The psycho's mask in “Totally Killer” was inspired by Kiefer Sutherland, Dolph Lundgren, and Rob Lowe
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Talk about some killer inspiration.
In the just-released time travel horror-comedy Totally Killer a teenager named Jamie, played by Kiernan Shipka, travels back in time to 1987 and attempts to stop a killer from murdering three of her mother's high school friends. "She's armed with a full timeline of his kills, because it's been well-documented — there's podcasts and murder tours dedicated to it," says director Nahnatchka Khan. "She's going to stop this killer from committing these tragic horrific events."
Prime Video 'Totally Killer'
The killer's identity is unknown because they wear a mask depicting the face of a grinning, blonde-haired man, designed by makeup wizard Tony Gardner (Zombieland, Seed of Chucky). Khan explains that the mask "had to originate in the '80s, so you have to have that nostalgic vibe, but in our movie people still dress up like the killer in present-day, so I wanted it to feel a little bit relevant. We landed on the idea of a handsome man being terrifying. Tony Gardner [and] our design team started pulling '80s heartthrob references, like Kiefer Sutherland and Rob Lowe and Dolph Lundgren, and even Johnny Bravo, and then exaggerated it and made the teeth oversized. The idea [was] that the last thing you see is this beautiful smile as you're being killed."
Julie Bowen plays the mother of Shipka's character in the present-day while Olivia Holt portrays a younger, and much less nurturing, version of mom back in the '80s.
"We cast Olivia Holt first, so then we were like, who's going to play an older version of Olivia?" says Khan. "Side-by-side, her and Julie look like the same person 30 years apart. I know Julie, and sent her the script, and she was so in for it."
The Blumhouse-produced film's cast also includes Randall Park, who starred in Khan's previous movie, the romantic-comedy Always Be My Maybe. The director says any time she's working on a project, she calls him up. "I thought this was perfect for him because he's playing this small-town sheriff who is dismissive of this young woman and favors his daughter — he's sort of drunk with power," Khan explains. "It was fun to see him playing kind of an a--hole."
Prime Video Kiernan Shipka in 'Totally Killer'
Kiernan's character in Totally Killer references both Back to the Future — the most obvious influence on the movie — and Scream. Having traveled back to the '80s, Jamie describes Wes Craven's 1996 film to one of her new acquaintances as "a movie from the future that you think stars Drew Barrymore but then doesn't." "There was an [alternate take] for that where she says, 'Maybe it could be two killers, like in Scream,'" recalls Khan. "And then her friend is like, 'You mean the painting?' But I felt that wasn't as funny as the Drew Barrymore one."
Of course, there were three Back to the Future movies. Would Khan be interested in making more movies set in the Totally Killer world? And would the third one, like Back to the Future Part III, be a Western?
"I think whatever [is] next would feel different, but I'd love to make something more in this space," she says. "I think they should go back to period times. It might be like a time-travel version of Remains of the Day."
Totally Killer is streaming on Prime Video. Watch the film's trailer above.
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