In this new film on Amazon Prime, the masked Sweet Sixteen Killer resurfaces after 35 years and attacks teenager Jamie Hughes (played by The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina's Kiernan Shipka). She seeks safety in the time machine photo booth her friend invented and is sent back to the late eighties. There she tries to save the lives of her mother's three friends and figure out who the killer is.
This is a slasher horror comedy similar to Happy Death Day and Final Girls. Much like how HDD is a "what if Groundhog's Day was a horror film," this is "what if Back to the Future was a horror movie." What ensues is a solidly written and fairly funny work with a solid story that makes you guess what'll happen next. (Plus, we get a final fight that's never been done before.)
The high point is having a modern girl in the 80's. I've never seen a movie so accurately nail the difference between today's culture and the non-PC culture of the eighties. Seeing Jamie amazed with how different things were back then never gets old.
This movie is about Jamie learning to understand and get along with her mother Pam (played in the present by Modern Family's Julie Bowen and in the past by Cloak & Dagger's Olivia Holt). Time travel helping someone relate to their parent has been done before and there's nothing new here, but the movie does it well.
Jamie immediately knows what's going on. We don't have to go through the whole obvious character-takes-time-to figure out she's in the past bits. She's immediately on her mission.
It can be frustrating how dense and self-destructive the teens are when there's a murderer on the loose. Yeah they're teens, but I still feel they're played a little too cartooney.
If you're more into comedy than horror, and you're wondering how violent this is then this might not be for you. When the kills happen, director Nahnatchka Khan doesn't pull any punches, and they are bloody.
Also, understand that this is entertaining and clever, but I wouldn't say this is the funniest film of the year. I enjoyed myself but never laughed out loud.
Recommended. Just a generally good time, especially if you like jokes about generational differences.
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