Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Julie Bowen, Randall Park
Intro:
Unique and ambitious, this film is unapologetically silly and all the more fun for exactly that reason.
Our story starts like any other high school comedy—Jamie’s over-protective mother Pam is out to ruin her life by setting curfews and demanding that her father act as chaperone when all Jamie wants to do is see a concert on Halloween. Turns out Pam has a valid reason for her paranoia when the serial killer who stalked and murdered her friends on their 16th birthday suddenly makes a comeback.
Running for her life through the school science fair, things take a turn for the significantly weirder when a re-wired photo booth sends Jamie back in time to 1987, the peak of her mum’s teen mean girl era and, conveniently, the day before the killer’s first murder. It’s a race against time for Jamie to solve the murders and get back home, and if the killer doesn’t end her life, high school gym class in the 1980s just might.
Always Be My Maybe director Nahnatchka Khan layers genre upon genre in this pop-culturally aware meta joyride through the decades. It’s Back to the Future with a body count, starring Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) as Jamie, who serves as the lynchpin amongst all the absurdity, somehow maintaining her roll-with-the-punches attitude even after being tossed back in time 35 years, only to find out her dad was attractive and her mum was a bully.
As a seasoned writer and producer for television, Khan is well-versed in genre tropes, and along with writers David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver and Jen D’Angelo, she’s having a ball combining all the familiar teen slasher flick beats with a bonkers sci-fi twist. Taking the predictability of this brand of horror film and turning it on its head by inserting a character who genuinely can predict events, takes us on a detour into Donnie Darko territory, and yet we quickly veer away from any philosophical deep-thought, the writers making a point of reminding the audience that time travel movies are confusing and if you’re looking for plot coherency you’ve come to the wrong genre mash-up.
Sincere in its nostalgia and equally as straight-forward in pointing out the more problematic aspects of the ‘80s, the script doesn’t shy away from the ludicrous aspects of being a 2020s teen in a pre-politically correct world, but manages to insert the social commentary without ever once straying off-brand and taking itself too seriously.
While Totally Killer will never stand out as a world-shattering addition in any of the genres it traverses, it does walk the line between worlds quite impressively, managing to capture the spirit of both Halloween and The Breakfast Club, which is a feat in itself. Unique and ambitious, this film is unapologetically silly and all the more fun for exactly that reason.
