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“Back To The Future” and “Halloween” had a baby, and it’s a problem child. In 1987, the “Sweet Sixteen Killer” went on a killing spree of three teenage girls. When the killer reappears in 2023 to take another victim, Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) must travel back in time to team up with her teenage mother (Olivia Holt) and stop the killer before he can start. The horror genre has a tendency to feel lazy and predictable, and “Totally Killer” fails to be much different. Despite a few entertaining action sequences and admittedly surprising plot reveals, the film is generally slow, formulaic, and indistinguishable from any horror movie that has come before it.
The first trap that “Totally Killer” falls into is that of predictable writing. Early in the film’s runtime, Pam (Julie Bowen) is being attacked by the masked murderer known as the “Sweet Sixteen Killer.” While defending herself, Pam remarks that “I’ve been worried about being murdered since I was 16. You thought I wouldn’t be prepared?” It’s moments of dialogue like these, present throughout the film, which are forced and unnatural — that distract the viewers from what’s actually going on in the story.
“Totally Killer,” centered on a teenager from 2023 time traveling back to 1987, leans heavily into satirizing the general political incorrectness of people in the ’80s. However, many of these moments in the film were written sloppily and feel like a plea for public approval rather than meaningful dialogue. At one point, Jamie is trying to get into a party and when she tries to barge in, Randy (Jeremy Monn-Djasngar), the film’s token foolish jock, lightly pushes her back. When this happens, Jamie recoils, exclaiming “unwanted touch, oh my god, unwanted touch.” Throughout the film, Jamie has several of these interactions where her 21st century ideals seem to clash with the teenagers she’s dealing with in the ’80s. Through these forced lines, the writers try too hard to insert these moments wherever possible, and in turn, are unsuccessful in perpetrating a meaningful message or resolution.
Following in the path of its horror film predecessors, “Totally Killer” focuses on discovering the identity of the masked killer. In a film like this, writers have to try their best to mislead the viewer for the sake of a surprising reveal at the end. However, in “Totally Killer,” one character is completely misused in pursuit of throwing the viewer off the trail. Throughout the film, one teenager that the other students call Lurch (Zachary Gibson) is always hanging around as the quintessential creepy and suspicious character of the film. He is quiet and stand-offish, and when Jamie is forced to sit next to him in a science class, she sees his notebook full of erratic writing, scary drawings, and the words “SHOOT EM IN THE HEAD” scribbled in bold letters. Lurch’s character is designed in a way that is trying way too hard to convince the viewer that he’s the killer, leaving the audience with the knowledge that one of two things is going to happen: an unsurprising ending in which Lurch is revealed to be the killer, or a plot twist where Lurch turns out to be innocent, which everyone will have been able to predict anyways.
Despite its predictability, “Totally Killer” is a masked murder thriller which is genuinely entertaining in several moments. For a film which misses the mark on several occasions in terms of subverting expectations and creating an unpredictable plot, various reveals during the ending sequence are genuinely surprising and satisfying to see unfold. Without delving into any spoilers, viewers can rest assured that the film’s final action is filled with the usual twists, turns, and heart-pounding moments typical of an effectively suspenseful horror film. If anything, the ending simply leaves the viewer wondering why there couldn’t have been more of the same action and suspense distributed throughout the film instead of clustered all at the end.
In a genre that can easily feel poorly executed, “Totally Killer” is not much of an outlier. The writing is generally lazy, much of its dialogue tries too hard to be overly socially conscious in places where it doesn’t need to be, and its execution of horror genre norms in suspense and surprise are lacking. Nevertheless, the film succeeds in delivering entertainment and a few good jumpscares littered throughout. Viewers going to see this film can expect a fun storyline and some great ’80s cultural references, but should be ready to experience a few eye rolls along the way.
