Totally Killer

Totally Killer (2023) starts with a killer who murdered three people in 1987 returning thirty five years later. Jamie loses her mother and falls through a time machine into 1987. To stop the killer she has to work with her mother, who is now the same age she is. The idea is to combine two genres: the eighties slasher and the time travel comedy. Coming from 2023, Jamie tries to warn the victims and nobody listens, while she keeps colliding with the social rules of the decade. That collision is the best material in it. Her mother in 1987 turns out to be an unpleasant popular girl, and Jamie is meeting her for the first time like that. Nahnatchka Khan directed. She comes from television and created Fresh Off the Boat. Kiernan Shipka plays Jamie and Olivia Holt her young mother. It was made for Amazon Prime Video and released in October 2023. It runs 104 minutes. Good for: horror comedy, eighties references, and time travel plotting. Less good for: the killings are bloody but the tension is low; the film is never actually frightening. The time travel rules are inconsistent and the critique of the eighties is shallow, most of the jokes resting on clothes and technology.