Totally Killer

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.

"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.

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.

This movie is combined with slasher movies like Scream (1996) with the time traveling of the movie Back to the Future (1985) along with it being a horror comedy, and that is why I saw this movie. The movie Totally Killer (2023) was a fun and entertaining slasher movie with an interesting idea, good performances, an entertaining killer, and some funny moments; but there are some slight issues with the movie involving the use of the time traveling or the slasher part of the movie. Also, the whole 1987 setting when she goes to the past was well done, and felt like we were in that year, even when certain things are exaggerated for the movie.

I liked the main character Jamie Hughs played by Kiernan Shipka and thought she did an excellent job as this teenager accidentally going back in time and trying to stop this killer; I also liked how Jamie and her younger mom, played by Olivia Holt, bonded despite not knowing that much about the year 1987 or 2023. Jamie Hughs's teenage mom played by Olivia Holt was also good in the movie, and much like the other teenage versions of people Jamie knows, they are either unlikable or annoying, but you can tell that it is intentional because they are teenagers in the 80's.

The Sweet Sixteen Killer had a simple looking design with a weird mask, and 80's looking clothes; he stabs people sixteen times, and it is cool seeing him killing people, but I would have liked to see more variety on how he kills someone than just stabbing them. Though it was entertaining to watch him show up to kill people, I would have liked more of him, because there were moments in the movie that I wanted him to show up in. I liked the use of time traveling in this, but it was explained too much on how it works, when they could have used it more; the movie was funny at times with it making fun of certain things in the 80's and referencing Back to the Future (1985) on how time works.

The reveal of the killer could have been better, but the movie has a fun fight against the killer and a cool third act climax on spinning ride at an amusement park. Despite some of the issues, Totally Killer (2023) was a fun and entertaining horror comedy like Happy Death Day (2017) or Freaky (2020) that people would like if they liked those movies; there might people who do not like horror comedies with some people just wanting a horror movie and some just wanting a comedy movie, but as long as you have fun and are entertained by the movie then you will like it.

No representation of Heavy Metal kids. In the 1987 metal was king. You would expect to see plenty of black t-shirts with bands on them.

Nobody is dressing up like Molly Ringwald. That's just crazy.

The flannel shirt and haircut with all of it the one length of her dad when he's young is straight out of 1994. Long hair wasn't like that in the 80s it was a lot more mullet like. Think hair bands or Mel Gibson in lethal weapon.

A big problem with this film is that it wasn't made in the Valley. If you're going to call it totally killer you would expect to see a big valley girl clique with 80s haircuts and hair. All they needed to do was view weird science to see how the 80s was. This movie is like they did no research and never lived through the 80s. Also the music was so mainstream 80s and no kids would listen to that.

Anyway. As a movie it's not sure if it's a time travel movie or a horror. It fails at both pretty much and doesn't have much if any comedy. Maybe I don't think much of this film. It's really pretty boring like if Gen Z decided to make a film about the 80s and had no clue whatsoever what they were doing. I know it's a stretch right :P.