“Totally Killer”, which was released on Amazon Prime a few days ago, is another familiar genre mix which thankfully has enough entertaining moments to hold our attention to the end. As slyly recognized in the film, this is basically a cross between Wes Craven’s “Scream” (1996) and Robert Zemeckis’ “Back to the Future” (1985), but it did its job fairly well on the whole, and we are often delighted and amused by a number of humorous moments which happen to be accompanied with lots of stabbings as required.

The movie quickly establishes the story background as its adolescent heroine, Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka), is eager to have a fun Halloween day in her little town which has been known for one infamous incident. 36 years ago, three high school students were brutally murdered one by one in the middle of the Halloween season, but the killer was not caught despite lots of investigation, and the identity of the killer remains in mystery even at present. Because she still remembers well that period of terror, Jamie’s mother Pam (Julie Bowen) worries a lot about what might happen, but Jamie is not concerned much in contrast, and that leads to a small conflict between her and her mother.

Of course, the killer strikes again not long after Jamie leaves her house, and not only she but also the whole town are shocked by this incident. While understandably mired in lots of grief and regret, Jamie comes to learn that her best friend happens to be developing a little time machine for the upcoming science fair, and she does not believe much of what her best friend tells her, but, what do you know, that time machine actually works when she is subsequently targeted by the killer. As a result, she is transported back to the day before the first killing happened, and, once she comes to realize what has just happened to her, she immediately embarks on stopping the killer.

As disguising herself as a newly transferred student named “Colette”, Jamie infiltrates into the local high school, and the movie has a lot of fun with how much she is surprised by how many of several adult figures in her life look quite different as teenagers. For example, the current sheriff in her time, who is incidentally the daughter of the sheriff in 1987, is your average dopey marijuana-smoker, and Jamie is also caught off guard to see that young Pam, played by Olivia Holt, is another mean girl besides those three girls to be soon murdered.

While trying to get closer to young Pam and those three girls, Jamie also approaches to Lauren (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson), who will be the mother of Jamie’s best friend. Because Lauren has also tried to develop the time machine, it does not take much time for Jamie to convince Lauren that she indeed comes from 2023, and Lauren willingly assists Jamie while also trying to figure out how to send Jamie back to 2023 before it is too late.

Cheerfully swinging between the two aforementioned films, the screenplay by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D’Angelo diligently delivers wit and humor along the story. The frequent cultural clashes beween Jamie and its main period background is certainly the main source of comedy in the film, and you will enjoy a bunch of period details including several notable pop songs from the 1980s. Although the time travel logic of the story is rather shaky in my humble opinion, it is handled with enough sense of fun at least, so we do not mind at all when the film occasionally goes back to 2023 for showing how Jamie’s actions affect her present in one way or another.

In addition, the drama at the center of the story works better than expected. Although their first encounter was not exactly pleasant to say the least, Jamie comes to know and understand young Pam more as spending more time with her, and that makes Jamie all the more determined to change the past as much as possible. In case of those three girls to be murdered sooner or later, the movie handles these seemingly superficial characters with some care and affection, and that is the main reason why we come to care more about what is being at stake for them and others including Jamie and young Pam.

The main weakness of the film is a part involved with the killer. Although it is handled well under the competent direction of director Nahnatchka Khan, this part feels rather perfunctory compared to the more entertaining parts of the movie, and you will not be that surprised even when the identity of the killer is eventually revealed during the finale – especially if you are a seasoned moviegoer like me.

Nevertheless, the movie keeps us engaged despite that, and Kiernan Shipka and several other main cast members including Olivia Holt and Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson are solid in their respective parts. At the fringe of the story, Randall Park, who plays the sheriff in the 1987 storyline, and Julie Bowen provide some extra humor, and Bowen and Shipka effortlessly click with each other well in their key scene early in the film.

In conclusion, “Totally Killer” is not totally fresh, but it studies and then plays with its genre elements well for our little entertainment, and the result is one of the more enjoyable products from Blumhouse Productions. Right before watching the film, I happened to be quite depressed by the tediously pointless presentation of misery and violence in South Korean movie “Hopeless”, but I got soon lightened up as savoring its every good moment, so I definitely recommend it to you for the upcoming Halloween season.