Blumhouse’s Totally Killer (FANTASTIC) is Totally Fun
Title: Totally Killer
First Non-Festival Release: October 6, 2023 (Digital/Streaming Platforms)
Director: Nahnatchka Khan
Writer: David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, Jen D’Angelo
Runtime: 106 Minutes
Starring: Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Charlie Gillespie
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
This film’s review was written after its screening at the Fantastic Film Festival in 2023.
The legacy of the sleepy town of Vernon resides in its infamous unsolved serial slayings of three teenage girls by the Sweet Sixteen Killer. Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) doesn’t seem phased by the open-nature of the case despite her mother Pam (Julie Bowen/Olivia Holt) surviving the initial round of killings. Jamie is more concerned with hanging out with her genius best friend Amelia (Kelcey Mawema) and living like a normal teenager than staying holed up in their house every Halloween. Thirty-five years later, however, the killer strikes again taking Pam.
While her grief is strong, it is short-lived because Jamie soon runs into the killer at the carnival where the science fair is held. Running for her life, Jamie stops in Amelia’s time machine and by an unfortunate stroke of bad luck is transported back thirty-five years into the past on the day of the first murder. Jamie must work together with Amelia’s mother (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson) to get back to the present and stop the killer from taking her mother in both time periods.
Popcorn time travel horror Totally Killer woos with pitch-perfect comedy and an endearing cast of characters.
Paying no mind to the complexities of time travel, and oftentimes outright admitting that little can be fully understood, Totally Killer focuses on how changing the past may not work out the way you imagine. While time travel is still unfortunately too far into the future to comprehend, the thought experiments behind changing the past are alive and well. It does get messy when the film tries to mechanically explain the science behind it, but the audience is asked to just go with it in a “you’ll be alright” kind of way.
Jamie will do anything to prevent her mother from falling victim to the serial killer that has plagued her town for decades. When her misadventure sends her into the past, she gladly sees it as an opportunity to right a wrong. Along the way, she discovers that the rules of time travel are ever-changing, meaning she must stay on her feet if she wants to beat the bad guy. Instead of solely relying on a different future to showcase what the changes in the past cause, Totally Killer posits that changes in history would be made as immediate as the next day, causing Jamie to constantly alter her plans, making for an exciting story.
A fish-out-of-water horror scenario is made light by Jamie’s confoundment at just how different life today and back then are from each other. Much of the humor in Totally Killer relies on the concept of a Gen Z teenager getting transported to the 1980s. The comparisons are spot on and wild when reflecting on how much society has changed since then. Typically, when time travel is involved, the joke is that the traveler does things that are odd given the period because they lack the context of society in that era. Totally Killer flips that by making the joke that the 1980s were essentially lawless and free compared to nowadays while challenging archaic gender roles and treatment of minorities as a bonus side quest. Kiernan Shipka’s excellent deadpan delivery sells the incredulity of Jamie while serving as a stand in for the modern audience.
The central relationship between Jamie and her past and future mother plays an integral role in her growth, making some familiar yet sweet reminders of childhood and parenthood. Before her mother died in the present, Jamie was a typical teenager. Apathetic towards her parent’s pleas for involvement and safety and disinterested in hearing about their problems no matter how significant they are or were. Once she is forced to help save her mother in the past, Jamie realizes how different her sweet and well-meaning mother is as an adult versus when she was a teenager.
Forced to take on a motherly role to guide Pam away from certain death, Jamie picks up little nuggets of wisdom that explain how much of a jerk she sometimes was to her mother, and how it isn’t too late to change. It is a sweet arc that never feels forced or icky given the dynamic between Jamie and Pam is typical of a teenager going through their anti-authority phase and not born from some deeper trauma.
Where Totally Killer struggles is maintaining a sense of tension, as much of the carnage feels stagnant thanks to the Sweet Sixteen Killer’s notorious calling card. Despite how violent the blows come to be, the kills rarely make an impact since they all blend together. Slashers depend on creativity to combat the formulaic nature of their plot. Totally Killer doesn’t get that reprieve as the M.O. of the killer hardly changes. It doesn’t fully take away from the film but it is a noticeable attribute in a largely endearing story.
An entirely innocuous Halloween goodie, this time travel slasher comedy adds another hit to Blumhouse’s ledger. Totally Killer may not be the flashiest or scariest film, but it is truly an endearing entry in the slasher subgenre. A stellar ensemble cast led by the ever-capable Kiernan Shipka keep the action going at a steady pace while never making too much of a joke of the film. Fileld with fun set pieces, great jokes, and pointed criticisms of Regan era America, Totally Killer is a totally fun time that is absolutely worth yours: yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Overall Score? 7/10
