Totally Killer (2023) - The good outways the bad

The thing with time travel movies is that they rarely make sense.  If you're so inclined, you can tear apart even the biggest classics from the genre, such as 'The Terminator' and 'Back to the Future.' Yes, time travel isn't real and therefore doesn't have any official 'rules' so it's up to you to decide what makes sense.  And, as 'Totally Killer' shamelessly admits to, it's basically 'Back to the Future' (but with serial killers).  And, what's more it doesn't make sense in terms of physics.

So, you can either hate it for it's lack of scientific inaccuracies, or you can simply enjoy it for being a fun ride which satires everything from social attitudes from the present day compared to the eighties, to horror/slasher films in general. I chose the latter.  And I enjoyed it a lot.

Let's just ignore the 'time travel mechanics' itself.  You don't need to know how she does it, but our young protagonist somehow finds herself taken from her 'safespace' of 2023 all the way back in time to the 'hedonistic' eighties.  There, she finds that a serial killer is still on the loose and that she now has the power to stop him - and potentially mess up her parents ever getting together, thus erasing her entire existence.  Did I mention it was like 'Back to the Future?' I think I did.  The film also isn't ashamed to admit that it's effectively using the same template, but adding a 'slasher' element to the story.

So, what you're left with is a 'meta' slasher film where the protagonist has all the knowledge of thirty years ahead of where she finds herself, combined with knowing how these types of films normally play out.  Therefore a lot of the gags come in the form of the juxtaposition of the eighties vs present day and real life vs how people act in horror films.

Out of all the run-of-the-mill horror films you'll find on streaming services this one is that rare type where you might actually remember something about it after the credits have rolled.  Like I say, it isn't perfect, but it's as enjoyable as you'll let it be.  If you recall how the eighties were (like me - I'm old) and you know all the conventions of a slasher film then you'll definitely get more out of it than most.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that