“Do you like scary movies?” It’s hard to watch a slasher flick (laced with comedy) like Totally Killer without seeing the influence of Scream and other classics. The new Prime Video film from director Nahnatchka Khan (Always Be My Maybe, Young Rock) drops this week, and just in time for the lead-up to one of your favorite holidays. Halloween is celebrated all month long, so why not? Totally Killer — a double entendre of a title alluding to the colloquial slang used by teens back in the day — centers on the fictitious “Sweet 16 Killer,” who wreaked havoc on a small town 35 years ago and is back on Halloween Night to take down yet another victim.

When the latest victim’s daughter discovers a time machine built by a friend of hers, she is able to travel back to the night of the first murders and perhaps stop the killer before it’s too late. Featuring a superb cast led by Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men), Julie Bowen (Modern Family), and Randall Park (WandaVision), Totally Killer will make you laugh, wince and shield your eyes from time to time. We recently caught up with director Khan to learn more about the creative process between her unique feature that blends a variety of genres (horror, comedy, true crime, sci-fi, coming-of-age).

Tackling a Feature with a ‘Lot of Balls to Juggle’

Khan was quick to mention how she was surprised by the script she received from such a groundbreaking horror company. “It’s from Blumhouse, so I assume there’s some sort of horror element to it,” she told us. “And so when I was reading it, and then I got to the conflict, the premise, the idea of this woman having to go back in time to stop this killer, I was just 100% in.” She added:

I was like, ‘This is so much fun.’ It’s a lot of balls to juggle: There’s the horror, there’s comedy, there’s time travel. There’s the ’80s. But it was such a fun challenge. And I felt like, tonally, I can really get in there and make something fun and cool.

Fun and cool are certainly words that come to mind when experiencing Totally Killer. Pro tip: Watch it with your friends because the comedic “eye roll” moments you share with the lead character Jamie (Shipka) as she navigates the “problematic” ’80s culture is simply hysterical. Kahn dished about how her career thus far helped bring a laugh-out-loud project like Totally Killer to life:

“I come from an exclusive comedy background. So I have a lot of experience working in that world, and then to be able to bring that with me into this world, because there is a lot of comedy here, so I’m not abandoning all that not. So I’m like, ‘Alright, I have my comfort zone that I’m bringing into this, but then completely going out of my comfort zone with the kills, the practical effects, the stunt work, just a lot of elements I hadn’t had a chance to explore yet.’ And it was definitely a challenge, but it was so exciting.”

Speaking of challenges, Totally Killer features multiple sequences with the actual time machine Jamie uses to travel back to the ’80s, and the practical effects Khan mentioned were quite dazzling. “We actually rented a Gravitron from a traveling carnival that was moving through Canada, and we brought it onto the stage,” said Khan.

“We had it for three days,” she continued. “And we were just in this kind of tomb, pulling out panels and rigging our wires and our lighting. That was really challenging. And obviously that can’t be operating because we’re shooting, so we’re not fighting gravity, but it can seem like we are. So we’ve got the blowers, and we’ve got the rig shake, and we’ve got the lights moving. And it was just a long three days.”

Related: 26 Underseen Slashers of the 1980s

Featuring ‘Inherently Likable’ Supporting Players
Prime Video

One highlight from Totally Killer is a hilariously dim-witted cop from the ’80s played to perfection by the reliably superb Randall Park. He recently stepped behind the camera for the hit film Shortcomings, but beyond that, he’s been a talented character actor whose face is instantly recognizable from hit shows like Fresh off the Boat and Veep. “Randall is so great,” said Khan. “He’s such a funny actor, and he’s so just inherently likable as a person. So it was really fun to have him play this role. [His character] is kind of a jerk, he’s dismissive of [Jamie], he favors his own daughter. It was such a fun time with him because he’s just such a professional and just a delight to be around.”

As previously mentioned, Totally Killer pays homage to a number of classic films, including Back to the Future. Khan detailed where else she and her crew drew inspiration from:

“Definitely some touchstones for us were Scream, that was a big one. And then we kind of went back, and even the original Halloween for certain moments, especially that section where Laurie is walking home from school and Michael Myers is around the neighborhood. And he’s just in the daytime, that was also terrifying and masterful. There were a few shots from the original Friday the 13th, and even a little Sam Raimi one from the original Evil Dead.”

Related: 50+ Best Horror Movies of All Time, Ranked

“So I think there were little nods to different movies of the era in that genre,” continued Khan. “And then we also went back and looked at a bunch of the John Hughes movies, that sort of teen world. And like, it really is funny when you go back and watch those movies, it looks much more grittier than you remember. It doesn’t look like an MTV Music Video. It’s not bright because it’s like, these are these kids’ lives. It feels much more lived in, in a cool way. And so that was an aesthetic that I wanted to bring into this movie, where the details are specific to the era, and what people are wearing and all that stuff. But it’s not over the top.”

Looking ahead, Khan’s positive experience helming Totally Killer has left her excited to continue in the horror genre while exploring new areas of cinema as well. “It was so much fun. I’ve truly had a blast,” she said. “I’d be open to whatever. But after having done this, it’d be weird to never do it again because it’s like, there are so many more things that I want to do.”

Totally Killer will premiere globally on Friday Oct. 6, and the night of Oct. 5 for some, exclusively on Prime Video.