🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Nahnnatchka Khan
In 2023, 35 years after the Sweet Sixteen Killer murdered three high school girls in 1987, the small town of Vernon is the site of a true crime podcast tour and the home of Jamie (Kieran Shipka) whose parents Pam (Julie Bowen) and Blake (Lochlyn Munro) lived through the murders all those years ago. When the killer comes back on Halloween night to claim a victim he left behind (Jamie’s mom), she finds herself transported back to 1987.
Jamie is thrown into the high school of the 80’s and her mom, who she thought was an overbearing nerd, is a mega-bitch and leader of “The Mollys” a Heathers inspired group of girls obsessed with Molly Ringwald. More shockingly, her dad’s a gorgeous muscle bound jock who all the girls are obsessed with. Maneuvering through dodgeball games, drunken parties and a weekend at a cabin in the woods, Jamie has to stop the killer from ever claiming a victim and get back…to the future! (Lucky for her, the movie came out in ’85, so we have some basic time travel rules to follow.)
I loved every second of this movie! From the music to the clothes to the hairstyles, it was exactly what I was hoping for (and only 106 minutes!). Is it the most original idea ever? No! It’s Scream meets Back to the Future sprinkled with a hearty dose of elevated but still silly and crude, Scary Movie meets Not Another Teen Movie humor. The film covered almost every horror and teen movie trope you can think of and made me laugh while doing it. Kieran Shipka is an absolute delight and the ensemble cast had great chemistry. Totally Killer is a totally fantastic horror comedy.
Totally Killer is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Review by Liz Williams