Totally Killer Review: Kiernan Shipka's Horror Comedy Is Like A Back To The Future Slasher Movie [Fantastic Fest 2023]
"Totally Killer" isn't shy about its influences and shortcomings, and doesn't care about hiding either. Director Nahnatchka Khan openly acknowledges the silliness of time-travel films within the flummoxing narrative of her own silly time-travel film, hoping to earn points through humorous self-owns. A trio of writers come up with "Back to the Future" meets "Scream," which hopes to find its place in Blumhouse's slasher canon alongside emotionally-driven favorites like "Freaky" or "Happy Death Day." Khan's background producing and helming sitcoms like "Fresh Off the Boat" gives the film a Disney After Dark vibe that's not quite as sharp as Blumhouse's young adult favorites, but brutal kills and quirky '80s commentary become an unexpected selling point of this bodacious blast-from-the-past slasher.
Rising horror "It Girl" Kiernan Shipka stars as teenage Jamie Hughes, who is tied to the legacy of her town's famed serial murderer, the Sweet Sixteen Killer. In the present, she flees from the psychopath underneath a Max Headroom lookalike mask — right into her best friend Amelia's (Kelcey Mawema) science fair time machine. The device roars to life, and Jamie finds herself in 1987 with the opportunity to prevent the Sweet Sixteen Killer from butchering three high school girls with a Molly Ringwald obsession. Now Jamie has to survive a deluge of '80s references from BJ's wine coolers to The Police lyrics in addition to the Sweet Sixteen maniac's steel blade.
Comedy first, horror second
Beyond the surface-level comparisons to Marty McFly heroes and Ghostface villains you'll find the DNA of temporal horror comedies like "The Final Girls" or "Detention." Jamie's girl-gang relationship with her same-aged mother Pam (Olivia Holt) drives the sentimental wholesomeness beneath corpse piles, which isn't as achingly powerful as either prior example. Maybe that's because Kahn's direction feels made for primetime television laughs, rather corny and eye-rolly as '80s stereotypes blurt throwback dialogue for cheap pops. It's Wes Craven by way of "Saved by the Bell" meets "Hot Tub Time Machine," where humor sometimes drops to the lowest hanging fruits of saying '80s things like "cocaine" out loud because nostalgia references are funny, right?
Khan's guilty of a horror-comedy sin that many commit — the imbalance of overdoing comedy and undercutting horror. Don't get me wrong, "Totally Killer" earns genuine laughs by playing Jamie's "woke" 2023 brain against '80s carelessness and problematic rhetoric, and never in a scolding way, as contemporary social awareness clashes against toxic '80s machismo or crass innuendo graphic tees. The problem is how lopsided the balance between outright slasher thrills and a time-warped "Mean Girls" remix becomes, frequently leaving scarier intentions in the dust. That might not be a bother if you're into the Sleepover Core brand of horror storytelling that pads death scenes around the fluffiest, raunchy yet immature coming-of-age absurdity tuned into lower genre frequencies than Netflix's "Wednesday" or "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina."
Gruesome deaths hit out of nowhere
Then, out of nowhere, "Totally Killer" delivers gruesome death sequences that eviscerate the playful '80s bubble Jamie bounces about. When Khan permits her uneven slasher film to unleash its beast, we forget how Mr. Sweet Sixteen looks like a less-than-menacing Stretch Armstrong. I'd be even more effusive if "Totally Killer" used further practical effects as victims endure sixteen knife wounds versus the weaker digital splotches, but there's a noticeable uptick when obscene brutality shoos away safer horror-comedy buildups. Perhaps too infrequently, and maybe its impact feels more rapturous by comparison, but Khan has a bloodthirsty streak.
Shipka is a godsend for "Totally Killer," a charming teenage time traveler whose unshaken attitude about everything [gestures around] fits the tonal audacity. Plotlines fray as writers pay no mind to the quantum mechanical chaos theories which Shipka hilariously just rolls with. You can tell actresses such as Liana Liberato and Stephi Chin-Salvo are having a blast playing '80s stereotypes, but Shipka's one of the only performers not beholden to caricature attributes, and her fish-out-of-water navigation of events is crucial to the audience's enjoyment. She allows herself to get lost in the ridiculousness, which in turn lets viewers do the same.
"Totally Killer" doesn't care about being the wittiest, nastiest, or most subversive slasher of any era. Writers openly admit their desires to roll with storytelling that shrugs away flexible time travel rules that change to hurdle situational challenges. That'll no doubt be a pain point for some viewers, while others cackle along with basic observational '80s comedy and display zero frustration over head-scratching continuity across decades. "Totally Killer" tries to skirt responsibilities by having you laugh at its self-awareness, which works as much as it doesn't. Kiernan Shipka will be the reason people talk about "Totally Killer," even if the film's foundation of paper cards is one strong gust away from collapsing at any second.
/Film Rating: 7 out of 10