Totally Killer Director Has A Theory Why Comedians Make Good Horror Movies [Exclusive Interview]

If you look at Nahnatchka Khan's filmography, you won't see many titles suggesting she'd be a good fit for a bloody slasher movie. However, you will see plenty of titles that suggest she'd be ideal for a time traveling comedy about mothers and daughters, and how culture has shifted over the past 30 years. The fact that she can deliver a nasty slasher sequence in the new horror comedy "Totally Killer" will leave fans of her past work a little dizzy.

"Totally Killer" is built around one heck of a high concept pitch: What if a modern teen (Kieran Shipka), grieving the death of her murdered mother, goes back in time to the '80s to stop the killer's initial reign of terror, lower the body count, and ensure her mom's survival in the present? It's "Back to the Future" with a body count, leaning on '80s tropes without ever getting too nostalgic. In fact, the film's anti-nostalgia for the '80s may come as a relief to those burnt out on too many throwbacks. 

As the creator of "Don't Trust the B—- in Apartment 23," "Fresh Off the Boat," and "Young Rock," and the director of the Netflix hit "Always Be My Maybe," Khan has built a strong career on making folks laugh. But can she deliver a goofball horror comedy powered by a big ol' heart? /Film's review of "Totally Killer" certainly thinks so. I sat down with Khan ahead of the film's premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas to talk about the film, which is currently streaming on Prime Video. 

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Looking over your filmography up this point, there's not much horror at all.

Yeah.

What's your history with the genre? Have you always been a fan, or have you come to it through this film?

I've been a fan just as a viewer, and my wife works in that sort of landscape. She's a writer for, she was on "Haunting of Bly Manor," and she's on "Yellowjackets" and things. So she really kind of got me more and more into it, and introduced me to a bunch of different universes. So yeah, just as a fan and then getting a chance to make a movie like this was so fun.

There's a lot of people who work in comedy who tend to gravitate toward horror, either as a fan or as a filmmaker. The most famous example, of course, is Jordan Peele, but there's so many others. We saw that with Zach Cregger and "Barbarian" as well. Why you think comedy and horror are such interesting bedfellows?

I think maybe because a lot of people who work in comedy have nightmares about bombing so hard. I think we live on that edge. No, I think they're related in a lot of ways in terms of timing, in terms of setup, and just the idea of a threat that comes — because I think comedy, straight comedy, if it doesn't play and if it doesn't feel right, I think it is hard to come back from. I think there is a dark side to comedy, and I think that's why people are sort of attracted to the horror genre, I would say.

What's interesting about "Totally Killer" is it has sort of a bubble gum aesthetic. Then you deliver horror scenes that are quite bloody. Can you talk about the decision to go with that look and having contrast in that violent way?

Yeah, that was obviously a conscious thing because wanted to sort of lull you in and be like, "Okay, this feels like it's going to be fun" or whatever. And then to have these kills, these sorts of graphic, horrifying kills happen in that aesthetic, I think to me was a fun combination of the two elements of the movie. So it's like we're not tipping our hat, we're not leaving the audience anywhere. It doesn't suddenly become dark and moody or whatever. It's like anything can enter the frame at any time. And I liked that idea.

Horror comedy is tricky. If you lean too far to one side, you're no longer scary, you lean to the other side, you're no longer funny. How do you go about balancing that?

I mean, I think it's both, honestly. I think it's definitely that tightrope that you're constantly walking of tone. And you want to create a space that anything can happen and you don't want to feel those gear shifts, so it's like "this is a scary scene, this is a funny scene." You want everything to come in all at once to any scene. So it really is that kind of balance and not wanting to sell out the character for a joke, or deflate a moment too soon, but to know when you need that release style. So I think it's kind taking a step back almost and being like, "What's the big picture here?"

What are the conversations with your actors like? Because so much of the modulation of tone you're describing has to be performance. The camera is flexible, the camera can make a subtle change, but if a performance isn't selling that tightrope, then the movie falls.

That's right.

How do you direct your actors to walk that tightrope with you?

I mean, I think it depends on the role that they're playing. But in this movie for example, like Kiernan Shipka, who's the lead and driving everything, that was a lot of discussions that we had about, without giving anything away, this tragic event has happened to her in her life, but then she goes on this kind of wild ride time travel and all that, but never losing sight of why she's doing it. This very — because it goes to the stakes of the movie, too. It's like she needs to do this thing for this reason. And I think keeping that grounded just enough so it doesn't feel untethered and remind the audience why we're doing this. So you have the fun and games of being in the '80s and there's obviously a serial killer running around, so there's real stakes, but there's also this kind of very emotional reason that this woman is doing this.

There's a movie Kiernan Shipka starred in, and this was eight years ago, it was eventually released as "The Blackcoat's Daughter," but was called "February" at first. It played here at Fantastic Fest, and she's spectacular in it.

Amazing.

Between that and "Sabrina," she's definitely one of those proud modern genre leads. Has she embraced that?

Totally. She totally has. And she's such a professional. Because, I mean, she's been doing this since she was a baby, and she's worked in so many different genres. And I think embracing that she is this genre queen and she's just good at it. She, for whatever reason, I mean, because of her talent, makes you lean in and makes you care about what she's going through. So it could be the most heightened of circumstances. It could be time travel, and witches, whatever, but it's like she feels real always and you care about her.

The movie leans on her shoulders. The obvious reference point here is "Back to the Future," which was blessed with a lead as charismatic as Michael J. Fox. You need somebody who's going to carry both the comedic and dramatic weight, and I think she's pulling it off here.

Totally, totally. I'm so glad you think so. I think so, too. And I think it's a rare actor that can do that. And I think Kiernan, as her filmography has shown, she's able to sort of go jump back and forth into a bunch of different genres and do comedy. And the thing about her, too, is she's got a great sense of humor about herself, and so she's willing to do anything it takes, and try anything, and be collaborative, and just have fun, but then also carry this kind of deep well of emotion where then she can suddenly well up talking about a certain moment, or character or things like that. I think that's a really rare find.

Other than "Back to the Future," were there other movies, either horror, comedy, or '80s, that you leaned on as inspiration?

I think for the '80s element, all those John Hughes teen movies were definitely [influences], like "Weird Science," "Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink." "Heathers" was one, too. This sort of girl group in our movie in the '80s. And then "Scream" is obviously a big touchpoint as well, just blending that genre, walking that tightrope that we were talking about. And it's funny, in this movie too, we wanted to embrace the fact that Kiernan from 2023 would have all of these references, and we'd be trying to, when she goes back to '87, "Back to the Future" has been released, that came out in '85.

So she's trying to talk to people about, have you seen "Back to the Future? That's why I know this kill is going to happen." And some people are like, "What are you talking about?" But also she has a scene with her friend and she's like, "It's in 'Scream.'" She references "Scream," and they have no idea what she's talking about. So I think embracing those kinds of inspirations, I think, were definitely helpful for us. And then going back to the original stalker, slasher, the original "Halloween" was also a very helpful reference for us, too.

I'm a late '90s, early '00s kid, and I've reached the point where I'm trying to interact with colleagues and talk to people who were born in a year that makes me feel practically ancient. What were your conversations with the younger actors like?

Kiernan was 22 when we were shooting this. She and all these actors are so young. So I think it's the idea of some of the stuff that they're saying in the '80s that would never fly today, and just being like, there was no such thing as un-PC back then. That's how it was. And I think some of the references, people were questioning just the idea of how certain things work. Walkman references, and one of the actors I think thought we were talking about Discmans. We're like, "No, no, that's the evolution of the Walkman. The Walkman was precursor to Discman." So really, and then it was just Googling a bunch of stuff and just showing this is how it was back then.

For me, the biggest laughs in the movie come from just how appalled Kiernan Shipka's character is at how blunt the teachers are, and how nobody cares.

Nobody cares. There is no gentle gloves that they're using there.

The killer's mask, was that written in the script or was that something that you decided on as a director?

That was something that I decided in working with Tony Gardner at Alterian, who's done a bunch of mask designs for different movies and really wanting it to feel of the time of the '80s, but that also felt relevant in the present day because in the lore of this movie. It's like these kills have happened 35 years ago, but this town is defined by it. So people dress up as the serial killer and stuff. So having that math bridge two timelines was really important. And then having it feel fresh and different, especially in a slasher movie, there's so much relying on the mask of the killer, and what he looks like, and the idea of the mask being of a handsome man. That was something that, it was interesting, that guy being terrifying.

The idea of the mask being just this ultimate male symbol, this cocky-looking parody of a handsome white dude who's just stalking his way through this cast of people who aren't all white dudes.

That's right.

It feels very intentional.

Yeah, it definitely is. And there's a bunch of different levels to it. Just the first visual one of just this handsome white guy sort of thinking he can do what he wants, and sort of just take what he wants, and act however he wants. And I think that was an interesting thing to play with, especially back then.

There's a moment in the movie where the characters literally say time travel rules don't make sense. The movie seems to acknowledge that everyone will have more fun if they don't think too hard about the science fiction of it all.

Yeah. The sci-fi element was interesting, because as audience members, we're all familiar with time travel or whatever, so we wanted to acknowledge it, but we wanted to sort of not go too far down the rabbit hole with it, but really say the idea of the Mandela effect, and the idea of jumping out of a river, and running upstream, and the river still flows but the things are affected. So we're trying to talk philosophically about the idea of time. For us, the idea of going back, continuing to cut back to present day as Jamie's in the '80s, that was another thread that we were interested in seeing, because you don't normally see the effects in real time, like the changes that she's making back then are affecting stuff in present day. So I think that was the way that we tried to deal with it of showing rather than getting into the chalkboard science of it all. And then just having fun with it where she's like, "What do you know about quantum physics?" And she's like, "I saw 'Endgame,' but I didn't understand it." So it's like, okay.

It's hard to be mad at any movie that devotes about 15 seconds of screen time to people watching "Robocop." I wasn't expecting "Robocop."

I love that movie, "Robocop." I don't know if you're a fan of that.

Oh, a huge fan.

Huge fan of that movie. It was also a fun reveal of that character who Olivia Holt played. She plays this kind of alpha mean girl in the John Hughes '80s, but then she really loved these sci-fi movies and so they're watching in the mom's basement and it just felt like a perfect 1987 reference of her being afraid, and being like, "Do the machines kill us all?" "Robocop" is genius.

I hope you don't mind me having to end on the contractually obligated question. Do you foresee this being a franchise? Would you come back for a sequel where it was more time travel, a different slasher, or maybe different decade?

I know, I know. It's funny. Our DP was constantly pointing out, even when we were shooting, he's like, "You know, there's still a time machine in the '80s at the end of this movie." Without giving anything away, we leave our movie open because there is a time machine that's in 1987, so anything's possible — certainly time travel, but the door's open.

Did you ever see the Nicholas Meyer film "Time After Time"?

Is it a rom-com?

It's a lot of things. Malcolm McDowell is a time traveling H.G. Wells who travels to the '80s to stop Jack the Ripper, who stole his time machine. And I'm just thinking, if you're going to borrow from "Back to the Future" for part one, you should steal from "Time After Time" for part two.

Definitely. I'm putting that on my list. Jack the Ripper, for sure.

"Totally Killer" debuts on Prime Video on October 6, 2023.