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| Images courtesy of Amazon Prime Video |
American Dad executive
producer and Young Rock co-creator Nahnatchka Khan, in her second
official feature following the Netflix produced romantic comedy Always Be My
Maybe has officially joined forces with the Blumhouse team in the new
forthcoming Amazon Prime original film Totally Killer. A postmodern riff on the teen slasher horror
flick, science fiction time travel comedy, nostalgia piece for a bygone era and
just a plain old fun October film to drop right in time for Halloween. As a critic and devoted horror fan still
getting over the stench farted out in David Gordon Green’s disgraceful The
Exorcist Believer, Totally Killer is a bit refreshing for mixing the
slasher scream queen driven horror comedy with meta fourth wall breaking
elements ala Happy Death Day or Freaky which tonally it has the
most in common with.
Opening on a flashback on the story of the Sweet Sixteen
Killer on Halloween in the town of Vernon who murdered several of Jamie Hughes’
(Kiernan Shipka) parents’ friends at a Halloween party, the disgruntled modern
high-schooler trying to maneuver the overprotective clutches of mother Pam
(Julie Bowen) and her father Blake (Lochlyn Munro). One fateful Halloween night, the killer
returns and despite her best efforts at self-defense, Pam is killed. A devastated Jamie learns one of her best
friends at the school science fair has somehow or another made a makeshift
time-machine out of a telephone booth (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure anyone?)
and the idea hatches of going back in time to stop the killer before the crime
even happens.
Chased by the killer herself into the time machine, she
finds herself transported back to 1987 in an effects heavy montage Time
After Time style with frequent name drops of a certain Back to the
Future movie. Befriending mean girl
Pam (played by Olivia Holt as a teen) and bumping into hot jock Blake (Charlie
Gillespie), the film then becomes a bit of a synth heavy sleepover slasher type
of horror comedy with a lot of self-references as Jamie tries to alter the
course of the future and still make it back home alive. Then the film starts the time-honored
tradition of keeping you and the survivors guessing who the killer might be
with suspicion cast on everyone including Jamie herself.
Written by Workaholics producer Jen D’Angelo and The
Muse actress Sasha Perl-Raver, co-starring Always Be My Maybe actor
Randall Park as a cynical police officer and a host of young newcomers, Totally
Killer is both a whimsically tongue-in-cheek throwback to distinctly
mid-80s slasher horrors while channeling the clashing cultural timelines of the
old and new while making its influences plain as day. Including but not limited to calling out Back
to the Future, the film also is also a cacophony of cool needle drops of
the day such as New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle and Echo & The
Bunnymen’s The Killing Moon which naturally made me think of Donnie
Darko. And speaking of that movie, the
film recruits the same composer of that film Michael Andrews who provides a
suitably synthesized period score of the 1980s.
Lensed by Young Rock cinematographer Judd Overton, the film has
the look of a made-for-television streamer which isn’t ideal but is otherwise
fine for this kind of low budget horror slasher.
Acting wise the ensemble cast is fine with Mad Men actress
Kiernan Shipka giving viewers a spunky scream queen who was trained how to
fight by her parents, sidestepping the cliches of damsels in distress running
away from a knife wielder. Probably the
most seasoned horror veteran in the piece is character actor Lochlyn Munro as
Kiernan’s father who has been in everything from Scary Movie to Freddy
vs. Jason. Hubie Halloween actress
Julie Bowen is back for more October oriented shenanigans as Kiernan’s mother,
played with sharp tongued relish as a teen by Olivia Holt. Most of the rest of the cast is made up of
teen actors who generally do a good job of behaving in a decidedly
unprogressive era, replete with crass references to sex, subtle racism and
frequent head butting between 2023 Jamie Hughes and the slightly archaic world
she’s been transported back into.
A nice little treat for slasher horror comedy fans eager to
kick back and have some old-fashioned fun, this clever Amazon Prime Original
streamer released under the new Blumhouse Television banner is a delightful
little made-for-TV film. While not as
polished or fully furnished as some of the other more recent examples of the
same like the aforementioned Happy Death Day films, its heart is in the
right place and as such feels like a cleaner digital version of a regional
exploitation slasher with a snarky smirk and tongue firmly planted in
cheek. Not particularly scary but a fun
slasher thriller and playful spin on Back to the Future lore. Think of it as Freaky by way of Are
You Afraid of the Dark?
--Andrew Kotwicki
