Horror has been getting increasingly self-aware and self-referential for a few years now, while time loops and alternate realities have even started infiltrating the genre, and that’s to say nothing of our collective obsession with serial killer thrillers, murder mysteries, and whodunits. Throwing all of those elements into a single blast of cinematic escapism is a tall order, but it’s one that Totally Killer pulls off for the most part.
Director Nahnatchka Khan created Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 and Fresh Off the Boat before proving her filmmaking chops after making her feature-length debut on Netflix’s fantastic romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe, but the incoming Prime Video original that premieres this Friday, Oct. 6 stretches her capabilities to breaking point. There are always at least a handful of plates spinning at any given moment, and while none of them plunge to the ground and shatter by the time the credits come up, there’s no shortage of wobbles along the way.
To be reductive and break the film down to its essence, the easiest way to describe Totally Killer is “Back to the Future meets Scream,” which is both apt and a bit of a disservice at the same time. Kiernan Shipka delivers another effortlessly energetic and engaging performance as Jamie Hughes, watched over by Julie Bowen and Lochlyn Munro’s overprotective parents, and with good reason. 35 years previously, a local ghoul dubbed the “Sweet Sixteen Killer” murdered a close-knit band of high school friends, leaving Bowen’s Pam as the sole survivor. With the long-dormant knife-wielding maniac back on the scene, Jamie inadvertently winds up stuck in 1987 thanks to the time machine her best friend was building for the science fair (don’t ask), giving her the opportunity to end the spree before it’s even had a chance to begin.
Naturally, it’s not easy for a total stranger to descend upon a small town from out of nowhere and start warning everyone they’re about to be stabbed repeatedly into oblivion, especially when it turns out the teenage version of Pam (Olivia Holt) is part of a bitchy Mean Girls-esque clique disconcertingly obsessed with emulating the style of Molly Ringwald.
Throw in the distinct lack of technology – leading to several fun beats revolving around DNA evidence and databases – and Shipka’s erstwhile Marty McFly has a tough task on her hands. Earnest in its approach to nostalgia while still finding the time to pass judgement on how dated and borderline offensive even the most innocuous of exchanges between friends can be through a 2023 lens, in amongst the talk of cocaine and blowjobs, a multi-generational story of familial trauma emerges as the major narrative driving force.
Of course, it’s drenched in gags and gore, often to the extent that you could state the argument for Totally Killer making the wrong move in prioritizing its comedy over the horror, but it’s a decent enough anchor and linchpin from which the blood-caked, booze-soaked, and panic-stricken subplots spin out. Another downside is that it can often come across as feeling too over-familiar and derivative of other – and fairly recent – films, something that’ll no doubt be a lot more obvious for anybody with an affinity for the likes of Happy Death Day, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Final Girls, or even the recent Scream “requels.”
On the plus side, it doesn’t quite unfold in the way you think it will bar one or two twists that are signposted from fairly well off, and when the chaos breaks out it’s all shot and framed with style, verve, and a surprising amount of visceral chaos. Some of the bursts of frantic violence might be a touch predictable in their staging and execution, but Totally Killer works best when it lulls you into a false sense of security before pulling the rug right from underneath, which happens less often than you might like.
The script never even tries to make sense of itself, which opens the door to references being made about everything from Back to the Future to Avengers: Endgame, while Shipka wisely opts to root her performance in the absurdity of it all. As both a time travel movie and a slasher, Totally Killer‘s dialogue is often reduced largely to pop culture references and unwieldy exposition, but the star’s turn – best described as a wink and a shrug – ensures that it never tries too hard to present itself as anything rooted in even a remotely tangible reality.
Built upon strong foundations and an even more concrete concept, Totally Killer tries its hardest to tackle as many different and disparate elements at once as humanly possible. Both its biggest strength and most glaring weakness, the end result is nonetheless a fun-filled and eminently entertaining genre-bender that’s sure to go down a storm among the Halloween crowd, and eventual cult classic status definitely can’t be ruled out, either.
