Totally fun slasher about time travel Cinemax
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 in our favorite genre today. You know how it goes: a murder that happened in the past, even several decades earlier, and a character who goes back in time to prevent it and save a loved one. We saw it, for example, in “It’s a Wonderful Knife,” a horror adaptation that is a twist 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, as well as in the franchise’s second film “Happy Death Day,” which took the franchise in a sci-fi direction.
“Totally Killer,” available on Amazon Prime Video, is an addition that could have refreshed the horror genre a few years ago. However, today it seems too standard because we have already seen the general idea. On the other hand, it’s a super fun film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, with a lot of humor and some interesting characters. It is therefore true that we can expect here a lot of holes linked to the return of time, as well as quite problematic twists and turns regarding the identity of the murderer(s).
Totally murderous plot: The Sweet Sixteen killer is back (in time?)
The central idea of ”Totally Killer” is very reminiscent of some of the films we’ve mentioned here, especially “Time Cut”, with pretty much the same plot and even a masked killer that looks a bit similar (incidentally, according to reports, the screenplay 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 plot difference is who exactly they are trying to save through time travel – the heroine’s sister versus her mother – although there are many differences between these films in terms of structure, style and quality.
The heroine of “Totally Killer” is Jamie (the talented Kiernan Shipka of the TV series “Mad Men” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”, whom we also recently played in “Twisters” and as the sole survivor of Nicolas Cage’s killing 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 them each 16 times in honor of their 16th birthday, and the police never caught up with him.
In 2023, Jamie goes to a local rock concert with his 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 local reporter and podcast host very interested in the murder case, Chris Dubusage (Jonathan Potts, “Ginny and Georgia,” “The Devil”), that his mother had already received a note from the killer, threatening that she would be the next victim, one day.
After that day, Jamie suddenly finds herself being chased by the same killer. In her escape, she accidentally activates a time machine that Amelia built for a school project, according to a textbook written by her mother years ago. Jamie travels back in time to 1987 – try to act 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 possibly the three murders of her best friends from those years.
Jamie arrives at the party where the first murder took place and meets the first version of his mother (the stunning Olivia Holt, who began her career on Disney’s “Kickin’ It” and “I Didn’t Do It,” moved on to darker material like the thriller series “Cruel Summer” and will soon be starring in the Valentine slasher “Heart Eyes”), his friends Tiffany (Liana Liberto, “Scream 6”, “Beach House”, “Haunted”) and several other young characters who we have seen as their older versions, and some of whom may be the killer(s).
But then this whole time travel thing starts when Jamie appears to have don’t change the past too much, convincing some people who she is but hiding who she is from others, and so on. She will try to prevent murders, one after another, and perhaps also do other vital things like connect her future parents, for example, or try to find out if she is a metaphorical puppy, that is to say the daughter of a very bitchy mother.
Not a lot of logic, a lot of humor
The truth is that despite the rather complex plot description and multitude of characters at different points, “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’ll probably find plenty of plot holes or illogical script failures. However, I’m very forgiving of these problems in time travel based horror films because we didn’t come here to find logic.
As a horror film, it’s hard to say that “Totally Killer” is scary – there are mostly a few fairly predictable scares – and just a little gore, which is way too minimal for films, in my opinion. It does a partial job as a “Whodoneit” slasher as some of the twists and turns range from routine to uninteresting or illogical. Still, the combination somehow works, mainly because “Totally Killer” is a funny movie. Much of its humor lies in the cultural gaps and differences between the past and the present, primarily the permissiveness of the 1980s contrasting with political correctness, the moral conservatism of the “Me-Too” era in television and cinema, and technological gaps.
Many of these jokes work, although I have to say that in some cases the film attempts to “explain” the joke through Jamie’s witty and cynical commentary on what we are seeing. In my opinion, these the additions were sometimes quite unnecessary and damaged by the film’s comedic flow. Part of their goal was probably to present Jamie as – you know – a witty, cynical girl.
Impressive cinema, 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 of the characters here are interesting and even have some depth. Development and depth aren’t apparent in a movie with such a “massive” roster of characters because there are a lot of victims and potential 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 murder of the poor girls. The film asks – in a not-so-original way, it’s important to note – whether this is related, by chance, to the fact that the bitchy girls were quite bitchy to some people they knew, which may have led to terrible things happening.
The direction 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 screenplay includes some well-done humor. Surprisingly, there aren’t many stupid, annoying young characters here that we want to see dead because otherwise we’ll just jump on screen and murder them ourselves because they’re so stupid and annoying.
Here we have the well-known cliché of acceptable, pretty, bitchy girls who are nicknamed “the Mollies” (after Molly Ringwald. Yes, from “Sixteen Candles”. Quite a coincidence).but they are sufficiently interesting or attractive to justify this choice. There’s even an emotional connection between the characters and some moving scenes, although it’s not on the level of that heartbreaking scene between Terry and his mother in “Happy Death Day 2” (of course, there’s a reason I mention that movie).
What I missed a little is everything related to the fact that we’re talking about a horror film here, and more specifically a slasher: the murder scenes are quite routine, ranging from disappointing to passable with a much higher potential to become a cult classic, like a murder that takes place on a waterbed.
Ignoring the fundamental lack of logic that must be present in a film about going back in time or some black holes in the plot, the screenplay – by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver and Jen D’Angelo – gets the job done, 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 deft hand behind the scenes or vision-wise, and in most cases you can see it.
Should you watch Totally Killer?
“Totally Killer” is definitely worth a watch if you’re looking for something light to watch, trying to find clues about the killer, being in some tension over the fate of the main characters, and also having a laugh here and there.
We are far from reinventing the wheel in the context of the excessive cross-genre slashers that we have encountered recently. Here you will find elements reminiscent of an 80s teen comedy (focus of course on “I Was 16” with Molly Ringwald, the star of teen films at the time, with some direct references) but also later films (“Mean Girls”), slashers we grew up with like “Halloween”, “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” time travel movies and more.
Although it’s not certain that the film will become a franchise, as some reviews suggest, giving a “V” to just 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
Scenario: David Maaran is, Sasha Perl-Rev and Jen D’
Operating time: 106 minutes
Country of production: United States, Canada
Language: English
Release date (Amazon Prime Video): 6.10.23
Budget: Undisclosed
Winnings: The film was released in streaming and was not shown in cinemas
MPAA Rating (Parents Guide): A.
Review rating:
BDIM: 6.5
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
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