Review: Totally Killer (2023)

Totallly Killer (2023)
Directed by Nahnatchka Khan

This update of "Back to the Future" goes back to the late 1980s -- a few years after that film's debut -- in a comedy-horror (horror comedy?) plot. The first scenes are simplistic and broad -- it seems more like a Disney movie for teens than it does an intelligent movie for and about teenagers like last month's "Bottoms." But in the end I was glad I stuck with it.

Kiernan Shipka (23 years old at the time of filming) plays Jamie, a teenager at a high school with a violent history: three girls were murdered one year when her mother was her age and went to the same school. (As in most movie small towns, residents stay forever and the generations succeed each other at the high school.) When her mother (Olivia Holt) is murdered by the same murderer (or at least by one wearing the same Max Headroom mask), Jamie uses a time machine invented by her genius friend to go back and prevent all the deaths.

(Something is a little off about the timeline, I think? 1987 was 36 years ago, so her parents would be in their mid-50s now, though they appear to be in their mid-40s, as is suitable for the parents of high school students. I only make this point because the generational relationships are important to the plot. Anyway...)

The movie gets better as it goes along. There are numerous gags whenever Jamie notices things in the past that are no longer OK, like smoking in the car with your child, or homophobic jokes, or a lax perspective on security. The climax, an homage to Strangers on a Train and its runaway merry-go-round, is very well done. And Kiernan Shipka is good. She deserves more than the teenager roles she's been doing since she was old enough.