It’s weird thinking of Back to the Future as a “classic,” but it clearly is, having come out almost 40 years ago and long before Robert Zemeckis was taken seriously as a director. I can still remember the film being new to theaters. And I just saw Christopher Lloyd in a movie last month; I don’t think he’s changed in that time, has he? Well today’s film pokes fun of the “long ago” culture that poked fun at somebody else’s “long ago” culture in the odd sci-fi slasher Totally Killer.
It is Halloween night in the town of Vernon … a time when the residents reminisce -not unfondly- of the fateful October way back in 1987 when a masked serial killer knifed three girls sixteen times a piece each on their 16th birthday. The town sells replicas of the Halloween mask the killer used as a benevolent totem to events that completely tore the community apart; now you kids have good time trick-or-treating,y’hear!
Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka) is the daughter people my generation will identify (Julie Bowen, Lochlyn Munro). Her bff seems to have made the abandoned photo booth at the creepy forgotten fairgrounds into a time machine. This comes in handy when the 1987 killer reappears after 35 years or so and kills mom. Jamie escapes in the time machine during the attack, which, iirc. Was a plot point of both The Time Machine and Time After Time.
And where does Jamie escape to? The night of the first murder in 1987. Like, grody to the max. You know, this marks the very first time I’ve actually said that phrase aloud. I don’t feel good about it. Not one little bit.
Here’s where the fun part comes in, because Jamie -posing as an exchange student from PEI -which is a good call; it’s fairly plausible without attracting the least bit of attention or interest – discovers that mom is a Mean Girl, a Heather, or a whatever we called the sno
ty popular crowd in 1987. In the film, they’re the “Mollys” because each girl has selected a different look from the Molly Ringwald oeuvre. These, of course, are the girls who will start dying, violently, starting tonight.
Do the Mollys care about Jamie’s warning? Well … would you? You’re part of the most popular clique on campus and some nobody nutjob loser tells you you’re gonna buy it this evening at a killer keg party. Would you take that seriously?
The film has a lot of fun pushing Jamie into the popular crowd. I don’t think it works. I think that the people who thought little of her would still think little of her even when she predicts a murder correctly; I just think they’d belittle her in different ways. But the film doesn’t function if her future mom treats her like belly lint, so we kind of have to make Jamie a Molly or something to that effect.
Speaking of her parents, teen Pam (Olivia Holt) and teen Blake (Charlie Gillespie) are constantly trying to hook up to Jamie’s chagrin; Jamie knows her future parents are not supposed to get together for another four years. Ah, teens. This is what the movie has to offer, along with some sad commentary about how society has become intensely more paranoid since the Reagan Era. I especially love the part where information is given out freely in 1987. Explanation for such is not only unneeded; it’s considered annoying. “You want to attend this school? Here’s your schedule. Go.” “You want to know where so-and-so is right now? Room 103, down the hall. Go.”
Totally Killer is a mixed bag. I don’t think the slasher reveal quite works and the sci-fi appears to be fabricated exactly as the scene needs, but if you loved Back to the Future, here’s a grisly R-rated tribute of sorts, and I think it can be enjoyed on that level and the one where history is constantly being toyed with. Don’t take this film seriously and you might just have a good time.
There once was a time traveling co-ed
Who tried to alter some 1980s dread
When she got there she found
Her future parents were wound
So she had to hose them off instead
Rated R, 106 Minutes
Director: Nahnatchka Khan
Writer: David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, Jen D’Angelo
Genre: Killer timing
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who enjoy sci-fi/horror crossover
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “You went back in time to prevent murder and MORE people ended up dead; nice job, brainiac.”
