MovieChat Forums > Totally Killer (2023) Discussion > It was ok. More of a Mildly Amusing Myst...

It was ok. More of a Mildly Amusing Mystery than a Slasher-Comedy.


Just watched it today.

Although it's being marketed as a 80’s style Time-Traveling Slasher-Comedy, it's actually more of a Mystery-Whodunnit sprinkled with 80's slasher elements and some mildly-amusing moments.

The 80's aesthetic was pretty cool and largely worked, from its production design to its wardrobe, although one character looked more like a 90’s Jared Leto than a 1987 high-schooler.

The acting was pretty good too, with most of the cast doing the best they could with what they were given. The music and cinematography were serviceable, although neither really stood out.

The movie's biggest shortcomings, however, were it's attempts at comedy. The script could have used a rewrite by an experienced comedy writer, as despite a couple of humorous moments, much of the comedy was nowhere near as funny as it wanted to be.

Also, the ending reveal of the killer’s identity and motivation was lackluster and unsatisfying, it didn't really feel like there was much of a pay-off.

Despite it’s shortcomings, it’s not a terrible film and entertaining enough.

Worth a watch for fans of Time-Travel movies or 80’s slashers, just keep your expectations low going in.

I give it a 6/10

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That sounds quite interesting. I'll keep an eye out for it. Although I could imagine someone seeing this as an opportunity to contrast some 'appalling' societal behaviour of the 80s with our more 'enlightened' times today. Does any of that creep in?

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It attempts to do some social commentary like that by using comedy, but it's never like laugh out loud and just mildly humorous.

Like, "guys used to say shit like that and it was ok" - and that's about it.

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Okay, thanks.

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Every 15 minutes there’s a “joke” from the lead character about the kind of shit a dumb millennial would bitch about today.

It’s very lazy and makes the character insufferable. Imagine walking around all day 100% certain that you’re the be all and end all about what’s morally correct. I don’t have kids but someone’s raised a generation of church lady narcs. A much more interesting and entertaining and subversive approach would be if the character acted like Picard and followed the Prime Directive. Imagine a lead character in this movie running around being “insensitive” at every turn so she doesn’t disrupt the time-space continuum. Our hero here is freaking out over calling some fat, a school having an Indian mascot, lesbian jokes, you name it.

Andy anyway it’s unnecessary because the film already does all the things modern films do to “subvert” all those big, bad cultural norms. For instance: there’s only male objectification, women are in top jobs in traditionally male-dominated fields, the characters are completely unrealistically diverse and nobody even mentions it, heck, there’s even two token Black Girl Science Genius characters.

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I liked it, 7/10 from me.

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good and accurate review. It is definitely worth a watch.

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I had 0 expectations, and was still disappointed haha.

I don't think the filmmakers took full advantage of the premise. It's a fun set up, but not much pay off imo. There could've been great fish out of water moments, more time travel shenanigans. I mean, you're taking a modern teen, and putting her in the 80's, just out of the now mostly obsolete technology, because everything is in our phones, you could've gotten a couple of jokes in. Give the kid a phonebook and a rotary phone, make her do old-timey research, flip over a cassette tape... (I'm not a movie writter, but I could work on the Elle show).

I think the main impression of our heroine from being in the 80's was that people weren't as socially sensitive back then. Which is true, but heighten it a little, make it ridiculous, make jokes in your horror comedy.

Idk, maybe 2023 kids will enjoy it, but I didn't 🤷‍♀️.

I did like the fight scene with Julie Bowen in the beginning though.

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