Totally Killer (2023)

Score: 2.5 / 5

On Halloween night in the present day, Jamie Hughes is getting ready to go out with her friends. Their town of Vernon could be anywhere, but it's special because thirty-five years previously, Vernon was also home to a killer who slaughtered three teenage girls in the days around Halloween. As the "Sweet Sixteen Killer" -- so named due to both the age of his victims and the number of times he stabbed each one -- was never discovered nor apprehended, he's become something of a local boogeyman, even inspiring Michael Myers-type rubber masks as an annual tradition. Jamie's mother (Julie Bowen) is overprotective, as she was friends with the three victims, and that very night she's murdered by a masked killer who stabs her sixteen times. It seems that the killer -- who may or may not be a serial killer, as many characters point out, due to the limited number of victims -- has returned.

I was excited for this film based on this premise alone. Comedy director Nahnatchka Khan helms the horror-comedy slasher flick, released exclusively on Prime Video, that knowingly pits precocious Gen Z teens against a mysterious menace. What I was not ready for, and frankly what I'm still reeling over, is the inclusion of time travel. What at first felt like a Scream meets Fear Street mashup is actually more in line with Happy Death Day 2 or Back to the Future but with stabbings. Thankfully, the time travel kind of makes sense here, in simple ways overlooked by the likes of the MCU, and while that means the horror element isn't nearly as effective as it could be, the humor is definitely present. Because once the killer chases Jamie herself, and Jamie inadvertently rides her friend's school science project into 1987, she realizes she might be able to stop the original murders, change history, and save her mother.

Of course there is too much ado about Jamie's unbelievability in the '80s, as nobody heeds her warnings about impending slaughter. Her mother (Olivia Holt) turns out to be an archetypal "mean girl" along with the other victims, and though Jamie tries to save her mother's bitchy friends, there is a certain emotional disconnect the film utilizes to chillingly hilarious effect. While the murders themselves are brutal, we're not made to really feel the weight of them because, of course, they were inevitable (and, according to the film's logic, arguably deserved) to some extent. And Jamie's reaction to culture shock is probably the most entertaining aspect of this movie, from the big hair fashion and constant smoking to outright misogyny, all of which occur through rapid-fire dialogue and bone-dry delivery. She's a total fish out of water, and despite her warnings that go unheeded, she subtly transforms (thanks to Kiernan Shipka's thoughtful if grating performance) into a woman who takes initiative and embraces her own integrity.

The other performances all fit the wacky, somewhat campy vibe of Totally Killer, for better and for worse. And I actually enjoyed that, because its effect is to simultaneously cut through the veneer of '80s nostalgia so often present in horror/sci-fi material based in the period. Shipka is so unimpressed with the mise en scène that we are too, though we're not ready for it. I especially liked the concept, not totally divorced from the likes of Fear Street or some Stephen King stories, that the isolated small town dealing with past trauma includes a lot of folks who peaked in high school and are trapped in reliving the past. I'd have liked more thematic concern on that front. Some of the contemporary bits got a bit annoying to me, like the wasted subplot about a murder podcast. And frankly the kills themselves aren't effective as slasher horror, with sloppy fight choreography and cinematography and editing that exacerbates the mishandled moments. And I haven't even mentioned that, when the killer is finally unmasked, there's very little reason to care, and that's just not the kind of reveal that makes a quality slasher movie.