I. Plot
In the movie Totally Killer, directed by Nanatchka Kahn (Always Be My Maybe) and with a screenplay/story written by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D Angelo, Kiernan Shipka plays Jamie, a teenager in high school, as she lives in the town of North Vernon (in 2023), where it has been 35 years (1987) since the rampage of the Sweet 16 Killer. This serial killer took the lives of three 16-year-old girls, stabbing them all 16 times, the first being Tiffany Clark (Liana Liberato), on her sixteenth birthday.
Back in present-day, we are introduced to Chris Dubasage (Jonathan Potts), a crime podcaster who is seemingly obsessed with the 35-year-old murders and is trying to keep the public interested in them with his podcast. It is Halloween Night in 2023, and Jamie wants to go to a concert with her best friend Amelia (Kelcey Melwama), and Pam Miller (Julie Bowen), who is incredibly careful this time of year each year due to her presence around the time of the killings in 1987, asks her husband to drive her to make sure she is safe.
Unfortunately, being alone in the house will cost Pam her life. She is attacked in her home by a killer dawning the same clothing and mask as the Sweet 16 Killer back in 1987 and after what is a strong and valiant fight put up by Pam, she is cornered as she is stabbed 16 times this masked maniac. Jamie, who had been so rude before leaving for the concert, is completely distraught. Then, on the next day, Jamie is chased by the killer into Amelia’s non-working time machine.
However, upon the killer stabbing the counsel with his knife, the machine works and brings Jamie back to October 27th, 1987, as that’s the date of the first Sweet 16 murder. Upon arriving, Jamie comes to realize that all the Sweet 16 victims, including her mother, are all part of the same friend group called the Mollies, due to their mutual worship of Molly Ringwald. She also meets the younger version of Amelia’s mother, Lauren Creston (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson), whom she explains her situation to. While Jamie tries to fit in with the Mollies and prevent the murders from happening so she can save her mom 35 years later, Lauren tries to work on a new time machine to eventually get Jamie back home to 2023.
II. Analysis
Opening Scene: The opening scene to the film, where the Sweet 16 Killer returns and takes Pam’s life is thrilling and exciting at first because she puts up one hell of a fight. She even yells out when he starts to attack her, “Don’t you think I’ve been ready to be potentially murdered for the last 35 years?” The audience can see Pam knows self-defense and is incredibly resourceful with weapons as well when trying to win the battle. The best part is probably the killer goes out the back door and then surprises Pam by coming back and rushing her through the front. It is incredibly sad when Pam is finally overtaken and killed, especially when one sees how upset and distraught Jamie is. Now the undertone for the movie is set. Pam’s death must be avenged. This scene is so clever as it establishes a wild mystery that provokes a lot of thought and curiosity.
Why wait 35 years (such a long time)? Why Pam? Because she was a Molly?
Similarities to Other Films: There were both allusions to other films and similarities to a number of others. For example, as will be discussed more later in the section describing the movie’s themes, the Mollies were huge bullies. Young Pam (Olivia Holt) even names a numerous amount of classmates they’ve bullied by their bullied nicknames. This is like a Mean Girls situation and Jamie even calls it exactly that in the movie. In reference to the murders, two other movies that were directly referenced were Halloween and Scream, which, in my opinion, this particular movie is a slight upgrade from in that the killer is much less clumsy here and the victims do put up valiant fights. Also, Jamie brings up Back to the Future about a thousand times as she tries to find a way to convince the local police and the Mollies that her story is true.
Finally, although not directly referenced in the movie, other slasher films similar to this one that have time travel in it include: Tim Cut, Happy Death Day 2U, Detention, & The Final Girls. Time Cut was probably the most similar, and in fact, almost a carbon copy of Totally Killer, which is not good since it came out a year later. However, the overall plot and ending in Time Cut make no sense, so our movie here still holds itself together better. Happy Death Day 2U is also very emotionally charged like Totally Killer in the sense that the main character, due to being transferred to a parallel universe by one of the character’s Sisysphus Quantum Cooling Reactors (SISSY); probably a little more sophisticated than a time machine, where her mother is still alive, as opposed to her own timeline, where her mother is dead. So, the heroine must make a choice on which timeline to stay in. The difference here is that Jamie is actively trying to save her mother by preventing these murders. There is never a time at all where she gives it a second thought. The climax in all these movies cannot compare to the one in Totally Killer though.
Dark Comedy: Totally Killer certainly had a dark and wicked sense of humor and sometimes the humor is so ridiculous and exaggerated that it’s laugh-out-loud funny. A few examples would be:
- Dodgeball in the gym with Coach Zane after Jamie transports back to 1987 and is told to go to gym class. The girls are literally beating the snot out of each other with the dodgeballs. It’s actually quite similar to that scene from the movie Dodgeball (1993), where the coach yells, “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!”
- When the Mollies, Randy, Blake, and Jamie are at the cabin in the woods and Jamie is trying to get them to be careful and all of the sudden yells out, “Oh my God!” Then there’s a long pause, meant to trick the audience into thinking that she saw something trouble, but then a few seconds later she says, “I forgot to bring vodka!”
- When Jamie gives the police the killer’s blood, thinking they could use his DNA to find him, not realizing it’s 1987 and that technology hadn’t been invented yet. The officers had a field day with her, mocking her and being super sarcastic. It was, however, fairly comical in its own dark way.
Thus, I think horror-comedy was very much achieved by the screenwriters of this film. I don’t believe this film could have been as exceptional as it was without all the dark comedy.
Climax: Totally Killer has a thrilling, action-packed, unexpected climax. In an effort to catch the killer once and for all, the Mollies and Jamie used Marisa as bait to draw the killer to the House of Horrors at the carnival, where each of them is hiding, waiting with weapons ready to fight, strike, and kill the Sweet 16 Killer once and for all. However, there’s a twist: there’s 2 killers!
Killer #1: Young Doug, a teen who knew of the Mollies but ended up becoming more of an outsider, was the first killer. Kara, daughter of her father who is Chief of Police, stabbed him through the chest with her scythe, killing him. No one could understand why Doug could have wanted him to target the Mollies. Then, Jamie sees a locket he is wearing, a picture of himself with some girl the Mollies dub Fat Trish. They were apparently in a romantic relationship, yet there was a rumor going around that Trish slept with Coach Zane. The Mollies (except Pam which is why she was spared) invited Trish to a sleepover where they got her insanely drunk in an effort to get her to tell the truth. She forced her way out, apparently calling Doug on the way, and then died in a car accident one year ago. The murders in 1987 line up perfectly with the car accident from one year ago. This is a feel very similar to a slasher saga such as I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). In my opinion, the execution of the kills, the creation of an elaborate motive based on revenge, and the ritualistic significance of the number 16 were all perfect. The only slight criticism I have is when Lurch and Jamie are in the parking lot with Doug and he gets a little too excited about videogame graphics and brags about having taken 8 years of Karate.
Killer #2: Killer #2 is quite complicated. You see, in most movies where there are multiple killers, such as Scream, The Strangers, Happy Death Day 2U, & Heart Eyes, Killer #2 in this movie was a complete lone wolf because he was not around in 1987. Killer #2 is Chris Dubusage from the future! From 2023! He’s the one who dressed up like the Sweet 16 Killer and murdered Jamie’s mom, Pam, in 2023. Then, when he saw the details of the murders being altered back in 1987 due to Jamie trying to prevent them, 2023 Chris used the time machine so he could go back to 1987 and hopefully stop Jamie to keep the story of the murders alive. And what was his motive for killing Pam in 2023? Well, “it’s hard to sustain interest in 3 murders that happened 35 years ago.” Thus, his motive, partly driven by childhood neglect as his own father was obsessed with his personal legacy, was simply to kill Pam so the story could continue, and he could become more famous. In the end, Jamie wins the fight and kills Chris and returns to 2023 with both parents alive. Ameila’s mother gives Jamie a book she wrote about all the differences from her previous 2023 life.
Even though fame is a common motive for murder in these types of movies, I think that the writers and director pulled it off perfectly. Throwing in a little childhood trauma and envy of his father and even the fact that his father won 2 Pulitzers likely created great resentment. So, Chris wanted to create his own legacy, and he tried to do this through his podcast about the murders. But with interest dwindling after 35 years, he had to reignite it. Thus, he started by killing Pam and made an attempt to go after Jamie but she escaped in Amelia’s time machine. The writing, the motive, the fights and altercations, all executed to near perfection. Only criticism would be that Chris was SO involved and obsessed with the investigation, which had me thinking in the very back of my mind that he could be involved, but it’s only a tiny, tiny critique.
Acting: The acting in this movie was pretty damn exceptional, especially coming from a Bhorror slasher film such as this. The main crew in both 1987 and 2023 did the best. Kiernan Shipka was so incredibly endearing with such expressive eyes throughout the whole film. You could see the moments of sorrow and grief just by looking at her face, and particularly directly into her eyes. When she was sobbing over her mom’s murder, you just wanted to hold her tight and tell her that everything would be alright. In 2023, Julie Bowen plays off the role of concerned mother well and then fighting against the killer like she was Wonder Woman or something! In 2023, Amelia, played by Kelcey Malwema, seemed to legitimately express geuine care and affection towards Jamie, as can be seen when she tries like Hell to fix the time machine so she can go to 1987 and get Jamie out of there. Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson playing Amelia’s mother in 1987 also showed a similar level of care and affection towards Jamie (expressed in her face) and she was committed to creating a time machine to get Amy back to 2023. The whole Mean Girls thing was nice for a while, but the character development that took place in and outside the main friend group when they finally started taking Jamie seriously was quite refreshing.
Setting & Music: The setting was absolutely perfect for the 1980s. There wasn’t much law enforcement or security/checking at the school, everybody smoked weed, everybody drank alcohol, and nobody had a care in the world. It was a great depiction of what the 80s were really like, albeit with quite a bit of exaggeration as is a common occurrence in this film. The exaggeration works well though. It allows the audience to be drawn into this nostalgic atmosphere and sort of have an otherworldly experience as the movie plays on.
III. Themes
There are several different themes that emerge as the movie plays. One is obvious: bullying. The presence of bullying in our schools and in our society is a travesty. Bullying someone can have long-lasting, perhaps completely destructive effects on that person. Look at what happened to Trish! She got super drunk, drove home, and got in a car accident, which unleashed the Sweet 16 killer one year later! There should never be any bullying. No Mean Girls (Mollies). Just kindness, caring, love, and respect. Racism/Prejudice is also an underlying theme. A perfect example of this is the picture of the Indian smoking the cigarette on the side of the school. No good! And neither is Underage Drinking/Drug Use. This is incredibly dangerous for so many reasons. In this movie, it killed Trish and unleashed the Sweet 16 Killer. This film is obviously taking a shot at underage drinking, and it is very successful. Also, looking at the evolution of Chris Dubasage, we see Trauma & Neglect during childhood can ripple downstream and create another monster. And finally, Live in The Moment! Cherish those you love. And let them know you love them. You never know when it’ll be the last time you can see them.
There was another theme that emerged when Chris and Jamie were in the Quantum Drop at the end. Chris talks about being like Michael Myers and how the more people know about the Sweet 16 Killer, the more famous he becomes! He even bellows out, “Maybe one day I’ll win a Pulitzer!” This is all clearly an extreme manifestation of Grandiose Narcissism. The fantasies of wealth, popularity and success, the manipulation/exploitation of others (through his podcast), his inherent belief that he’s special and unique, and his craving for power all point to this unfortunate situation. I would go as far to say as, even though he didn’t say it directly, Chris was likely to keep killing in the present day and then use his podcast as a way of getting people interested in them. I mean, as he says, “he’s the expert!” And you know why he’s the expert? Because he’s the one committing the murders! So in order to prevent a copycat serial killer in the making from getting away, she had to stop him. NOW. And she did. Which brings us to our final theme: Grandiose Narcissism may make you feel large, powerful, special, & unique, but the exact opposite is true. The more grandiose you get, the smaller you become and the less power you have. Eventually the grandiosity will overcome you completely and you won’t have any power at all (e.g. Chris’s violent death against the wall of the Quantum Drop is a symbol for this).
Individual Scores
PLOT: 4.8/5 ACTING: 4.7/5 SETTING & MUSIC: 4.3/5
THEMES: 4.5/5 COSTUMES: 4.7/5
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