Totally Killer

Totally Killer is a 2023 American slasher comedy film directed by Nahnatchka Khan from a screenplay by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D'Angelo, and a screen story by Matalon and Perl-Raver. Produced by Jason Blum, under his Blumhouse Television banner, and Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath under their Divide/Conquer banner, it stars Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, and Julie Bowen. The story follows Jamie (Shipka) who, after her mother is murdered by the same Sweet 16 Killer who went on a murder spree 35 years earlier, travels back in time to 1987, where she pairs up with her mother to catch the killer during his original spree and return to her timeline before she is trapped in the past forever.

Totally Killer premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 28, 2023, and was released on Amazon Prime Video on October 6, 2023.

Plot
In the small town of Vernon, on October 27, 29, and 31, 1987, three teenage girls named Tiffany Clark, Marisa Song, and Heather Hernandez were killed by the Sweet 16 Killer, each having been stabbed 16 times on the nights of their 16th birthdays.

In the present day, teenager Jamie Hughes goes to a concert with her friend Amelia on Halloween night while her mother, Pam, stays at home. Pam used to be friends with the three victims of the Sweet 16 Killer, and while handing out candy, she is attacked by the killer, who stabs her to death. As Jamie grieves Pam's death, she helps Amelia put the finishing touches on a time machine she created for a school project and is approached by reporter Chris Dubasage, who tells her that Pam received a note from the killer that she kept secret: "You're next, one day."

At night, Jamie is chased by the killer and hides in the time machine, which activates and sends her back to 1987. She realizes that if she stops the Sweet 16 Killer's original spree, she can save Pam's life. Jamie, masquerading as an exchange student from Canada, discovers that Pam and her friends were despised by everyone in the town as they were bullies. Jamie manages to convince Amelia's mother, Lauren, and a teenager named Doug, her school's present-day principal, to help her. Although Jamie manages to infiltrate a party hosted by Tiffany, she is unable to stop her murder. Using the trauma to bond with Pam, she infiltrates their group and convinces them to leave for the weekend, although this backfires; they end up at the cabin where Marisa was killed in the original timeline. As Jamie works to protect Marisa, Heather is murdered instead, changing the timeline.

On Halloween night, the group reconvenes at the amusement park while Lauren works on turning a popular attraction into a makeshift time machine for Jamie to travel forward. In the present, Chris helps Amelia fix their time machine as they realize the timeline is changing. The group lures the Sweet 16 Killer into a haunted house where he attacks them, only to be impaled by Kara, the future town sheriff, with a scythe. Doug is revealed as the killer, seeking revenge on the group for the death of his girlfriend Trish. Marisa reveals that she, Tiffany, and Heather got Trish drunk one night and let her drive home, with her dying in an accident; Pam, however, was not present. As Jamie wonders why Pam received the note, a second killer appears and slits Marisa's throat.

The second killer chases after Jamie, killing Chris' father along the way. The two face off in the new time machine as it activates, and the killer is revealed to be Chris from the present. Doug was the original killer, but Chris murdered Pam and forged the note in order to generate more content for his podcast. The two fight and Jamie kicks him into the spinning machine, killing him. Upon returning to the present day, she finds that Pam is still alive. However, Jamie's intervention in the past has resulted in an alternate future in which her parents got together earlier than they had originally. Consequently, she now has an older brother named Jamie and her name is now Colette. Lauren then gives her a notebook detailing everything that had changed from her intervention: Lauren and Pam became best friends; her new brother has a husband and a three-year-old daughter; Randy, her old coach, is now the school principal; Damon, the groundskeeper, started a video game company and anti-bullying association in honor of Trish, his sister; and Chris, who was traumatized by seeing his father killed by his alternate self, has traveled to a monastery in India to become a monk, though Lauren keeps tabs on him just in case.

Production
In May 2022, Amazon Studios and Blumhouse Television announced Totally Killer which is being directed by Nahnatchka Khan and written by Jen D'Angelo and David Matalon and Sasha Perl-Raver. Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Julie Bowen, and Randall Park were cast in leading roles. It is produced by Jason Blum, under his Blumhouse Television banner, and Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath under their Divide/Conquer banner.

Principal photography took place from May 12 to June 23, 2022, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Release
Totally Killer premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 28, 2023. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on October 6, 2023.

Reception
Christy Lemire, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. She called it "a fish-out-of-water comedy filled with amusing one-liners combined with time-travel sci-fi that actually kinda makes sense." Michael Nordine of Variety wrote, "In trying to break the tension with humor, too many horror movies undercut their emotional stakes by instead being glib, a pitfall Totally Killer mostly manages to avoid." The A.V. Club 's Matthew Jackson gave it a B grade, saying the film was "not necessarily a new slasher classic, but it is the kind of film horror devotees can happily kick back and enjoy on a cozy Friday night in October, and that's a particular achievement all its own."

Tatat Bunnag of the Bangkok Post said that director Nahnatchka Khan "successfully captures the vibrant atmosphere and fluorescent colours of the 80s, while also deftly highlighting the problematic attitudes and behaviours of that era when viewed through today's lens." The Times of India 's Abhishek Srivastava gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, calling it "akin to a guilty pleasure; while it may easily be classified as a B-grade slasher film on paper, once you see the final product on the screen, you somehow find yourself enjoying it."

Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, writing, "Its time-travel slasher plot cribs elements from all and relies on enthusiasm over invention to keep us entertained, a gamble that only works in brief bursts." The New York Times's Brandon Yu wrote, "Its '80s throwback setting is short on color and life, and its slasher elements lack the choreographic or cinematic oomph to induce any terror, or even tension." Dominic Baez of The Seattle Times gave it 1.5 out of 4 stars, saying it "wants to make a joke at its source material's expense, but all it ever accomplishes is making you want to watch those classics instead."