31 Days of Halloween: Totally Killer

2023, Nahnatchka Khan (Don't Trust the B**** in Apartment 23) -- Amazon

OMG, we get time travel antics AND a teen slasher movie all wrapped up in a rather pithy comedy! Its not quite as enjoyable as Happy Death Day but in the same wheelhouse.

Wait, I didn't write about Happy Death Day? Not for 31 Days of Halloween? Not for our Loopty Loo time-loop posts? I suck. I have probably noted that before. I really need a new project of "rewatches solely for the purpose of a post" but, do I, really, need more projects/themes?

Back in 1987, Pam Miller's three best friends were murdered by a masked serial killer, over the three nights leading to Halloween. Pam survived.

In 2023, Pam Hughes is obsessed with her survival, a wee bit overbearing on her daughter and utterly prepared for it to happen again, despite it being decades since anyone ever saw the "sweet 16 killer" -- he stabbed each teen 16 times. Think of her as the black comedy version of Laurie Strode from the recent legasequel Halloween movies.

Then she is attacked, and killed. All her prep was for naught. The killer is back! But her daughter Jamie happens to have a friend with a time machine (?!?!?). While she is attempting to use it to go back and save her mom & friends, she is attacked by the killer, who stabs the up to then non-functional time machine that is embedded inside a instant-photo booth. This is the Bill & Ted school of time machines. Jamie is sent back to October 27, 1987. 

Happy Birthday to 20 year old me !!

Jamie tries to befriend her mom and the other Molly's (aka Molly Ringwald fans, which makes no sense because Molly always played the plucky underdog and they are seminal [pun intended] mean girls), but can't make any headway because she is a cynical, dismissive teen from 2023. She also has no qualms on admitting she is a time traveler, but that doesn't help. She ends up connecting with her best-friend's (currently teen) mom, who was the originator of that time machine idea. She needs to stop the killer from killing, and then return back to the future where everything will be all better.

"Please, just go watch Back to the Future, it will explain everything..." she keeps on demanding.

Things don't go as planned. Mom and her horny friends keep on fucking (pun intended) with the timeline and the details keep on changing, BUT the girls keep on getting killed despite Jamie's best attempts.

Back in 2023, Jamie's time machine inventor friend is talking with the local podcaster who has benefited off these murders all these years and he keeps on having attacks of massive Mandela Syndrome, as Jamie changes the past, and he kind of remembers both timelines. 

This was by-far one of my most favourite remarks on time travel and stepping on butterflies.

Eventually the rest of the original girls are killed, but they DO actually kill the Sweet 16 Killer, and have their Scooby-Doo, pulling off of the mask, moment. Who he is, is incidental because they are attacked again. The Killer from 2023 has now found his way back to 1987 and needs to kill Jamie and her mom! They fend him off, do another Scooby-Doo moment and save the day. Jamie returns back to an entirely altered 2023, and is presented with a notebook of "Everything That Has Changed" details to help her acclimate.

One note on time travel antics. They find out that the 2023 killer was the podcaster and kill him back in 1987, after he has time travelled himself. BUT why would that alter what he had done in 2023 before he had gone back in time? They keep on going on about 'time is a river' and there being parallel flows, but ... whatever, <hand waves away stuff>

Actually, never mind, Marmy reminded me that the Killer also killed his own dad, which meant his younger self never grew up bitter & resentful, to morph into a bitter, resentful man dependent on his podcast. And since they killed the Killer back in 1987, they ended the hold he had on the town, letting them all grow up less traumatized.

This was the fun, quippy, pithy movie I would expect from Khan despite her not doing the writing. And despite being more time-travel than teen slasher (there is an absolute lack of fear here), I am still happy we included it in this run.