Totally Killer

"Totally Killer" is basically a "Back to the Future" type slasher movie and it succeeds quite often in what it does.

Starting with the good the best part of this movie is by far Kiernan Shipka. She is great in the movie and her character as well is very likeable and extremely funny. Everyone else in the movie is also quite good. The comedy in the movie is really well done for the most part. The movies got some plentiful bloody moments that had me satisfied. Along with that I thought the directing was also pretty good. There's some fun chase scenes and a pretty fun final act I felt the pacing as well was very good, it starts at pretty fast and doesn't really stop. And finally I thought they captured the 80's aesthetic very well.

Now this isn't a perfect movie and unfortunately it does have a few issues. Starting with the films plot holes. There are quite a few plot holes that are raised in the finale that weren't really explained. I thought the other characters aside from the lead were rather unlikable, well acted but still. I wish there was a couple more sequences with the killer as he actually isn't in the movie much for the middle portion. And finally the killer I felt was very obvious, they didn't do the best job at hiding it.

Overall despite some plot holes and a pretty obvious killer, I thought that this movie was still a pretty good time. It's well acted, has good comedy, and some decent kills.

I enjoyed this movie. As a huge fan of 1980s horror, I was thinking this film about a teenage girl who time travels to the 1980s to stop an infamous serial killer who, in the present, has claimed her mother, would be very cheesy (and it is)... But who doesn't love cheese!

Although I was hoping for more references to 1980s horror classics (Think Friday the 13th with Jason, A Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddy Krueger) this film still manages to be a crowd pleaser for fans of 80s horror, at least this fan.

Quality performances, how good to see Lochlyn Munro back in horror comedy! A Totally Killer time for this 80s horror fan.

In 1987 three teenage girls, part of a group of friends, were murdered by the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ killer in the quiet town of Vernon. In the present these unsolved murders are still the most famous thing to have happened there. Pam Hughes was the fourth member of the group of friends; now she has her own teenage daughter, Jamie, who she is nervous about letting go out alone. One night when Jamie is out a masked killer murders Pam; it would appear that the Sweet Sixteen Killer is back! Jamie uses a time machine invented by her friend to return to 1987 and try to stop the killings and thus save her mother. Not only must she get close to her mother and her friends, she must find a way to get back to the present… and avoid becoming another victim of the killer.

I thought this was a lot of fun. There are plenty of laughs to be had but it avoids becoming a spoof of the genre. There is a real sense of danger and some moderately gory deaths. There are plenty of nods to well-known films of the time; most obviously ‘Back to the Future’ which is directly referenced several times. Tonally it has more in common with high-school movies and ‘Scream’ than the slasher films of the era; they tended to be much scarier and unpleasant. The characters are fun and the cast does a solid job; I particularly liked Kiernan Shipka, who played Jamie. I know some people were put off my Jamie’s criticisms of ‘80s attitudes and behaviour but it didn’t particularly bother me as it hardly effected the story. Overall a fun film for fans of the genre; if you liked ‘Happy Death Day’ and ‘Freaky’ you are likely to enjoy this.

If you're into campy slasher movies and 80's films you will love this movie. I started watching this without any preconceived notions but realized quickly that it would be a sort of Scream/John Hughes hybrid.

I was pleasantly surprised with all the throw back memories and innuendo. It is completely cheesy but that good cheesy that can make you miss a time/memory and yet still have room for that comedic killer feel.

It's not a perfect movie and doesn't claim to be but it is fun and will keep you entertained for almost two hours. Honestly, I wish there were more movies like this and I certainly wouldn't be mad if there was a part two.

I'm glad I went in knowing absolutely nothing about it; I thought it was just going to be a vaguely humorous slasher movie so I was very pleasantly surprised!

It was a fun ride from beginning to end that kept me engaged the whole time. The cast is doing a great job and the script has enough originality paired with poking fun at its own clichés that it doesn't feel like reheating the same formula. And the script manages to keep us guessing for the most part of the movie, if not until the end.

So all in all this was a great unexpected find and I do recommend it, especially as an alternative to the usual scary movies for spooky season.