Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Nahnatchka Khan
Starring: Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Julie Bowen, Randall Park, Charlie Gillespie, Lochlyn Munro, Troy L.
Johnson, Liana Liberato
If you're aware of the premise of director Nahnatchka Khan's
Totally Killer you'll be forgiven for thinking it's the
latest horror comedy from Christopher Landon. With
Happy Death Day
and
Freaky, Landon took the high concept comedy plots of
Groundhog Day and Freaky Friday and gave them
a slasher twist. Totally Killer does essentially the same
thing with Back to the Future. While it's not as sharp as Landon's films, it's an entertaining romp
that suggests this is a format with legs (at time of writing a similar
spin on It's a Wonderful Life, titled It's a Wonderful Knife, has just released its trailer).
All of these films feature young blonde female protagonists for some
reason, perhaps as a counterpoint to the classic blonde bimbo stereotype
proffered by so many slasher movies. Here it's
Kiernan Shipka who plays the heroine, 16-year-old Jamie
Hughes, who lives in a small town with a gruesome past. In 1987 a killer
wearing a Max Headroom mask killed three high school girls, and managed to
avoid being caught. In 2023 the killer makes a surprise return, butchering
Jamie's mom, Pam (Julie Bowen). It seems the killer is also after
Jamie, and when they strike Jamie hides in a time machine made by her
nerdy friend Amelia (Kelcey Mawema). Lo and behold, the time
machine actually works, accidentally sending Jamie back to 1987, on the
day that the first murder is set to occur.
What follows is a fun culture clash comedy as Gen Z Jamie clashes with
the mores and attitudes of Gen X. In what might be the most inspired piece
of casting since Michael Cimino's pairing of Mimi Rogers and Shawnee Smith
as mother and daughter in Desperate Hours, Olivia Holt is cast as the 16-year-old Pam. Holt bears an
uncanny similarity to Bowen and also nails the older actress's mannerisms.
Much of the comedy stems from Jamie's disgust at discovering her mom was
the leader of a Mean Girls-esque clique known as "The Mollys" for their
love of Molly Ringwald. She also meets her dad (Charlie Gillespie),
the school's head jock. Knowing her parents didn't hook up until they were
in their thirties, Jamie has to contend with keeping them separated, lest
history change and she disappear from existence. A lot of the fun comes
from watching Jamie cringe as she's forced to spend time with kids her own
age who act in the embarrassing manner of her parents. Every time Jamie
meets the teenage version of an adult from 2023 the film flashes an image
of their adult self, and as someone who is terrible at keeping track of
character names, I can't tell you how much I appreciated this touch.
While Jamie is attempting to foil the killer in 1987, we're also given
glimpses of how her actions have changed details in 2023, like a local
Heavy Metal singer now becoming a sensitive singer/songwriter. The movie
finds clever ways for Jamie to communicate with Amelia - whose equally
nerdy mother (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson) is building her own time
machine in 1987 - by leaving messages that will pop up in the famous crime
scene photos.
Khan and her screenwriters (David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver and
Jen D'Angelo) resist the temptation to roll out the usual '80s
member berries. The usual signifiers of the era are replaced by
surprisingly specific references that may jog long dormant memories in
those of us old enough to remember the decade (a reference to my favourite
childhood video game, Death Wish III, had me chuckling with joy), and the
soundtrack mostly favours deeper cuts like Shannon's 'Let the Music Play'
scoring one attack by the killer.
The film balances nostalgia for the era with a reminder that it was a
cruel time to be the sort of person who didn't fit in. There are certainly
moments that bathe in how much more colourful a time it was (when Jamie
first exits the time machine in 1987 it echoes Dorothy leaving her
monochrome world for the technicolor of Oz), but we're also reminded of
how bullying and torment was the norm for so many kids growing up at the
time (as an immigrant to the US from Iran, I suspect Khan endured a rough
time herself). Many of the slashers of the '80s acknowledged this, with
killers seeking revenge for some awful act committed by a group of jocks
and bimbos. The film has fun with The Mollys, but at the same time we're
left in no doubt that they're awful people who may not deserve to be
butchered but who aren't entirely innocent themselves.
While Totally Killer is successful as a comedy, the slasher
element is left lacking and often feels like an afterthought. The attacks
and kills aren't particularly well-staged, and locations like a cabin in
the woods and a fairground house of horrors are never used as effectively
as they might be. In that respect Totally Killer is a poor
cousin of Landon's similar films, but as a comedy it's a winner thanks
largely to the talents of a young cast, all of whom are too young to
remember the '80s yet nail the vibe regardless.
Totally Killer is on Prime Video
from October 6th.
