Totally Killer
Directed by Nahnatchka Khan
Written by David M. Matalon & Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D'Angelo
Starring Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Julie Bowen, and Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson
Rated R
Runtime: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video

by Megan Robinson, Staff Writer

“God, the 80s are wild,” Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka) remarks after a half-baked lie is able to get an amusement park worker to leave the Quantum Drop, a ride she and Lauren Creston (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson) need to use for their time machine to send Jamie back to the future (yes, really). This sentiment runs throughout Nahnatchka Khan’s Totally Killer, defining the experience and its aims. Slashers, as we know and parody them today, were catalyzed into mainstream success with films like Tobe Hooper’s 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and John Carpenter’s 1978 film Halloween, with the genre hitting its stride in the 1980s. From Friday the 13th in 1980 spawning a million dollar franchise to underappreciated classics like The Slumber Party Massacre in 1982, the 1980s can be looked back at as a decade where careless and sexually promiscuous teens were mercilessly murdered, over and over again. Totally Killer dives head first into this era, to playfully satirize the slasher genre and the decade at large.

Jamie, the angsty teen daughter of Pam (Julie Bowen) and Blake (Lochlyn Munro), gets ready on Halloween night to go to a concert, despite Pam’s wishes. Thirty-five years prior, three of Pam’s friends were murdered by a masked killer, defining how Pam has raised her daughter since with self-defense classes and pepper spray accessories always on hand. Despite her pleas, Jamie is allowed to go, Blake driving her to meet her friend Amelia Creston (Kelcey Mawema). But Pam was right: the masked killer returns, killing Pam in her home. With a killer on the loose, and Amelia building a time machine, it’s only a matter of time before Jamie, to escape the killer, travels back to 1987, right before the “Sweet 16 Killer” commits their triple homicide.

The film wears its influences on its sleeve. Jamie directly names films like Back to the Future (1985) and Scream (1996) as examples to explain the central plot of the film to characters in the past, namely Amelia’s mom Lauren, who came up with the time machine concepts. Maybe this makes the film too derivative; after all, can something uniquely entertaining come from a piece that continuously calls attention to what it’s copying? Totally Killer, though, much like other Blumhouse-backed slashers Happy Death Day (2017) and Freaky (2020), finds a unique edge in the comedy provided by its sci-fi twist to the genre. Every time Jamie experiences the kind of culture shock provided by the lenient, sexist, and smoke-filled past, it gets a laugh. Shipka’s reactions to the other characters are comedy gold, her bewildered faces and snark endearing you to her after a shaky start with her as a more mean-spirited teen. 

It’s the characters from the past, however, that make the film truly shine. A good slasher needs a unique cast of characters that are fun to watch and root for. The group of teens Jamie travels back to save are rude, licentious, and completely idiotic — a perfect mix to laugh at and with. The “Mollys,” the friend group past Pam (Olivia Holt) was a part of along with the murder victims Tiffany Clark (Liana Liberato), Marisa Song (Stephi Chin-Salvo), and Heather Hernandez (Anna Diaz), each shine with particularly funny performances and line reads, each reveling the chance to be reckless teens with no regard for safety or each other. Holt especially steals the show, with her finest scenes occurring in a cabin in the woods as she tries to seduce her future husband Blake (Charlie Gillespie) despite Jamie’s warnings that it’s not meant to be just yet.

As a horror film, however, Totally Killer falls a bit short. The film lulls you in with the promise that it will tackle true crime obsession and how these situations imbue real trauma into the people that survive them. Bowen as Pam is an overly cautious helicopter mom, yes, but she has every reason to be after seeing her friends picked off one by one. The kills, however, never hit on this nerve, falling short of being horrifically tragic or gory fun, like the comedic tone would have you believe they could be. Khan only makes Pam’s murder in the beginning of the film a suspenseful and terrifying scene. Otherwise, we know the other murders will happen and how they will be executed; even the timeline shifts thanks to Jamie’s meddling do little to increase suspense. A carnival’s haunted dollhouse is the scariest set piece in the film, coming in late but marking a great shift that gives the mystery of who the killer is new life.

Overall, Totally Killer works best in its comedic moments. David M. Matalon & Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D'Angelo’s strong suit is dialogue, with the script here being raucously funny once Jamie travels back in time. The film, though, is a bit too focused on laughs. Khan, director of romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe (2019), meets the film where it’s at in these moments along with editor Jeremy Cohen, keeping the pace of dialogue lively. Though its suspense can fall flat and its meta commentary is just as much a genre trope at this point as the silent, masked murderer, Totally Killer keeps the audience engaged with fun characters fighting against their futures.