306: Totally Killer (2023)

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Yeah, nothing to make you feel like a millennial than being excited to see the hot mom for Modern Family.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hack or Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. Enjoy the ride. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, and I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Oh my god, unwanted touch.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

And the paranormal paramour, Binx. I don't go after boys, they come after me. This week we're buckling up for a film that catapults us into a moment where the past's unfinished business becomes the present's urgent crisis. Before we grab our flex capacitors though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Let's follow up on some stuff. Specifically, merch stuff. We've got fresh merch in the merch store. So check the link in our show notes. Grab some stickers of our beautiful faces, or some new teas, even a lovely hackerslash pillow to rest your weary faces on.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Get cozy with us this winter season, huh? We'd love to see it.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Well, that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Well, this week's film is brought to us by director Nanachka Khan, known previously for her work as television showrunner and director of the Netflix rom-com Always Be My Maybe. This time, though, she's homing her first dive into horror, a time traveling journey that challenges the boundaries between past and present. This film leads us in an intricate dance between eras as we follow a young modern-day heroine trying to stop a serial killer. Only she's doing so after being transported back to 1987. So set your watches, rev up your DeLoreans, folks, because this week we're talking about totally killer. What were you all expecting going into this?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

I think if you watch the trailer like I did, I just expected a lot of polish. This is the kind of just like modern Blumhouse horror that looks like it's gonna be well made, but I also expected time travel fun. I am not always a fan of time travel, but generally I'm kind of here for it.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Yeah, so this movie was recommended to me by a few people after having watched the trailer. So I feel like going into this, I didn't expect so much seriousness because again, it was told to me that it was a fun time, very whimsical, very Gen Z actually, but nonetheless a slasher. So I was interested to see how they were gonna tow that line. I think we haven't had one of those slasher comedies hit a streaming service, like direct to streaming service in a bit. Maybe I'm wrong, but this one like is the first one that comes to mind specifically with Amazon Prime. So I was interested to see like what that was gonna be, because Always Beyond Maybe is a really good movie. And so how was she gonna be able to pull that off with studios being the way that they are, specifically Amazon Prime? That it seems like when they come out with something, it's pretty serious. We see this with Hulu and their direct-to-streaming horror films as well, but also with Kiernan Shipka, who is hilarious and so fun. So it was an interesting casting, an interesting premise that I was looking forward to see how it was going to unfold.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Yeah, I knew very little about this aside from it being really fun. There was a little bit of hype for this movie, but not so overwhelming that it felt like I couldn't give it a shot. I was actually really excited because I got to watch this for the first time in a community watch party on our Discord server with all of our listeners, and boy, was it a fucking blast. I think going into it, knowing specifically what I did about it being a little bit of comedy, being a little bit of time travel, I was immediately met with the expectation that it would just be the final girls all over again. So I expected fun. I expected camp because I heard these comparisons, right? But I will say that while I did get some of those things, I got them at a higher level than I expected to. I found this movie to be really fun. It was one of those movies where I was really glad that I was watching it with other people, not because it helped distract from the experience, but because it accentuated it, because it complimented it. It felt like sharing a good time with other people. I was laughing, I was hitting my feelings at some points, and man, it was just a good time.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

It really was a good time. There's a lot going on. Even if you were to watch this alone, I watched it with my wife, but like the pacing is perfect. We've got characters that have like classic horror movie roles. I mean, even the story itself, it's like a modern take on a standard slasher setup, but it's got a really fun time travel twist. And yeah, it's gonna hit you in the nostalgia maybe a little bit. But even without that, I think it's always got something going on to keep your attention going, but it's not to the point of like being hyperactive, thankfully. It's like just the right balance.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

I want to go back to what I mentioned about it being very Gen Z because I think as millennials or you know, older generations, we hear a lot of the slang and the type of humor that this younger generation has, and maybe it's a little too much or it's a little overwhelming. So going into this, I had that expectation, wondering how it's gonna play out. And throughout the film, I realized, yeah, there's definitely a lot of that, but it doesn't stop it from being a fun time that any generation can get into one way or another. I mean, even if you're a millennial parent or older, you can put yourself at the very least in the shoes of these 80s characters or the adults in their present day. And I think that's always nice because you can still keep the movie modern for modern audiences, especially younger audiences, while also integrating older audiences and keeping them engaged when sometimes they might not understand some of the slang or get some of the themes that are being addressed in the film and relationships and whatnot. So I think that was a nice touch that I was almost surprised to see as well in the film.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah, nothing to make you feel like a millennial than being excited to see the hot mom for Modern Family, one of the top selling points.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Oh, yeah, you're not wrong.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Julie Bowen, as soon as I saw her on the trailer, I was like, oh, this is gonna be a good time.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Wow, that'll do it. Yeah, man, you're actually not wrong at all. And why was she one of the best parts of the movie?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Right? One of the things that was just incredibly pleasant. The cast was really that she was a great part. But even like Lachlan Monroe, all I could think of, right, was Scary Movie. The entire time he was on screen was his character from Scary Movie. Maybe that's because of when I watched it that it's like just baked into my brain, but I have a hard time taking him seriously, and it was perfect because you don't really have to take him seriously. It just worked really well. But I mean, Randall Park is is in this, and even if he's just playing like a small character, he's got a bit part. Every moment that he's on screen, I almost want to laugh, even if he hasn't said anything yet, because I know it's he can deliver if he needs to.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

That delivery is exactly what surprised me most about this movie, because again, I expected a fun time. Yes, this movie was pretty well received from everybody who at least told me about it. But thinking about the words that are said, if I were to read this script, I would think, damn, this shit is cheesy as hell. But the quality of the performances landed it with such great comedic timing that I found myself really entertained every step of the way. Now, there are some imperfections, there's just a couple of pitfalls here and there, but there really ultimately wasn't much for me to be disappointed about in this movie. It wasn't the most thrilling, I would say, but it's just a fun fucking slasher. You know what I mean? Like it's not that deep. It hits you a little deep in some feelings, some moments, but overall conceptually, it was something that you could just turn your brain off, enjoy the ride, and it'll explain what it needs to. Like I don't have to think too critically about it, which makes for a fun time, but I will say also does not make for a scary time.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

That's very true. I mean, it's especially these modern slashers. I mean, there's a couple others that we've reviewed in the last year or two, and they're really fun. They feel like slashers, which is great. But that doesn't make them scary, it just makes them, I think, really entertaining for us.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

For me, actually, what surprised me the most, aside from how they tow that line with its comedy, is how they approach time travel specifically. So I'm I'm not gonna get too into that because it would reveal some things. What I will say though is obviously, as we know, time travel portrayed in film, we've seen it 5,000 different ways, right? There's always different approaches, different rules to time travel that's altered. Sometimes you see more or less the same idea, but we don't see it too often, and that's what they did here. And I think they don't spend too much time getting into the weeds of it, which some films do. And then we get too much into sci-fi, more like the serious side of things, which I enjoy. I love me some time travel stuff, but we want to get to the point here where like this is supposed to be a slasher film first and a comedy, right? And lighthearted. If you get too into the weeds of the mechanics of things, you can kind of lose the attention span of some people. So I think they did a really good job of yes, this is time travel, this is how this works, but still making a parody of it almost, maybe even to the genre itself, which is cool.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Yeah, you know what this movie really is? It's your friend who is very, very nerdy and can understand some very complex technological things, and they are able to speak to you in a way that effectively breaks down things without using jargon. Someone you can talk to and actually stay on their level and understand, like that's what this movie is. It's not the person who's gonna over-explain something to you to your point, which I think is really refreshing in a movie like this.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

It's funny that you say refreshing, right? Because I think it's easy to watch this and go, okay, this reminds me of 15 other movies. But it's done in such a great way to where anything that reminds you of other movies, there's an homage most likely to those movies. I mean, there's literally references to Scream and Halloween in the script. It doesn't get better than that.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

In a world that is similar to our world, because those movies are also movies.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Yeah, for sure. Can I say, and it needs to be called out because at the very least, it's on the trailer. So I'm not spoiling anything here. We've seen the face of this antagonist, okay? And how ridiculous that face is. So if you're expecting me to be afraid of that face, you have another thing coming. Absolutely not. But all that being said, I can't get off of this like hill. I've got my flag down that I really take this movie as like a parody of a lot of things. And I think we were talking about Scream and all this other stuff, right? I think it's making fun of those slashers too, with this antagonist specifically and the look of it, the costume design of it. How do you want me to take that person seriously when they've got earrings on and they're like smiling the whole time? It's giving Johnny Bravo, but not. It's so bizarre. I can't help but laugh.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

No, absolutely. And that's what I actually loved about the design for this antagonist's mask. Johnny Bravo was an influence, and so were a bunch of other 80s heartthrobs. I'm gonna post a link in the show notes to an interview with a director, and there's just so much that shared around not only the filmmaking experience and the collaboration with the actors, but all the intentions behind the actual choices, right? Thinking about some of the things that we feel about serial killers, right? Like Ted Bundy, etc., say what you will, some people regarded him as handsome. So the idea of having this mask that, hey, the teeth are just dramatically enlarged to look so fucking creepy, but the last thing you see in your life is a smiling, allegedly handsome man, fucking spooky.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

It's interesting because the mask, when you're looking at it in the movie, you can think this actually looks like it could be depicting an actor or a character of some sort. So I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out like, is it supposed to be one person in particular? And I'm just not getting it, which is cool because it's almost just a mask referencing multiple people. And I know that's on purpose, but it it does actually, I think, work really well. I don't know if it's necessarily a a parody or a spoof, but it it definitely plays into the masks from those other films for sure. And I think that's in a good way. I don't know that it's like making fun of them necessarily though.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

You mentioned it earlier too, and this is another testament to how this film is just grabbing pieces and bits of a lot of different films in both genres, though. I think obviously time travel, that being like a subtrope, right? But in the slasher genre, having so many influences there. I mean, I would even say there's some nightmare on Elm Street stuff. There's obviously Back to the Future, duh. So many little things, right? But I think that they know that and they don't even try to hide it or pretend like they don't realize it. They call it out and they make it clear, which is adding to the humor, if anything. It's adding to the comedy. So when it comes to originality, of course not. I I don't necessarily think this is original, but doesn't mean that it's bad, though. I don't think it's like not worth seeing just because it's very popular. When it comes to time travel films, like we that's just a trope. It's a hobby in terms of what you would want to see in movies. So for me, I will gravitate towards time travel, I will gravitate towards like crime or psychological thriller, like that kind of those kind of subtropes that call to people. And so once you're at that place, you don't really care about originality anymore because there's gonna be 5,000 films in those things.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

You think the meta-ness of it makes it unoriginal? Because I feel it's got originality in the way that Scream had originality, right? Where the the meta is very on purpose. I just think it's the whole zeitgeist thing, right? I think it's 2023 original and meta.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

I see.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Right, but it's obviously you can't compare it to 1990s.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Along those same lines of it's not about who did it first, it's about who did it best. And while I would maybe shy away from saying this movie has done it the best of any other of the meta or the the dark comedies, I would say that it did it excellently.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

Interesting. So if I'm understanding correctly, you guys think like this is a resurgence of some kind, like it's bringing back the conversation of meta and acknowledgement of horror in film. At that point, wouldn't we even say that maybe Scream 5, Scream 6 is doing that? It's still within the same franchise, or is that cheating?

SPEAKER_01 14:05

No, I don't think it's cheating. I think the conversation that Scream 5 and Scream 6 are having are very different from the conversation that this movie is having. So I I mean I think this movie is really trying to hit entertainment points. It's trying to have a combination where you can have fun, you can be funny, you can have just a classic slasher that would have worked 20, 30 years ago, right? A guy in a mask with a knife, boom, done. With slasher moves and and behaviors and everything, right? So I don't know. I just think it's too using this combination to be like, hey, we're gonna we're gonna give you just really good entertainment. I think that's I think that's the goal here. I don't know that it's trying to go necessarily to a much deeper level like scream movies have in the past.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

Yeah, there is an edge to scream and even the endings of scream films that I feel is a different tone than this movie altogether. The tonal differences, though, I think really separate the two. And this movie, right up to its ending, it just feels lighthearted. It does some things that are not lighthearted, like I think it touches some subjects that are like, ooh, it's gonna make you feel a couple things, especially for me in particular. I'm pretty sensitive to the topics in this movie. But I think it does so with such a light-handed approach that it makes for just a good time.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

And I think that's evident all the way up to the end. I I love the ending of this movie because the resolution really works, but the time travel stuff actually pans out in a fun way. Most movies that do time travel, it's boring. You either just get the same beginning, but it's now at the end. This movie was like, no, we gotta use it in a way that's entertaining, in a way that's fun, but also in a way that doesn't punish you for having watched it.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

I couldn't agree more, but if I could be honest, what's interesting about this movie, at least the way that it hit me, is that I had fun. I laughed around. Sure, I rolled my eyes a few times with some of the jokes, some of the again, I go back, I keep saying this Gen Z stuff, but if you watch it and you I mean, you have to agree with me, right? Like it's pretty, it's there, it's evident. It's a little much at some point, it's a little forced. All that to say, I had a good time watching it, so much so that it got to the point for me where I didn't really even care what the conclusion was or the plot twists or anything. I kinda at that point I was like, okay, I don't know if that's a bad thing or not. I'm still on the fence about that particular part. But the reason I'm on the fence is because of that time travel stuff. It almost feels like, yeah, there was a slasher, and usually you're like on the hook because you want to know who actually did it, who is the the killer, right? And I go back to what I said. I'm a sucker for the time travel stuff, I'm a sucker for that crime psychological thriller. So you would think that I would be invested in both. Towards the end, I didn't even care about who the killer was. I was like, so what's gonna happen with this time travel stuff? What are the cause and effects of everything, right? Because that's what won me over. This of the two subtropes, the war of the boat of them both, which one was gonna win? And it was definitely the time travel.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Do you think that's a credit more to the intrigue of the time travel or a discredit to the slasher of it all?

SPEAKER_03 17:06

And that's where I'm still on the fence. I'm grappling with that. I'm leaning more towards a credit on the comedy and comedy being within time travel. How often do we get a lot of comedy time travel stuff? We haven't in a while. Hot we mentioned Hot Tub Time Machine in our B-sides. We talked about some of these films and properties of time travel a little bit. But it's been a few years since we've gotten something like that that I can recall right now. So I think that's why. I think it just made it really fun versus lately I've been watching time travel properties, but they're so serious. They're either romance dramas or it's the Avengers and MCU, you know? And so I don't really get a lot of comedy time travel. Give me a slasher. That's a comedy that I actually enjoy that it has time travel, yes. And I don't really need to worry about who done it.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

All right, well, we'll see how this shakes out in our ratings overall. But before we get there, Mac, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_01 17:59

So this one, I'm gonna call it a medium. I think most of the gore you get here is pretty standard fair for like PG 13 slashers. I think there are some moments that are a little bit more spectacular, but I don't think they'd cross the line into like high core.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

And what about the animal report? The animals are safe from time travel. Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings. Zen Totally Killer from 2023, now streaming on Amazon Prime. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Well, I'm gonna say this was a lot of fun. A couple of things made it fun. Time travel, classic masked killer, all of Michael Myers, Jason, etc. with a big old knife. It's definitely a nostalgia-fueled movie, but it was lighthearted, easily digested, and it had a pace that keeps your attention, which is honestly my current favorite type of Blumhouse flick, kind of like Happy Death Day. I just think overall it's a really entertaining movie and it has a really high level of polish. And this is one that is fun to watch alone and even more fun to watch with other people. So it's a slash.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Yeah, this movie is best described to me a time traveling slasher injected heavily with some Gen Z blood. And to some it might be a bit much. I like I mentioned, there are certainly some eye roll moments, but I'm laughing for the most part, and I vibed with the humor and the lightheartedness of it. And maybe that's because I work in education and I work with that student age range all the time, and so I feel one with the youth, but it also just doesn't spend too much time trying to explain the mechanics of things, like I mentioned. It covers time travel, which can be so daunting and so dense very plainly and very quickly. Doesn't really need to get into the weeds of it, and when they do, they make it lighthearted, they make it fun, and I appreciate that. If I were to say there was a downfall to it, is there is that line between, well, they're supposed to get me invested, like I've just shared, right? They're supposed to get me invested on the story of who done it and who is this killer. At times, maybe they get a little too serious and it felt like I was swaying back and forth in terms of my emotions. But overall, it was fun, and I think it's palpable to all horror fans, which I think is important, especially those that are new and wanting to get into the genre. So I'm definitely gonna say that this one's a slash.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Yeah, this is such an easy slash to give. This movie is easy like Sunday morning. It's simple yet complicated. And when I say complicated, I mean just with the mechanic of its plot. I think anytime you insert time travel, you inherently get something that is gonna feel a way more complicated thing, or has the opportunity to raise a lot of questions that could go either unanswered or answered incorrectly, or feel like it's just an overwhelming, distracting portion of the story. This one, though, is laced with a cast that wins you over with charm. And even with the present day characters and what you learn about them when you go into the past, I actually turned around on some of them. And I think what this movie does best is win you over in those moments because of those performances. There's a lot here to like aesthetically, right? It's a as Max said, it is a polished film. But where this movie shines is in its comedic delivery. And for that, it's an easy slash. Now, there you have it, folks. Totally killer from 2023 has earned a universal slash. Now, you can find this movie streaming online. Go ahead and check the show notes to see where you can find it right now. Then join us in the second half so we can actually get down to the time travel of it all. I'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

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SPEAKER_02 22:48

Welcome back, folks. You're now entering the spoiler zone for Totally Killer, which has earned a Universal Slash. Now we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of the time, travel and our ratings, let's go through the kills.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Alright, we have seven kills to choose from here, thanks to all the timey whimey stuff. So let's go through them. What are your favorites?

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Alright, man. There are a couple really, really good options. I think the one that I'm gonna land on first and foremost is Adult Chris from the future. And it's him getting the fucking nail shot through his chest and then turning into Pink Mist in the quantum drop. So fucking good.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

My number one right there. When they were talking about exploding, I thought they were gonna do the classic, like meat explosion, and to see Pink Mist here because Pink Mist was referenced earlier in the movie. Like classic, solid, really good tie back.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

That was very good. Also, just adult Chris was really funny. He was very much like, I don't give a fuck. Like you killed my mom. Twice it seems. Twice it seems. What a bitch! Didn't give a single fuck. Much like me finding out it was him, actually. Now that I think about it. Oh well. Equally unbothered. Equally unbothered. My favorite kill though was Tiffany with that waterbed death. That was where I thought it was like, okay, nightmare on Elm Street a little bit. I can see you. I'll take it. But more importantly, I just want to briefly talk about waterbeds, okay? I think they're so interesting. What happened? Why didn't we have it longer? Why didn't we get to enjoy that for a little bit longer? But at the same time, are they even comfortable? A. And then B, I mean, that seems like a very uncomfortable situation to also be dying and you're just like floating around, like, oh no. Technically, it'd be more difficult to dodge because you're like sunken in that bitch. Very unfortunate.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

You raise a good point because this death in particular, it was really fucking good, not just because of the suddenness of it, because of her luring him out of the closet, but it is the leaks that are sprung in the waterbed when she's found. So fucking sudden, so fucking aesthetically pleasing. It was giving obviously her character, Quinn, in Scream Six.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Oh gosh, I completely forgot. Look at that.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

So did I. What? Wow, look at us go. And I'm talking about Scream Six earlier tonight. If two plus two is four. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Well, I think you both picked really good kills. I'm bummed you got Chris out of the way, Chris, because that one was beautiful on screen. So I'm gonna go to the other killer. I'm gonna go to Doug here. So I think what I loved about this was you reap what you sow, and that's what we got here. This was almost a surprise as well, because it came out of nowhere. Home Girl was definitely in the self-defense like mode, which I love, but I don't think I expected her to show back up at just the right time and for us to like get the reveal and then boom, just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

Instantly. I feel like the moment that I was understanding who the person was and like that shock set in, it was instantly right after dead. I was like, okay, that threw me off. Something else is not quite correct here.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

I was actually pretty bummed that it was Doug. He was just charming. And the backstory behind that is also devastating. It's really fucking tragic. And then to think, man, this serial killer really grew up to be a high school principal. A modest man.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

If you think about all the other references, this is 100% I know what you did last summer as well. Oh man, I just love like all the little things that tie into other films here. I mean, all the kills in general are a lot of fun when we get the 16 stabs. Because you imagine, okay, we get a throat slit. All right, that's game over. He's like, No, I gotta do the signature. I gotta go back and put in the 16 stabs, even though the throat's already been slit.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Damn. RIP Marissa, who really didn't want to be the bait. Also, how fucking hilarious is it that she gets her throat slit? And of course, this was the question just moments earlier, and then she's sounding the rape alarm.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Still doing it.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

She finally figured it out.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

I will tell you though that speaking of Scream, Pam's death in the beginning of the movie, devastating. She had great Final Girl energy. That chasing was incredible. Her ability to kick ass also incredible, but it was a great parallel to Tara in Scream from 2022.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

It was also giving me Halloween latest trilogy.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

The whole like I've been trained in self-defense thing. Like I was feeling that a little bit as well. But I don't think the kills are the only good things to look at in this movie. You know, I mentioned the polish that we get a little bit earlier on, and that's probably my favorite thing here. It's just like the overall aesthetic. There is just something going on with some of this modern horror, especially this modern slashers, where they just are they're nailing everything, the cinematography, the lighting. In this movie specifically, like the wardrobe, the set dressing. They're just like hitting all the details visually and executing so well. The result here is just everything's so pretty to look at. And it I don't know, I just wish more movies would take this approach. Like it feels like very high, like very big budget level of polish.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

It really is, but there's even something slightly different about not only the quality of the cinematography, but just the color grading of the 80s. It's very easy to go back and just fucking put a little bit of Vaseline on everything that's supposed to seem like a dream. But you get this like cold, hard light of modern day, and then you get back to this like warm tones of the past. And I absolutely fucking loved that. What I also love though was the symmetry and parallels that you find throughout the movie. One shot in particular that I really loved. There's this shot of Doug, Randy, and Kara in school when the murderers start up right before Coach Finkel says, avoid the knife, keep your life, and it's really fucking awkward. And then when you see them later in the movie outside Tiffany's party, they're standing in the exact same order. The past and the present are rhyming with each other. Not only just like in terms of what's happening in the story, but also just cinematically with the way that these shots are composed. And I absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_03 28:52

Good thing for it, because they want to make sure that it's very clear that these people are the same people that you just saw earlier in the film, right? They're making sure that you are not losing sight of who's who in this film when we go back in time, which is important, so that you can get the bits, you can get the callbacks to things later on as the film progresses, especially with them going back and forth. So I really appreciate that. I want to go back to the color grading thing because I completely agree. These bright neon colors, and then like especially in the wardrobe, even translates to present day as well, which is nice. Not just in the 80s when we know that's the era, and those colors and that vibrancy was of the era. Specifically, though, the costume design I think is really amazing because that white fringe jacket that she wears, bomb. And especially now that all of these trends from the 90s, 80s, 70s, like all of these things are coming back into present day and just changing ever so slightly. It's really cool to see that the mom is wearing it again in this new reality, in this new present day. So I think that that's really a testament to how fashion is changing as well. And we're reimagining the past like we've always have. We're reinventing that wheel when it comes to fashion and fashion design. So it's really nice.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

It's funny you say that because the 80s were totally beige, like very bland.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

I feel like the 70s and 80s in film, I don't, at least the ones that are coming top of mind, are always presented as very bright.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

That's the shine of nostalgia and memories. That's the Vaseline.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

Speaking of beige, though, I think there's a lot of scenes to love in this movie, but one of mine is with Randall Park. We don't get enough Randall Park in this movie because he really does shine, but he's the sheriff in the past, which is great. So when our main character makes it to the past and she's trying to find some help, and she goes to the cops, like you never should do in a horror movie, and tries to even make a reference to a movie that they might understand and they haven't even seen it yet. And he doesn't even like time travel movies. Great quip, by the way, in a time travel movie. But like that whole exchange was just it felt like a sketch, it felt like comedy, even though it wasn't necessarily even that funny. It just worked. The vibes were right.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

I love the comedy angle in your favorite scene, but I'm gonna strip away all the comedy and go with what is emotionally my favorite scene, and that is the moment that we get young Pam suddenly in the quantum drop, and the stakes immediately fucking skyrocket. And I guess I should have remembered this moment when I had been creating the graphics for the watch party. Obviously, I've seen photos of young Pam in the quantum drop, and I think if you fucking Google this movie, it comes up very easily. However, what I struggled with in that moment was holy shit, no. It was this feeling of like, oh my gosh, what is gonna happen to her? Is she gonna kill her mom again inadvertently? And while I had hoped that wouldn't be the case, because I really wanted a happy ending from this movie, I suddenly could imagine a world where she goes through all of this and maybe she doesn't get the happy ending she wanted, but got more time with her mom, and that's still what felt ended up feeling good, like a final girl situation. But the second she gets in there, and then Pam says, You said I was supposed to be in here for a really big moment, she shares that she has a feeling that it was connected to Jamie. Ah man, that shit hit me right in my gut, and I loved every fucking second of it. It was also just the suspense of that. Like there's a moment where Chris, as the Sweet 16 killer, is standing up, walking on the walls with a quantum drop, and you just know Pam can't fucking move a muscle. It really reminded me and it really encaptured this reality of serial killers and slashers who slowly walk towards you, and it's the inevitability of death. And that is just everything that that fucking moment screamed to me.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

It's fantastic you mentioned that because that's also my favorite scene, but different, right? Because it's not so much the inevitable, but I do appreciate that tension. I appreciate that it's in a setting that in and of itself also is very intimidating for those that frequented the fair, that have been to carnivals or those kinds of things where they've seen a Gravitron. Because I feel like everybody that's gone, they see a Gravitron, they're like, hell no. It's it's intimidating. And honestly, in reality, people have passed on that thing. So there's that.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Those things look so dangerous and like instant vertigo, just watching them spin makes me sick for the people that are in them. I don't quite understand how Pam still didn't die getting flung out of it, though. Like the speed was so high, how did she not just like hit something and split in half?

SPEAKER_03 33:43

Look, that's where we are gonna suspend all kinds of sense of belief because at this rate, the Gravitron growing that fast to begin with, for it to actually cause enough force to be able to do a whole time machine situation, that's crazy. Yeah. But there's also the element that if you were in that thing, you would be not okay, much less you probably weren't like what are the chances that you'd even be able to walk alongside the walls as it is moving at a speed in which it could potentially become like let's forget all that. It looked cool and I loved it. Don't care about who ended up being the killer at that point, but I did love the aesthetic and the tension and everything about that scene at the very least. We were talking so much about the Gravitron and how it obviously would not have worked in terms of its speed and all that other bullshit. But more importantly, let's take a step back, get on the macro level here. How could these parents not recognize their daughter and not think, damn, you look a lot like my friend that saved my fucking life in high school? Bro, okay. This actually It's getting back to the future. Okay, and people don't give a fuck about that part in Back to the Future, so they decided, well, let's roll a dice and hope that people don't give a fuck here either. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

We're jumping ahead a little bit, but that was my worst part of the movie. It's the one thing.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

It is very back to the future. George McFly didn't see his son grow up and imagine that's I'm not the real father, right? Why does he I've seen a lot of memes making fun of this, right? But it's like at some point he's got to realize he looks like the guy that was around when we went to prom. Interesting, right? So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

Except adult Blake must be looking back and thinking, wow, I guess Jamie really did want to les out with you.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

Now how this works, Blake.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

Yeah, one plus one does not equal five. I love though, I do love that they at least allowed one character to know what was going on the whole time. I mean, she had to hold on to it for like 35 years. But if no one got to know, if she had to keep it a secret, I don't think it would have worked as well. I think it's great that it got to be her best friend's mom. I think that was one of my favorites because she, as a teenager, was also very cool.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

She really was. And I loved their dynamic so much. It felt like the mom and daughter passing the torch between each other and also having this like nice warmth and togetherness that obviously Jamie craved from her own mom and took that for granted in that moment. I really loved their dynamic and I thought it was super special.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's really nice that there's someone that can be like, Yep, now that you're here, let's catch up. And also that really the daughter can also kind of experience that as well. Because, of course, in this time, sure, the mom is aware of, well, she is, right? She's aware that her daughter is probably also doing the same thing. And so they have that connection between them. They're this time-traveling mother-daughter duo, which is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

But also, she had to spend that entire time, right? Like knowing that this was going to happen at some point. She was going to see somebody get off the Gravitron. But up until that point, like this girl existed in her reality, but she didn't know their whole relationship and their whole history up until she steps off of that ride. And it reminds me very much of Doctor Who, in a way, because there's a character called River Song who meets the doctor at different points in time and they're going backwards. And so it's interesting. For what, like 16 years of her life, she knows her, but she don't know her.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Absolutely, man. And I just think about that line she had where she has like this little gun strapped to her ankle. She was like, I waited 35 years to see who won that fight. What intensity, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Yeah, it's a great setup. And I think we're talking about Lauren now, the mother of the best friend, right? As a teenager, super cool, then has to live her entire life waiting to see if the good guy wins. But also up until that time, the good guy doesn't even know that she's the good guy, which is wild. Poor little Colette up like experiences life very differently. And then what? She gets replaced? Or it's confusing.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

Wait, yeah. Because at this point, Colette obviously has existed, but she doesn't even realize that she is also Jamie until the fight. So Lauren is rolling up there and is like, Are you Jamie yet? Or are you still Colette at that point?

SPEAKER_01 38:11

But where does Colette go? Where does she go? Right? Because she doesn't necessarily have to time travel. So are there is it two of them now?

SPEAKER_02 38:18

That's what I was just wondering. But then I think, nope, I'm going too deep. I'm gonna stop right there because it's gonna ruin the movie.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Yes, suspension of disbelief here. It doesn't matter. Yeah, it's whatever. She's back to her time.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

Yeah. There we go. Time travel movies doing their time travel movie thing where you're like, what the fuck? That doesn't make much sense. Well, this, what that, and then the next thing you know, you've got a whiteboard, it's all color-coded, you've got a key, a legend, and you're like four in the morning trying to make sense of it all. And then the director's like, it's supposed to be ambiguous.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

I'm okay with it. But I do want to take a moment to discuss how fucking incredible Pam Hughes and Pam Miller are. Because you go back in time, you see who you expect to be a really warm, light-hearted person who's a little fucking geeky, who ends up being the school guidance counselor, and then you she turns out to be the Regina George of this entire school. How fucking shocking that must have been to Jamie.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

Oh, shocking to Jamie, but not to me though. I figured as much. I figured that if we were gonna go back in time, this was not gonna be easy. Something about it was giving, like, well, she's gonna go back in time and discover again so much about her mother that she didn't realize. And it's that your mom was a bitch.

SPEAKER_02 39:35

Yeah, but oh my gosh, so many great moments that Pam just like shuts Jamie down with. And I also loved I think Jamie says something to Pam, like, damn mom, and she's like, Masita, ay ay, yay, momita, and then Pam tells her to go fuck off and die in Spanish. So great. A fucking queen, really. Always prepared, bilingual, ready to go, at arms.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

It is funny that Blake is who you expect him to be, both in past and and and present. Just a bro.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

Just a bro. Didn't shock me out either. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

It did crack me up though, because when Jamie mentions like that her her fake backstory that she's from Canada, right? And she tells Blake that he comments like on how cool that is, or comments something about Canada, but the actor's Canadian, and the actor who plays him in the future is also Canadian. I can't I just don't know if it was tongue-in-cheek, if it was a joke, if it was just we got a bunch of Canadians, so it's gonna happen. I don't know, but it was like a great little overlap.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

I do think we'd be remiss if we didn't, as a podcast, address the fact that we get a podcaster antagonist.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

That oh wow, that's so true.

SPEAKER_02 40:43

His whole reason for fucking doing the murders in modern day, for killing Pam, is just to drive listenership and sustain interest in the murders. The grind is real.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

The things you do for the pod. It's fun though, because like they mentioned that there could be two killers at some point in the movie, and you're imagining that there's like two people that worked together. I don't know that I was prepared for a copycat killer from the future. I thought it was either gonna be someone from the past who they have their reasons, or somebody from the future who also went back in time, and so it's all a big loop or something. I wasn't expecting a past killer and a copycat that comes back. I didn't picture it and I love it. I think it was a great little touch.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

The podcasting piece, though, that's just bonus for us.

SPEAKER_03 41:27

Yeah, a thousand percent. Look, that reveal of the first killer actually did surprise me. I didn't see that one coming for sure. But then as it goes on, like at that point I've acknowledged that sure there's another killer, but I just gave up on trying to figure out who it was at that point. But that's to say I'm probably an outlier of the situation because I think it is cool to change that up a bit. You always expect that they're in pairs, like you were saying, Max. So it's nice to keep you still on your toes. First of all, you may not expect the first killer, but now we've got another one who has nothing to do really with the first one. Doesn't necessarily like that's not a driving force for them. It's engagement, which the struggle is real.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Interesting that you said like you you ended up not really caring who the killer was by the time we got to find out who the killer was, because they sprinkle so many red herrings in the beginning of the movie. It's like really heavy-handed with lots of red herrings. Is it the musician? Is it her dad? Is it the podcaster? Then we go back in time. Is it this person? Is it that person? But then by the time you get to the end, you're like, honestly, it doesn't really matter. I'm still curious, of course, who it is, but like I'm just enjoying the ride so far. Like, I almost don't want to know. I almost want them to be an unnamed masked killer and to see them go into the future and see what happens next.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

That's exactly it. After so many red herrings and they reveal the first killer, I'm like, okay, well, that actually shocked me. That's it. And even though we kind of keep we keep at it and it keeps going on, at that point, I'm like, well, I already was surprised by that first one. Granted, the gap at this point is much shorter, but I was like, well, there's really no one left, and I'm not gonna be out here like only murders in the building with like a a board of trying to figure out who it is. I saved that for that show. I'm not taking it to into this one. Honestly, though, that may be the worst part of this movie for me is that like we've talked at length, it's that line where they had me with the time traveling stuff and it was really fun, but they lost me a bit with the actual mystery of who the killer is and that big part of slasher films that you want to know who the killer is. I'm still back and forth about it, but if I had to pick a worst part, that would be it because you want to be able to really engage and keep that momentum going for both sides, right? You want to still gain my interest and maybe less of those red herrings throughout the whole film and making it so obvious. And that way I could have still wanted or cared to know who it was. That's where I'm like, well, maybe that was the point. That's where it's the pair I keep saying the parody, right? Like maybe they're like poking at the fact that's what slashers do. They have lots of red herrings. We see that with Scream pretty often, but not. So much. At this point, it was like, what character is left? So if I had to pick one, that would definitely be it.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

I don't know that I could pick a worst part of this movie. I really did enjoy pretty much everything. I think you can nitpick the time travel stuff, right? And so, like Chris mentioned earlier, the whole not recognizing your own child once you see them and that they remind you of someone who met in your past, like whatever, right? It's problematic. Doesn't make sense. And I think that's this this kind of stuff that could be the worst part. It's the stuff that you can nitpick, but you do have to gloss over it, I think, to just sit down and and enjoy the watch. I think there's other part of time travel stuff that also can get silly. The whole mechanics, like literal mechanics of the machine, like it it felt a little bit unnecessary to need the extra metal conductor, but like it was fun. It it's fine. But yeah, I I can't really I can't really nitpick it too much because when you do it's all it all falls apart.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

As you say that, oh my god, I've started nitpicking. What the fuck does Pam think happened? She gets thrown out of this thing. What the fuck happened to Jamie? What the fuck happened to this grown man? Does she know in some level about the fucking time travel of it all? What was past Pam thinking?

SPEAKER_01 45:15

God, that's such a good point because she gets thrown out, I assume, breaks an arm or something, maybe goes into a coma. But yeah, what does she think happened to Jamie and Chris?

SPEAKER_02 45:27

It must be something that Lauren tells her some kind of story, but what could she have told her? And what does that conversation sound like over the years? I need a fucking sequel.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

Oh, I hope.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

It's interesting because usually you would expect that from the very end when they're outside and she's like, Oh, call it honey. Maybe making a slight joke or mention of Jamie being like, Oh, you're talking weird things like my French like how movies do that thing. They do a small little line or throwaway line that acknowledges that they are aware of certain characters in the past, but don't get too into the weeds of it, or it's gonna start to really unravel. But they didn't do that. She full-on owned it. She was like, Nope, we're gonna just not shed light on that. We're gonna forget that part. We're gonna forget her looking like her or rather her. We're doing the pronoun thing again. Jamie looking like Colette, literally. Just all of those things don't even pay mind to it. If you don't pay attention, it didn't happen.

SPEAKER_02 46:27

In my mind, as you were saying that, did that happen in the form of Pam when Jamie, who is now Colette, asked something about the Halloween party, and Pam says, Yeah, the whole crew gets together every year. I was thinking, okay, is the crew the time travel crew? Like that we all know, and we've all been waiting for this moment to see how things shake out, and you figured that Jamie won when you didn't die and she was born, but no, that doesn't make sense because then Lauren asked to speak to Jamie slash Colette outside, away from listening ears. Fuck, man. When you think about this shit all night.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

It does add, I think, a little fun, a little mystery to it. I think that idea that, like, oh, I I I want to see a sequel, that's what hit me at the end of the movie. I I think I I enjoyed the watch so much. I could see rewatching it, but if a sequel came out, holy cow, the back-to-back of it all would be brilliant, especially if they did some kind of fun echoing from the first movie, or if they framed it in a way that it took place both before and after the movie. I I would be down. If you could give me that, if you could give me that type of sequel, I'm gonna binge both. I'm gonna make it happen.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

Yeah, I can see how it would be a great double feature. Because at that point, you just want to keep this whole time travel shenanigans going while it's still fresh, while you still understand certain things, and just like we're asking these questions right now, when it comes to what are the chances that I would rewatch this movie, I mean, surprisingly high, because I'm already like, man, did they acknowledge certain things and we missed it? And that's the beauty of time travel movies. That's why I love it so much. There's such high rewatch value for a good amount of them for that exact reason. They always have these Easter eggs, these little things, acknowledgments, certain plot devices that could potentially become other films later on throughout the movie. They do this all the time, and I appreciate that. And I think that's a fun watch. I said it, you know, when I was talking about why I slashed it. This is not a movie that you need to take so seriously. Anyone can watch this movie and enjoy it. One of my coworkers who doesn't even like horror movies was the one that came up to me and said, Hey, have you seen Totally Killer? And that's nice to see. Even coworkers that are not really into the genre or friends of mine or people that I know that really were called to this film because of how silly it can be. Maybe it's a little over the top at some points, but I think in general, it's a good time, and so why wouldn't you throw it on, you know, when you're just wanting a laugh?

SPEAKER_02 48:54

Yeah, I'm absolutely gonna watch this movie again. I watched it once with the listeners in our watch party. I watched it again earlier today just to refresh myself. And I think, honestly, next Halloween, since this is a Halloween movie, I may end up putting it into my Halloween rotation. We'll see. But for now, there you have it, folks. Totally Killer from 2023 has earned a universal slash. Now we've certainly had a robust discussion here, but it doesn't end here by any means. We want to know what you think.

SPEAKER_03 49:22

What would you do if you had to time travel and maybe battle it out with a serial killer of your own? That would be insane to find out. You can join in on the conversation by hanging out with us for free in our Discord. Click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons and join us as we go back to the future. Visit patreon.com slash hacker slash to enjoy more of the show with early access, extended episodes, bonus content, and live shows.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember avoid the knife, keep your life. How is this even legal?