Plot
Halloween 1987, in the small town of Vernon a murder spree occurs when the “Sweet Sixteen Killer” murders three members of the friendship group the Molly’s.
Only Pam was spared, and went on to marry Blake – and eventually have daughter Jamie.
In 2023, the killer returns, finishing what he started by murdering Pam. Stricken with grief, Jamie vows to ‘undo the past’ and with the time machine built by best friend Amelia, (from mum Lauren’s designs), travels back to 1987 to stop any of the slayings.
Finding teen Lauren, and the “Molly’s” – Jamie must try to stop the kill spree, and uncover the killer! Or killers??
Direction
Nahnatchka Khan directs. She is well known in the asian comedic community, espcially for her work on the film Call Me By Your Name, and the television show Fresh Off the Boat.
It is a solid blend of time travel comedy Back to the Future, and slasher films like Scream (with it’s action violence with the kills).
Cast
As the film is set in both 1987 and 2023 – I will list the some of the ‘casts’ by character
Kiernan Shipka plays Jamie Hughes (in both years).
Pam Miller/Hughes is played by Julie Bowen (2023) and Olivia Holt (1987).
Blake Hughes is played by Lochlyn Munro (2023) and Charlie Gillespie.
Other 1987 cast include Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson, Liana Liberato, Ella Choi, and Randall Park (who has starred in most of director Khan’s projects).
Since characters exist in both years there are too many to really mention.
Breakdown
Starting with an exposition Podcast telling of the 1987 murders, we are introduced to a series of characters, and who the victims were all the way back in 1987. Each girl was aged 16, and stabbed 16 times! Yikes!
We then meet the Hughes family, (a nod to the late John Hughes), led by mum Pam. She was one of the survivors of the massacre, and the three victims were her friends from the group they called the Molly’s… after Molly Ringwald. She is swiftly murdered early into the film – and a devastated daughter Jamie vows to do something about it. So she uses the science experiment of best friend Amelia (from her mum Lauren’s experiment book). When the killer attacks her ‘mid’ attempt – it works, and lands her the day before the massacre starts back in 1987.
Here she manages to bump into pretty much the entire town, and we get to see who is who in their 1987/2023 selves almost side by side (so the audience knows). I liked this, as it shows how much these people are different today as from back then…
The time travel trope is done extremely well here, as the film has an almost self awareness about time travel (and movies like Back to the Future exist). Jamie then must find the inventor of the time machine – Lauren – who is a moderately unpopular school mate of the Molly’s.
As Jamie tries to work her way into the Molly’s lives, she quickly learns that her ‘stick in the mud mother’ is anything but as a teen. All the language and “pre woke” way of life is completely foreign to Jamie – and makes many a comments about what she encounters. These are funny, especially given if you are a little older, and you remember a way of life before everyone got offended by everything.
However, even as hard as she tries, the murders still begin. This both subverts expectations, as you think she’s going to stop all the carnage – but instead, all the victims that were part of the 1987 massacre, stay victims of “this” massacre. However, they start occurring in the wrong location, and wrong order.
This confuses those still in 2023 – as the film cleverly has both 1987 and 2023 occurring simultaneously (as time is like a river).
The kills when they do occur (as well as some of the attacks with the killer vs other characters) are quite violent, and well choreographed. It has a “new Scream” style violence (another film referenced too). These are actually genuinely well done, and you really do think that anything can happen to anyone – including Pam and Blake! (Will the attacks bring them together 4 years before they were supposed to???)
The killer reveal is a little lackluster – as they die with the mask on – (in 1987) but then it changes gears by adding a second killer (who time traveled back to 87 too, in order to finish the job… )
This all changes 2023 because of the space time continuum, and ‘Colette’ must discover all the changes she made… dun dun dun.
Overall
I really quite enjoyed this, and it had both a great premise, and was executed (pardon the pun) well. A solid screenplay is also a big up, as well as how it subverts expectations in the narrative.
The ‘who dunnit’ reveal is slightly lackluster – but a ‘shock’ within the third act is surprising.
It might not get as high a score from others, but it does from me.
4/5
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