Movie Review: "Totally Killer" (2023)

Totally Killer Movie Review

Written by Stuart D. Monroe

Released by Blumhouse / Amazon Prime

Directed by Nahnatchka Khan

Written by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D’Angelo

2023, 106 minutes, Rated R

Released on Amazon Prime on October 6th, 2023

Starring:

Kiernan Shipka as Jamie Hughes

Julie Bowen as Pam Hughes

Kelcey Mawema as Amelia Creston

Olivia Holt as Pam Miller

Liana Liberato as Tiffany Clark

Stephi Chin-Salvo as Marisa Song

Anna Diaz as Heather Hernandez

Charlie Gillespie as Teen Blake Hughes

Lochlyn Munro as Adult Blake Hughes

Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson as Teen Lauren Creston

Kimberly Huie as Adult Lauren Creston

Jonathan Potts as Chris Dubasage

Randall Park as Sheriff Dennis Lim

Review:

One of the trickiest subgenres of film to get right is the time travel movie. There are just so many places that you can hit a snag and say, “But what happens if…” That, in turn, completely takes you out of your suspension of disbelief. Time travel films work best when there’s a bit of a an irreverent and playful flavor to them and don’t take themselves too seriously. I mean, sometimes you gotta just roll with it.

Now, mix that formula with a slasher flick featuring a killer in a slick mask brandishing a big, shiny knife. The result of that wonderful union is Blumhouse’s latest offering, Totally Killer. A blend of homages to Back to the Future and Scream, Totally Killer stays firmly on the side of comedy more than horror, though the violence is admirably aggressive when it needs to be and the comedy is on-point at all times.

Something tells me this mask will catch on…

Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka; Mad Men) has lived her life with a deeply overprotective mother (Julie Bowen; Modern Family) under the shadow of the Sweet Sixteen Killer. The town of Vernon has also lived under that shadow for thirty-five years- the Sweet Sixteen Killer (and his three-victim murder spree) is the town’s claim to fame. The mask is still worn every Halloween by scores of kids. There’s even an obsessive podcast all about the crime hosted by Chris Dubasage (Jonathan Potts; The Strain), one of those touched by the murders in 1987. After Jamie’s mother is brutally murdered (stabbed sixteen times) by a returned Sweet Sixteen Killer on Halloween night, Jamie uses her best friend Amelia’s (Kelcey Mawema; A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting) time machine to travel back to 1987 and stop the murders from ever taking place. Jamie isn’t prepared for what she finds back in the Reagan era- her mother is a certifiable mean girl with a whole clique of followers at her heels and the social norms are shocking to her 2023 sensibilities. Armed with the knowledge of where and how it all happens, can Jamie stop the killer from claiming his three victims (who also happen to be her future mother’s besties) and thereby stop him from killing her mother thirty-five years later? And will she be able to deal with all the problematic behavior and politically incorrect banter that 1987 has to offer?

Casting is critical in a period piece (God, am I really that old?!), and Totally Killer nails all of its casting choices. Young Sally Draper from Mad Men has grown up, and her heroic and socially conscious heart is the driving force in the film. The entire cast is excellent (especially Stephi Chin-Salvo as the vapid and orally inclined Marisa), but it’s Kiernan Shipka who is a cut above.

Yes, the pun is intended, thank you very much.

I can’t believe my mom is a mean girl!

The time spent in 1987 is a hoot, and thankfully the movie spends most of its time there, only occasionally flashing back over to 2023 for the “how are we going to get her home?” part of the story. The set design and costumes are note perfect. I couldn’t stop smiling at the (admittedly) on the nose archetypes of “the Mollys” (Pam and her friends all idolize and imitate Molly Ringwald). Furthermore, Julie is shocked by the careless and carefree homophobia, misogyny, and general lack of safety standards of 1987. If you lived in this time as I did, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Teenage Randy, in particular, and his constant references to his penis are right on the money; every group of friends had THAT guy who just had to make everything about his dick. Sad but true.

Totally Killer is smartly written with a social conscience and a real understanding of just how shockingly different 1987 is from 2023. I wasn’t expecting that much of a socially conscious undertone, but it’s not at all off-putting. Instead, it serves to enhance the humor and makes for some cripplingly cringe worthy situations and bad jokes. If you were count up the number of times Jamie says some version of “You can’t say that!” and turn it into a drinking game, you’d be heartily shitfaced.

All in all, Totally Killer is a howl of a good time that gets all the stereotypes painfully right while observing the slasher rules and keeping the violence and danger rolling along at a brisk pace that felt much more like a classic ninety-minute horror comedy than the actual one-hundred and six minutes it is. It’s definitely horror light, so to speak, but would nonetheless make for a fun weekend watch in this spooky season.

Grade:

4 out of 5 stars