Thursday, 19 October 2023

VOD: Totally Killer (dir: Nahnatchka Khan, 2023)

"How much do you know about quantum mechanics?"
"I saw
Endgame, but I didn't really understand it."

Starting off on present-day Halloween, this knowing and fun horror is set in a small town where thirty-five years ago, three girls were killed by the Sweet Sixteen Killer, and when the killer seemingly returns and strikes again close to home, student Jamie gets taken back to the original scene of the crimes in 1987 via a friend's science fair time machine and has to confront the killer, 80s high school and its students, including her future parents, and try to save the victims before they are killed.  In Freaky we had the body-swap tropes applied to the horror genre, Happy Death Day was Groundhog Day, and here we have Scream meets Back To the Future, and a lot of fun is had with the (high) concept.  Narratively, the strength here is the interplay between the generation of parents who experienced the original spree and their children/the next generation, together with Jamie's 80s culture-clashing 2020s perspective and attitudes.  The film is made with love for the genre and horror fans, with some sly (and some less subtle) references to classic films, a few good chuckles along the way and it does not stint on the violence.  Playing like a more playful version of Scream, it is not designed to be profound or intellectual; Totally Killer is simply light, breezy fun that aims to please and entertain, and on those fronts it certainly scores.
 

No comments: