“Totally Killer”: A Funny Slasher About Time Travel, Totally Worth Your Time

In recent years, horror cinema has discovered the element of going back in time, sometimes combined with an infinite loop. We didn’t need the horror slasher “Totally Killer” to know that this trend is prevalent today in our favorite genre. You know how it goes: a murder that occurred in the past, even several decades earlier, and a character who goes back in time to prevent it and save someone close to her. We saw this, for example, in “It’s a Wonderful Knife,” a horror adaption that is a spin on Frank Capra’s masterpiece “It’s a Wonderful Life.” We saw it recently in Netflix’s “Time Cut,” about a young woman who goes back in time to save her sister, and also in the second movie of the “Happy Death Day” franchise, which took the franchise in a sci-fi direction.

“Totally Killer,” available to watch on Amazon Prime Video, is an addition that might have been refreshing to the horror genre a few years ago. Still, today, it seems too standard because we’ve already seen the general idea. On the other hand, it’s a super fun film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, including great humor and some interesting characters. So it’s true that we can expect a lot of holes related to going back in time here, as well as quite problematic twists regarding the identity of the murderer(s).

Totally Killer Plot: The Sweet Sixteen Killer Is Back (In Time?)

The central idea of ​​”Totally Killer” is very reminiscent of some of the films we mentioned here, especially “Time Cut,” with roughly the same plot And even a masked killer who looks a bit similar (by the way, according to reports, the script for “Time Cut” was written before “Totally Killer,” which came out before it, so it’s not clear who copied from whom, if at all). The main difference on a plot level is who exactly they’re trying to save thanks to the time travel – the heroine’s sister versus her mother – even if there are many differences between these films in terms of structure, style, and quality.

The heroine of “Totally Killer” is Jamie (talented Kiernan Shipka from the TV series “Mad Men” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” which we also recently played in “Twisters” and as the lone survivor of Nicolas Cage’s murder spree in “Longlegs”), a witty and pretty cool girl who lives in a small town called Vernon. Thirty years earlier, in three separate incidents within days of each other, her mother and two of her friends were murdered by the “Sweet 16 Killer.” He stabbed each of them 16 times in honor of their 16th birthdays, and the police never got him.

In 2023, Jamie goes to a local rock concert with her best friend Amelia (Kelcey Mawema of “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and the disappointing “The Friendship Game” alongside Peyton List). It’s Halloween, and Jamie’s mother, Pam (Julie Bowen, “Modern Family,” “Boston Legal,” “Ed”), who was a friend of the three victims, stays home and is murdered by the Sweet Sixteen Killer. Jamie learns from the local reporter and podcast host who is very interested in the murder case, Chris Dubusage (Jonathan Potts, “Ginny and Georgia,” “The Devil”), that her Mom had previously received a note from the killer, threatening that she would be the next victim, someday.

After that someday arrives, Jamie finds herself suddenly pursued by the same killer. In her escape, she accidentally activates a time machine that Amelia built for a school project, according to a manual her mother made years ago. Jamie travels back in time to 1987 – try to act like you are surprised – and realizes that if she can find out who the killer is and stop him, she might be able to prevent her mother’s death and probably the three murders of her best friends from those years.

Jamie arrives at the party, where the first murder took place, and meets the early version of her mother (the stunning Olivia Holt, who began her career in Disney’s “Kickin’ It,” and “I didn’t do it,” moved on to darker content like the thriller series “Cruel Summer” and will soon star in Valentine’s slasher “Heart Eyes”), her friends Tiffany (Liana Liberto, “Scream 6,” “Beach House,” “Haunted”) and several other young characters we saw as their older versions, and some of whom may be the killer or killers.

But then the whole time-traveling thing begins when Jamie seemingly has to not change the past too much, convince some people who she is but hide from others who she is, and so on. She will try to prevent the murders, one after the other, and maybe also do some other vital things like matchmaking her future parents, for example, or trying to figure out if she is a metaphorical puppy, that is, a daughter of a mother who was very bitchy.

Not Much Logic, Lots Of Humor

The truth is that despite the rather complex plot description and the multitude of characters at different points in time, “Totally Killer” is relatively easy to follow. Like every time-travel movie since “Back to the Future” and probably even before, if you look hard enough, you can probably find a lot of plot holes or illogical script failures. However, I am very forgiving of these problems in horror movies based on time travel because we didn’t come here to find logic.

As a horror movie, it’s hard to say that “Totally Killer” is scary – there are mainly a few pretty predictable jump scares – and just a bit of gore, which is way too minimal for movies alike, in my opinion. It does a partial job as a “Whodoneit” slasher because some twists range from routine to uninteresting or illogical. Nevertheless, the whole combination somehow works, Mainly because “Totally Killer” is a funny film. Most of its humor lies in the gaps and cultural differences between the ​​past and present, mainly the permissiveness of the 1980s that contrasts with political correctness, the moral conservatism of the “Me-Too” era in television and cinema, and the technological gaps.

Many of these jokes work, although I must say that, in some cases, the film tries to “explain” the joke through Jamie’s witty and cynical comment about what we see. In my opinion, these additions were quite unnecessary at times and damaged with the comic flow of the film. Part of their purpose was probably to present Jamie as – You know – a witty and cynical girl.

Impressive Filmmaking, For The Most Part

The cast of “Totally Killer” does a decent job. To Shipka’s credit, she does a great job, as do most of the cast. Surprisingly, some characters here are interesting or even have a certain depth. Development and depth are not apparent in a film with such a “massive” list of characters because there are many potential victims and suspects, and in this case, it’s also essential to see what they did in the past and why they became what they are now.

In this context, the central mystery is what exactly happened in the past that caused the killing of the poor girls. The film asks – in a not-so-original way, it’s important to note – whether it’s related, by chance, to the fact that the bitchy girls were quite bitchy to some of the people they knew, which may have caused some terrible things to happen.

The directing by Nahnatchka Khan (“Always Be My Maybe,” Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23,” “Young Rock”) is effective in terms of building the story and the characters, while the script includes well-made humor. Surprisingly, there aren’t many stupid and annoying young characters here who we wish to see dead because otherwise, we’ll just get on screen and murder them ourselves since they’re so stupid and annoying.

We do get the well-worn cliché of the acceptable, pretty, bitchy girls here, who are nicknamed “the Mollies” (after Molly Ringwald. Yes, from “Sixteen Candles.” Quite a coincidence), but they are interesting or attractive enough to justify this choice. There’s even an emotional connection between the characters and some moving scenes, even if not on the level of that tear-jerking scene between Terry and her mother in “Happy Death Day 2” (of course, there’s a reason I’m mentioning that movie).

What I missed a bit was everything related to the fact that we’re talking about a horror movie here, and more specifically, a slasher: the murder scenes are pretty routine, ranging from disappointing to passable with a much higher potential to become a cult classic, such as a murder that takes place on a waterbed.

If you ignore the fundamental lack of logic that must be present in a movie about going back in time or a few black holes in the plot, the script – by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D’Angelo – does the job, especially in terms of building the characters and incorporating humor into the film. Of course, the fact that Jason Blum And Blumhouse Studios produced the film shows a skilled hand behind the scenes or at the level of vision, and in most cases, you can see it.

Should You Watch Totally Killer?

“Totally Killer” is totally worth your time if you are looking for something light to watch, trying to find clues about the killer, to be in some tension regarding the fate of the main characters, and also to laugh here and there.

It is far from reinventing the wheel within the framework of the excess cross-genre slashers we have encountered recently. You will find elements here that are reminiscent of a teen comedy of the 80s (emphasis, of course, on “I Was 16” with Molly Ringwald, the star of teen movies at the time, with some direct references) as well as later films (“Mean Girls”), slashers that we grew up on such as “Halloween,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” time travel films and more.

Even if it’s not sure that the film will become a franchise, as some of the reviews suggested, giving a “V” to a little over an hour and a half of Guilty Pleasure is possible.

Totally Killer – Everything You Need To Know

Year: 2023

Director: Nahnatchka Khan

Cast: Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Liana Liberato, Julie Bowen, Charlie Gillespie, Kelcey Mawema

Screenplay: David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver and Jen D’Angelo

Running time: 106 minutes

Country of production: United States, Canada

Language: English

Release date (Amazon Prime Video): 6.10.23

Budget: Undisclosed

Grossings: The film was released on streaming and was not shown in theaters

MPAA rating (Parents Guide): R

Reviews score:

IMDB: 6.5

Rotten Tomatoes: 86%

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