Totally Killer
- by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D’Angelo, directed by Nahnatchka Khan
- Feature Film
- YA and Up
- Definite Time Travel
- English
- Totally Killer by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D’Angelo, directed by Nahnatchka Khan (Fantastic Fest, Austin, Texas, 28 September 2023).
It’s fortunate that Jamie’s best friend in high school is building a time machine so that Jamie can go back to when Mom was in high school to stop the serial killer who killed Mom’s three friends—and just now killed Mom, too!
—Michael Main
If your parents don’t get married and have kids, then basically you just have no life to go home to because everything woud be different. No one would have any idea who you are.
Tags
(16)
- Time Periods
- Circa AD 1970 to 1999: time of the serial killings: October 1987
- Circa AD 2000 to 2099: home time of the story: could be 2022 (”35 years later") or 2023 (Jaime says her visions go “until the year 2023”)
- Timeline Models
- Creation of One New Timeline
- In a Changed Timeline, You Don’t Remember Your Changed Life: A new Jamie (aka Collette) was born and raised in the changed timeline, but who knows what happened to Collette and her hopes and dreams. Only the old Jamie is there at the end of the film. Or as adult Lauren tells Jamie (who is now in Collette’s body): “There’s a lot to catch you up on.”
- Remembering Other Timelines: Jamie remembers only the timeline she grew up in, not the changed timeline she returns to. And Doug remembers parts of a different timeline: “A couple of days ago, I said that Tiffany was murdered in her garage, but she wasn’t She was killed on her parents’ waterbed. That’s a basic fact. How could I forget that?”
- Time Travel Methods
- Luggable Time Machine: The core of Amelia’s time machine can be lugged around and installed in different things. (The booth and Quantum Drop are not themselves time machines.)
- Themes
- Ex Nihilo Obects and People: The white coat with fringes is given to Jamie by her mom in 2022/2023, and Jamie returns it to her mom back in 1987, but these happen in clearly different timelines, so the coat is more of a timey-wimey thing than an ex nihilo object.
- Future Is “Down”: “Whatever changes you make will ripple downstream.”
- Grandfather Paradox: minor discussion
- Meeting or Viewing Ancestors or Descendants
- Retroactive Precognition
- Save “Jimmy”!: In addition to saving Mom, Jamie also wants to save Mom’s posse.
- Save Your Family!: Jamie’s original motivation is to save her mother.
- Stuck in Time
- Synchronized Time: While Jamie is in the past, Amelia tells Chris that Tiffany is dead, but Marissa and Heather are not yet dead, which implies some kind of synchronicity: Some things in the past have “already occurred,” but others have not.
- What Year Is It?: “Excuse me: What year is it?”
Variants
(1)
- Totally Killer by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D’Angelo, directed by Nahnatchka Khan (Fantastic Fest, Austin, Texas, 28 September 2023).
David Matalon (story)
Sasha Perl-Raver (story)