Totally Killer is another Blumhouse production with a wacky concept to send you off on a wild ride. 17-year-old Julia Hughes is the daughter of Pam and Blake, who were part of a group of friends in high school that survived the rampage of the “Sweet Sixteen Killer.” 35 years later, the killer comes back, killing Pam the same way as the previous victims, with 16 stab wounds with a knife. Julia is then attacked by the masked killer and is accidentally sent back in time to 1987 where she tries to stop the killer to save her mother’s life.

This movie wisely doesn’t take itself too seriously. It feels a lot like the original Scream as it references a lot of horror movies and it balances out the mayhem with the culture shock of a Gen Z girl being thrown into 1980s society. Since the crux of the movie is time travel and saving people in the future, there are a lot of Back to the Future vibes as well (which is referenced by Julia). The conceit of getting Julia back in time works well enough, but it is a scenario that you just need to go along with.

Julia is played by Kiernan Shipka, who I know best from Mad Men (Don Draper’s daughter). She’s terrific, playing the character just right as she goes from ordinary girl to heartbroken daughter, to fish-out-of-water heroine. She puts some serious work in as she tries to figure things out to keep everyone alive while often running for her life.

The killer is in the Ghostface archetype who more or less only hides in closets to ambush their victims. The deaths are very straightforward and simple, so nothing on the intensity scale of the Halloween or Friday the 13th franchises. It’s just above PG-13 in terms of gore content. The Sweet Sixteen Killer has a stupid costume and the amount of comedy far outweighs the horror, so I didn’t find this scary at all. Scream does that more effectively. That said, Totally Killer still does the genre justice. It works well as a who-is-it, like Scream, and the killer is a menacing and intimidating presence. The deaths are effective when they happen. The cast is great and I did get attached to a few of them. I think that comes from Julia interacting with all of these people she knows as adults as kids her age, so the character building is done much better here compared to many slasher movies.

I’ve mentioned Scream a lot, but this movie’s tone and presentation are most similar to Happy Death Day (which I’m a fan of. The sequel, not so much). The main characters even look so similar they could be confused as sisters. Totally Killer actually feels like alt-Happy Death Day, which was also produced by Blumhouse. I don’t mean that as a slight in any way, in fact, you could watch them as a double feature and have a great time.