you ever popped in your favorite John Hughes movie for a rewatch only to realize just how poorly certain views and social practices have aged? That’s Jamie’s whole life now. Jamie isn’t prepared for a world where smoking mothers offer rides to strange girls and her own mom was, well, a massive bully. Watching Shipka yelp “Unwanted touch!” when she’s shoved is pretty darn hilarious.
But there’s also restraint in Khan’s comedic timing. Jamie isn’t a total fool. She knows there won’t be Wi-Fi or people asking for pronouns. She makes reasonable plans to try to stop the killer, and even to explain her own presence. She tries to tell people she’s like Marty McFly, it’s not her fault the sheriff hasn’t seen it! And the 80s cast is likewise not a complete caricature. The Mollys — the group of mean girls who are the targets of the killer — are nasty bullies that most of us have encountered in our formative years. They aren’t the violent psychopaths of Stephen King books, they’re just pretty girls who use their looks and social status to say cruel things and wage psychological warfare.
But Khan’s restraint is a double-edged blade to Totally Killer. Because the movie is ultimately a comedy, the villains must be very clear. To wit, the only truly evil person is the person with the mask and the knife. So Jamie’s mother, though mean at first, has a heart of gold and is a secret sci-fi nerd. It would have been interesting to have Jamie wrangle with the realization that the woman she loves in 2023 was a horrible human being in 1987. But that probably wouldn’t make for light popcorn horror.
Though the movie’s satiric edge isn’t quite as sharp as it could be, the film makes up for it with some engaging performances. Shipka is a solid lead, balancing Jamie’s confusion with her fearless determination to stop a killer. As the teen version of Jamie’s mom, Olivia Holt is delightfully vicious. Pam is not only queen bee of her High School, she’s also smart and self-aware enough to make her interesting.
If you’re a fan of lighter horror fare like Happy Death Day (especially the sequel), Totally Killer will be well worth the watch. If you’re an 80s film aficionado, there are plenty of Easter Eggs to find along the way. And if you have tweens or teens, have a family movie night — and gleefully horrify them by confirming that we did actually do that in the 80s.
Verdict: Light on the horror, this film is still a pretty great fish-out-of-water comedy.
Totally Killer is rated R and is available on Prime.
