Here's why Totally Killer, a new 80s slasher, is murdering streaming charts
The Kiernan Shipka-led horror comedy has all the right ingredients to make a killing.
While everyone is looking at Five Nights at Freddy's and its box office performance later this month, Blumhouse Productions (through its TV division) has snuck in another killer success by teaming up with Amazon for Totally Killer, which is now available on Prime Video.
Streaming charts and data show that Totally Killer, starring Netflix's Sabrina herself, Kiernan Shipka, has been vastly outperforming for the past few days everything else on Prime Video except for The Wheel of Time, The Continental, and Gen V. Moreover, it's doing better than the competition's best-performing movies, including even Netflix's surprise hit Fair Play.
The movie follows Jamie (Shipka), a teenager who travels back in time to 1987, where she pairs up with her mother to stop a would-be-killer and return to her timeline before she is trapped in the past forever. It's a smart mix of slasher elements with comedy, all wrapped by the time-traveling premise at the center of it. Ahead of Halloween, it feels like the perfect flick to watch during a weekend afternoon, and critics and viewers alike agree, as the movie currently holds 87% and 81% ratings respectively on Rotten Tomatoes.
Totally Killer's massive success doesn't fully come as a surprise though, as Scream VI bled audiences dry earlier this year, earning around $168 million globally on a limited $35 million production budget. The franchise is known for its mix of horror, dark humor, and above all, meta elements. Totally Killer channels much of that energy even if it's a way lighter affair thanks to plenty of Back to the Future DNA, plus it's spearheaded by Kiernan Shipka, who's extremely liked among the younger viewers after his tenure as Sabrina Spellman. Simply put, there's no dark magic nor mysterious powers at play here. Prime Video and Blumhouse cracked the code.
Later this week, we'll be covering Prime Video's presentation at NYCC 2023 live. It promises "exclusive first looks and never-before-seen footage of returning fan-favorite series and highly anticipated new series".
