Even over forty years on, we can’t get enough of the ‘80s — and neither can director Nahnatchka Khan, whose upcoming slasher-comedy Totally Killer hits Prime Video this Friday. She takes us back to a time of big hair and even bigger movies with her story about teenage Jamie (Kiernan Shipka), who finds herself transported back to 1987, in an attempt to stop the “Sweet 16 Killer” who murdered her mother’s high school best friends, only to discover that her teenage mother (Olivia Holt) isn’t as nice as everyone remembers her being. She is a type A mean girl, long before Regina George would ever hit the scene.

In a world still so obsessed with the 1980s — how many people do you know who still complain that MTV doesn’t play music anymore? — it’s a novel concept for a horror comedy, one that wears its knowledge of the genre on its sleeve like a teen who collects Depeche Mode vinyl for fun. While slashers have largely been abandoned in favor of more complex horror concepts, Totally Killer knows its roots and celebrates them, taking the subgenre back to barebones basics, with a little bit of Marty McFly flair thrown in for good measure.

When the trailer was initially released, many noted that the base concept was the same as (or similar to) The Final Girls, a 2015 comedy starring Taissa Farmiga about a young girl who’s transported into a 1980s slasher film starring her deceased mother. But while they may fall into the same camp, the same could arguably be said about nearly every slasher to come out of the genre both are echoing — I mean, changing the weapon doesn’t really separate Michael Myers from The Driller Killer, does it? And while The Final Girls played itself as a straight comedy — one that ripped off Friday the 13th so squarely that none of it ever worked — Totally Killer has the (blood and) guts to give Shipka’s Jamie some chutzpah, letting her use saving her mom’s friends as a way to process her own grief.

Shipka Shines in ‘Totally Killer’
Image via Prime Video

She gives a strong performance as a girl stuck out of time and mourning her mother, having come a long way from her days on Mad Men, and even on The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. She’s especially memorable alongside Troy L. Johnson as the younger version of her best friend’s mother, the only one who believes her when she says she’s from the future. They make a solid team, despite the notes of early Disney Channel in the script — the rest of the girls around her can’t decide if they want to be the Heathers or Deborah Foreman’s friends in Valley Girl, making me groan just as much as when the latter decides that Nicolas Cage’s Randy is like, totally uncool.

The film’s ‘80s influences are clear and present throughout the script, mixing and mashing titles everyone remembers, either from their own childhoods or when their moms plopped them down in the front of the TV as kids, right before she traumatized them when the horse in The Neverending Story bites it. It’s as much the self-referenced Back to the Future as it is Halloween or The Slumber Party Massacre, and it exists in the same kind of heightened reality, where people can build time machines out of DeLorean cars or photo booths and serial killers wear goofy-ass party masks when they murder their victims. There’s not an inch of realism in this film, and that’s for the better. While it never fully succeeds, Khan understands that strange in-between place that ‘80s films exist in and mimics that energy well, even if the script doesn’t quite keep up.

She’s also clearly studied her slasher kills well, as the film isn’t afraid to lean into the blood when things start to go sideways. From the jump, the kills are as gory as you’d want from a slasher, even a horror comedy, and it saves the whole thing from going into total cheese territory when the jokes stop landing. To stab someone sixteen times is no joke, and Khan wants to make sure you know it, making the dead-eyed stare of the killer’s mask as chilling as it can be under the circumstances.

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‘Totally Killer’ Is a Little Self-Conscious
Image via Blumhouse Productions

Where the film begins to wear thin, though, is where it stops embracing the cheese of the ‘80s and starts acting like it needs to apologize for it. Running through the entire film is an undercurrent of too much self-awareness, a constant acknowledgment that the ‘80s were a different time, specifically in terms of racism, misogyny, and a whole host of other issues. Jamie is constantly (no really, constantly) shocked by the things coming out of everyone’s mouth, and spends a not insignificant amount of her screentime trying to parent the teens around her, correcting their behavior even though it does exactly nothing, either for the characters or for the plot in general. It’s an obvious attempt by the screenwriters to say, “Look, we know better!”, but it’s a joke that gets old fast, particularly when the audience also knows better and doesn’t appreciate being spoonfed the reminder that hey, everyone over twenty-five probably held gross beliefs once!

Moreover, it breaks the common rule of “show, don’t tell,” and erodes Jamie’s personality as a result — what chance does she get at character development when she’s constantly pointing out how wrong everyone is for their snide remarks or casual sexism? Like, yes, we all know that Revenge of the Nerds is creepy and weird now and that Top Gun is clearly the superior Anthony Edwards movie, but did we really need an entire B-plot about that? For me, the answer’s a solid no.

That precise issue becomes part of a larger problem that encompasses most “throwback” films set in the ‘80s — they hesitate to fully commit to the bit, whether that’s with the lingo or the settings or, most egregiously, the costumes. As it states to itself many times, the film attempts to ape Back to the Future, but at least copying ‘50s silhouettes was common practice in the ‘80s, reflected then in Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson’s costumes. Here, it feels like a college party sponsored by Spirit Halloween, adding in the bargain version of the Heathers to really make it stick. This is, admittedly, more a design problem than a direction one, but the script and the lackluster look go hand in hand. If kids on the Internet can commit to the acid wash and the perms, why can’t studios, who almost certainly have more money in their pockets?

There is, ultimately, enough sincerity in this film for it to work. Shipka’s performance is heartfelt enough that she sells the attempts at feminist shock-and-awe as well as she can, and she carries the film’s throughline of generational trauma on the shoulders without letting it falter — a necessary strength for a project like this. While I might have appreciated more sincerity from this (a benchmark of most ‘80s films), what it does with the concept evokes other modern slashers like Freaky or Happy Death Day, a sure sign that the subgenre isn’t quite dead yet.

Rating: B

The Big Picture

Totally Killer is a slasher-comedy that takes audiences back to the ’80s, celebrating the genre’s roots with a time-travel twist and a strong performance from Kiernan Shipka. The film pays homage to classic ’80s horror movies while embracing the nostalgia of the era, with gory kills and a self-referenced ’80s script that captures the unique energy of the time. While the film succeeds in its concept and performances, it stumbles when it becomes too self-conscious about the ’80s, constantly pointing out societal issues and overshadowing character development.

Totally Killer premieres on Prime Video on October 6.