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Totally Killer: If Back to the Future & Scream had a baby

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at App State chapter.

This article contains minor spoilers for Totally Killer

Ghosts and ghouls are near to bring holiday tricks, and if you’re lucky, treats. In the case of Jamie Hughes in Amazon Prime’s new film Totally Killer, she gets something worse than tricks; murder. Jamie, played by Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), is a teenage girl who just wants to go to a concert on Halloween night. However, her mother advises her against this decision as 35 years ago, her friends were murdered over the span of a few days by a masked killer, the final murder taking place on Halloween.

Jamie insists on going, and her mother begrudgingly lets her go as long as her father, Blake (Lochlyn Munro) is with her the whole time. Unfortunately, this leaves her mother, Pam Hughes (Julie Bowen) alone in the house. See, after the murders took place, the killer’s mask gained popularity. Using the mask is not unusual, so at first, she doesn’t think anything of it when someone knocks on her door while she is giving out candy. That is until the intention of the masked person is made clear.

The two fight each other, and it seems as though Pam may have the upper hand as she has plenty of weapons hidden around the house, a security system, and she took self-defense classes. However, she does not win.

A grieving Jamie and her father are trying to get through the next day as much as they can. At school, she gets asked how she is by her principal and questioned by the police. Rightfully fed up, Jamie tells them to solve the case as it was never solved 35 years ago.

She meets with her best friend Amelia who is in the midst of building a time machine at the fairgrounds. While she’s explaining how Jamie can use it to go back to 1987, the killer appears and chases Jamie. They run through the fairgrounds and Jamie nearly escapes the killer in the time machine. Once the killer stabs the machine, it takes Jamie back in time.

Once there, she meets her mom and her friends who are still very much alive and teenagers. Though they are not what she expected, Jamie attempts to befriend them and with the help of teenage Lauren (Amelia’s mother), they work together to find out who the killer is.
The movie was released earlier this month and definitely deserves all of the hype for spooky season. Totally Killer is witty, suspenseful, and for sure a blast from the past. The film also stars Olivia Holt (Cruel Summer) as young Pam, Liana Liberato (Scream VI) as Tiffany Clark, and Charlie Gillespie (Julie & the Phantoms) as young Blake. If you haven’t seen it yet, you are missing out!

Sophia Alayna

App State '24

Sophia is a Senior at Appalachian State University. She is pursuing a degree in English Creative Writing and Gender, Women's, & Sexualities studies! Sophia enjoys writing, getting in her feels, and creating/maintaining connections with loved ones.