Totally Killer, a new horror comedy that began streaming free on Amazon Prime today, is the latest piece of media to cash in on ’80s nostalgia. (Isn’t it time for 2000s nostalgia by now? Or at least ’90s nostalgia? Gen X has had far too long a nostalgia run. Personally, I blame Stranger Things.)
Directed by Nahnatchka Khan (Fresh Off the Boat, Always Be My Maybe), with a screenplay by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D’Angelo, Totally Killer stars Kiernan Shipka as a time-traveling final girl, who goes back in time to the ’80s to save her mother from the “Sweet Sixteen” serial killer. That sounds like a recipe for maximum spooky fun, right?
And it totally is. But, like most movies that deal with time travel, it also gets confusing at times. That’s where Decider can help. Read on for a breakdown of the Totally Killer plot summary and Totally Killer ending explained, including who the killer is in Totally Killer. Spoilers ahead, obviously.
Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) is a teenage girl who is so over her overprotective mother, Pam (Julie Bowen). Yes, all of Pam’s friends were murdered by the “Sweet 16” serial killer, who was never caught, but that was 35 years ago! There’s no way he’d come back after all that time… right?
Wrong, obviously. On Halloween night 2023, the Sweet 16 killer returns, donning his signature creepy mask and knife. While Jamie is off at a concert, being chaperoned by her dad, the killer breaks into their home and murders Jamie’s mother. The killer stabs Pam 16 times, just like he did his three other victims in 1987.
Jamie is devastated. It doesn’t help that the lead police detective reveals that Pam had been secretly texting with the host of the town’s local true crime podcast host, Chris (Jonathan Potts), a man whom Jamie’s father famously detests. Jamie confronts Chris to ask if he was having an affair with her mom. Chris swears he was not—he was talking to Pam because he was the only one still trying to solve the serial killer cold case. Pam shared something with Chris that she had never told anyone else: After her three friends were murdered in 1987, she received a note that said, “You’re next one day.” That’s why Pam spent her life so paranoid.
Luckily, Jamie’s BFF Amelia (Kelcey Mawema) is a genius who invented a literal time machine for her school science fair project! Amelia hasn’t worked out all the kinks yet, but once she does, she believes she can use the time machine to go back to the day in 1987 of the first killing, to stop the murders from happening. Unfortunately, there’s no time to troubleshoot the time machine, because soon enough the killer shows up again and attacks Jamie. Jamie escape in the time machine, and is sent back to the year 1987.
Jamie recruits her BFF’s mom—who had the original design for the time machine—to help her. She quickly learns that her mother was actually a popular mean girl in the ’80s. Young Pam (now played by Olivia Holt) and her friends think that Jamie is a total loser, and so Jamie is unable to prevent the first murder—one of Pam’s equally popular, mean friends—from happening. That murder helps convince Pam that Jamie is psychic, and she believes that she and the rest of her friends are in danger. But she’s still a dumb, horny, teenager and she doesn’t take it that seriously. This leads to yet another of her popular, mean girl friends getting murdered.
However, this time, the girl who was supposed to be the third victim was the second victim. This means that Jamie is changing things in the past. As her BFF Amelia once explained, in this universe, time is like a river. If you change something in the flow of the river, the effects will trickle downstream. That’s why Jamie is worried when she accidentally lets slip to her mom that she’s going to some day marry her dad, that she’s going to cause them to get together too early. (They didn’t hook up until after college, when they were both more mature and ready for it.) Oh well, too late now!
For nonsensical, time travel machine plot reasons, Jamie needs to get back to the future by Halloween night, or she’ll be trapped in the ’80s forever. But she still hasn’t caught the killer. Her main suspect right now is a loner kid named Lurch. His sister, who died in a car crash, was viciously bullied by Pam and her mean friends, so he definitely has a motive. But c’mon, that’s way too obvious.
Back in the present day, Amelia has been working on building a new time machine to save Jamie. Back in the ’80s, Amelia’s mother is working on repairing the old one. But it’s missing something… a huge force that only the spinny Gravitron ride at the local amusement park can provide! (Timey-wimey plot reasons. Just go with it.) The plan is to lure the killer to the amusement park with his would-be final victim. Jamie will stop the murder real quick, then pop back to her own time.
The plan works! The teens manage to kill the killer before he kills his next victim. Then they take off his mask.
The killer in Totally Killer is a nerdy kid named Doug Summers (played by Nathaniel Appiah), who later grows up to the be principal of Jamie’s high school. Turns out, Doug was dating “Fat Trish,” the girl who was bullied and died. But there’s more to the story: The night Trish died, Pam’s friends had gotten Trish drunk at a sleepover, to harass her over a rumor that she had slept with a teacher. Then Trish drove home drunk, got into a crash, and died. That’s why Doug wanted revenge. And Pam was spared, because she wasn’t there on the night of sleepover.
But wait… then why did Pam get a note from the killer that said, “You’re next, one day?”
Plot twist alert: The killer in 1987 is not the same person who is the killer in 2023. And somehow, the 2023 killer ends up back in 1987. How? Because the 2023 killer is none other than Chris, aka the true-crime podcast guy. He murdered Jamie’s mom because he wanted new content for his podcast. It’s hard to keep audiences hooked! There was never a note to Pam from the killer. Chris wrote that himself.
Chris used the new time machine, built by Amelia, to travel back in time. He’s going to kill Jamie to keep the truth from coming out. Chris and Jamie face off in the Gravitron, and Jamie comes out on top. She kills Chris and travels back to 2023. It’s a happy ending… with some caveats.
Jamie’s mother is still alive, and still married to her dad, which is good because it means Jamie is still their daughter. Amelia’s mom remembers everything that happened in the past, and she tells Jamie that this timeline is a little different than the one she came from. In perhaps the film’s biggest plot hole, it’s not explained how Amelia’s mom could know what’s different—unless Jamie told her like, everything about herself in the past.
The biggest change? Jamie’s parents got together way too early, like she feared, and now she has a 34-year-old brother. Also? The brother’s name is Jamie, and Jamie’s name is now Colette. Oops!
With that punchline, the movie ends. While the credits play, we see excerpts from a notebook explaining other changes to this timeline. Since the old Principal Summers died in 1987, the new principal is the football jock, Randy. Meanwhile, this version of Chris the podcast guy has stayed out of trouble for now… but Amelia’s mom still keeps an eye on him.
Look, time travel plots never really make sense. But hey, at least this one was fun!