Movie review
September 28, 2023 · 104 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Totally Killer is a 2023 Blumhouse slasher comedy in which a modern teenager accidentally time-travels to 1987 and teams up with her young mother to stop a masked serial killer before he strikes. The story mixes straightforward killer-hunting action with fish-out-of-water humor drawn from the protagonist’s 2023 perspective clashing with 1980s small-town life. Recurring comedic beats center on the modern lead explicitly calling out 1980s casual homophobia, consent norms, racist school mascots, privacy lapses, and substance culture as problematic while trying to “educate” characters on contemporary standards.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Totally Killer.
Woke representation / casting
Main and supporting cast fits small-town American demographics and character needs without visible forced diversity, quotas, or story-world mismatches.
Woke political dialogue
Protagonist delivers repeated lines and reactions that explicitly flag 1980s homophobia, consent blind spots, racist symbols, and social norms as problematic, turning the culture clash into recurring ideological comedy.
Identity-driven story themes
The modern teen’s socially conscious identity shapes her reactions, interactions, and attempts to correct the past, making generational awareness a consistent comedic driver even as the killer plot advances.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The film critiques 1980s small-town insularity, high-school peaking, and casual social attitudes by applying a contemporary progressive filter that treats those norms as outdated and in need of modern correction on consent, inclusion, and identity issues.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Recurring niche social-media and Reddit criticism targets the preachy oneliners and 80s-culture lectures as jarring or agenda-driven, though complaints remain limited and do not escalate to broad media debate.
Creator track record context
Director Nahnatchka Khan’s earlier comedy work with cultural and inclusive elements provides mild supporting context; writers show no comparable pattern.
Production
