Totally Killer on Prime Video: the Back to the Future of the slasher (review)

This horror comedy in the tradition of Happy Birthdead never takes itself seriously and exudes a little charm that is not uninteresting.

The success of Happy Birthdead gave ideas to Blumhouse, which copied and pasted the concept but swapped A Day Without End For Back to the futureadding in passing a little Scream and D’Halloween. A juggling act without genius, but executed with a certain dexterity by Nahnatchka Khan (the creator of the very nice series Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23). Totally Killer, it’s the story of the return after a 35-year hiatus of the “Sweet Sixteen Killer”, who massacred a group of teenage girls in the 80s. Nowadays, Jamie (Kiernan Shipka), 17, returns despite herself back in time to 1987, when the first murders occurred. She must team up with her teenage mother to try to stop this masked serial killer, before finding herself stuck in the past forever.

Flat encephalogram on the fun side (it’s a comedy above all) and staging, but Totally Killer carries a fairly unstoppable playful charm, the film very consciously playing with the most hackneyed clichés of the slasher without ever looking down on them. Marty McFly can sleep soundly, but it’s hard to deny a real spectator pleasure.

Totally Killer, available on Prime Video. With Kiernan Shipka, Julie Bowen, Kelcey Mawema… Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes