‘Totally Killer’ Review: Kiernan Shipka in a Fun-Enough Time-Traveling ’80s Slasher Flick

The easiest way to describe Total killer is by listing all the other movies that come to mind. Plot-wise it is one Back to the future-style time travel adventure crossed with a Halloween-inspired slasher, all rolled into one Scream-slight sense of self-consciousness; tonally, the mix of comedy and horror lands in the same general territory as The last girls or the Happy dying day movies.

If the ingredients feel familiar, though, the script (by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D’Angelo) injects them with just enough heart and humor to keep them from feeling stale. Total killer may not be destined to become a classic in its own right. But the Amazon release is fun enough for a spooky seasonal evening.

The clueless Marty McFly is Jamie (Kiernan Shipka), a stereotypically rebellious teenager whose stereotypically overprotective parents (Julie Bowen and Lochlyn Munro) have more reason than most to be paranoid: 35 years ago, while still in high school, three of their friends were murdered in one week. Their worst fears come true when the unknown Sweet Sixteen Killer returns to claim a new victim on Halloween 2022. As he sets his sights on Jamie, she takes shelter in a time machine that hurls her back to 1987 via some endearingly chintzy graphics.

The unplanned trip inevitably causes a clash between the sensibilities of Gen Z and Gen X Total killer plays most expected beats. Jamie groans at the formerly racist school mascot, cringes at the overtly misogynistic language of her parents’ generation, coughs at the ubiquitous clouds of cigarette smoke. There are some clever subversions, like when Jamie unknowingly cuts off half a dozen weed brownies, only to be left completely unaffected because “’80s weed sucks.” And the necessary questions and answers about the future take a bitter turn in the 1920s when Jamie explains that no, the machines won’t kill us all in the end. Terminator or RoboCop – “They’re more just tearing apart the fabric of our society through dance videos on TikTok.”

However, none of her observations about the generation gap are really sharp enough to draw blood. This isn’t Gen Z satire Bodies Bodies Bodies nor a Gen X nostalgia trip Stranger things. The film is more about real blood. Although Jamie spends her time in 1987 trying to stop the murders before they happen, largely by trying to befriend the victims so she can convince them to make different choices, she is more successful at changing the details of the murder rather than preventing it. Total killer could probably be a bit gory, given the R-rating, but the bursts of violence are played at a fast enough pace to keep the viewer engaged throughout its 103 minutes.

Meanwhile, the time travel shenanigans are played with a cheerful, light touch. In the present, Jamie’s best friend, Amelia (Kelcey Mawema), is working to fix the time machine so Jamie can come home; in the past, Amelia’s even more brilliant mother-to-be, Lauren (Troy L. Johnson), did the same. Both are surprisingly blasé about the whole affair. “You don’t start inventing time travel without considering the possibility that people from the future might need your help,” Lauren shrugs as Jamie expresses surprise at how well she’s taking it all. Like most time travel films, the plot mechanism works best when you don’t think about it too much, especially towards the end. They hang together just well enough, while adding some extra momentum to Jamie’s timeline-altering quest.

And sometimes an extra touch of emotion. Total killer is not a particularly emotional film. On the contrary, everyone in the 1980s version is so unmoved by the shocking events unfolding there that the one time a man cries over the death of his girlfriend, a newsreader finds the display “fascinating.” But it locates a beating heart in the developing bond between Jamie and Pam (Olivia Holt), her mother’s younger self. The pair aren’t exactly buddies to begin with. Jamie is shocked to discover that Pam is an archetypal mean girl who finds it “hilarious” to make a social outcast believe that a popular boy likes her. (Carrie would have already existed at the time, but maybe Pam never looked into it?) For her part, Pam is understandably confused by the stranger who bursts into her friends’ lives out of nowhere and issues bizarre warnings of impending doom.

But the adventure puts Jamie in the position of protecting the very same person whose protection she will shake off 35 years later, and in doing so forces her to see Pam in a new light. Shipka is charming as a thoroughly modern heroine who can slip between badassery with a baseball bat and heart-on-sleeve sincerity — and though Pam’s response to the latter is to scoff at the fact that “no one wants to hear you talk about how much you love you’. Mom,” Holt shadows her with just enough vulnerability that we can see the caring woman she will become underneath the queen bitch teen she currently is.

Their budding friendship makes Total killer easy to like, even if the jokes don’t land as sharply as they could or if the kills don’t leave a memorable impression. It also makes the film feel surprisingly wholesome, despite all the bloodshed and hot teen hookups and seemingly endless supplies of weed and beer. It might even make you want to call your mom and tell her you love her.