‘Totally Killer’ Director Nahnatchka Khan On Filming In A Gravitron
Mary Beth McAndrews
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Director Nahnatchka Khan is known for her work in the world of comedy, from writing on American Dad and Young Chris to directing features like Always Be My Maybe. Now, she’s jumping headfirst into the world of horror with her new time-traveling slasher Totally Killer.
In Totally Killer,
Thirty-five years after the shocking murder of three teens, the infamous “Sweet Sixteen Killer“ returns on Halloween night to claim a fourth victim. Seventeen-year-old Jamie ignores her overprotective mom’s warning and comes face-to-face with the masked maniac and, on the run for her life, accidentally time-travels to 1987, the year of the original killings. Forced to navigate the unfamiliar and outrageous culture of the 1980s, Jamie teams up with her teen mom to take down the killer once and for all, before she’s stuck in the past forever.
Dread Central spoke with Khan about moving into the world of horror, rejecting nostalgia, and more.
Dread Central: I had so much fun watching this movie, and it’s so cool to get to see you do some horror now because I’ve loved your work in the past and you obviously do comedy so well. So why start wading into the horror space?
Nahnatchka Khan: After the last movie that I directed, which was this rom-com, Always Be My Maybe, I was so happy with that experience. But it was like that thing where when you do one thing, that’s everything that they send you. So I was getting sent all these comedies and I was so happy to have done it. I was so thrilled with that experience, but I knew I wanted to do something different and something that just felt like a challenge. So I met Jason Blum and the Blumhouse team sent me Totally Killer. There were so many elements that I just loved and I was like, “This just makes sense, I’m so excited for this.”
DC: So are you a horror fan? Do you like watching horror?
NK: Horror Movies? Yeah, I love it. I find it so relaxing.
DC: Hell yeah. Oh my God, same. It’s the best.
NK: When I just want to chill out, there’s nothing better than putting on a Conjuring movie.
DC: Do you remember your first horror movie?
NK: It was really funny. It was the original Exorcist, but I saw it at a friend’s house because my parents didn’t allow us to watch horror movies. My mom is superstitious, both my parents are from Iran, so they’re both immigrants and there’s a very superstitious element that is at play in a lot of households of people whose parents are not from here necessarily. I don’t know if how American families are, but my family was like, no demons, no devils. No, not even at Walmart with that cheap Devil costume. So I was at a sleepover, just hanging out, and I saw The Exorcist.
DC: Wow. Casual slumber party viewing, The Exorcist.
NK: I mean, what on Earth? I almost had to go get the mom. I’m like, do you know what we’re watching? This is not okay. I’m terrified.
DC: With Totally Killer, you hit this awesome balance of horror and comedy, and I know that a lot of it has to do with the script. But from your perspective, what was that like for you to make sure it all came together?
NK: Yeah, I think that that’s definitely a tightrope that we consciously wanted to stay on and walk that line the whole time. It starts on the page, really making sure that the script reflects that and we feel great about what we’re going into. Then once we start shooting, it’s just a matter of feeling confident that for whatever reason this scene ends with a comedy blow, but allowing ourselves the freedom to, once we put the movie together, realize, “You know what? Maybe we don’t need a comedy moment here. Maybe let’s just let the adrenaline carry us into the next scene.” And so really shooting different options for ins and outs so we can play and make sure we’re not tipping too far in one direction.
DC: I’ve talked to a lot of people who’ve done horror comedies and horror and comedy are so similar in how people experience it. Did you have a similar experience in seeing how similar the structures were of the two genres?
NK: Yeah, I think structurally they share a lot of DNA, the idea that it’s all about this setup and the payoff, whether it’s a laugh or a scare. So that was something that I was familiar with for sure. But I think the things that were surprising in horror is how you have to edit off rhythm. The idea of where you think the scare is going to come shouldn’t come there, because then it’s not scary. So you have to go against the rhythm of comedy for the rhythm of horror. So that was an interesting element because the rhythm of comedy is what makes it funny a lot of times, and the off rhythm of horror is what makes it scary. I think they share a lot of DNA, but there are also differences that I found really interesting.
DC: That’s so cool. And I love the way that you create the world with your production designer and the costume designer to make this feel like the 1980s without it feeling too nostalgic. So what was that like working with your team to make this feel like a version of the 1980s?
NK: Totally. That was something that we all really locked arms together about. We knew that once she went back to the 1980s, we didn’t want it to suddenly feel like a Duran Duran video. That’s not the joke of what we’re doing. We want it to feel like she’s a fish out of water. And we want to feel authentic to the period, so people are going to dress the way they did and the cars and the technology and all that stuff, but not so much so that it’s distracting from everything else that’s happening in these scenes. There are a lot of other elements at play, and so we want it to feel authentic but not distracting.
DC: I loved the jacket with the fringe. I would buy that jacket now.
NK: I mean, our costume designer was saying she was scouring all these vintage stores for all the 80s stuff, and they’re so hard to find because it’s so in fashion right now. So we had that jacket made specifically for the movie. The references for her were Sloan from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and then Cindy Mancini in Can’t Buy Me Love. So she took these two 1980s teen iconic movies, and she cooled it up.
DC: I will say one of my favorite scenes that I would love to hear more about you directing is the dodgeball scene.
NK: That [scene] was really important for me because she just gets to the 80s and you don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s a killer on the loose, all this stuff happens. But it was also the introduction of her young mother which happens at the end [of the scene]. I wanted it to feel like how Jamie felt in that moment, which is lost at sea. So the directive was this should be Saving Private Ryan, the opening of that landing on the beach, and it’s wartime. It’s like bullets flying and people are falling left to right.
DC: God, yeah. Wow. That’s an incredible directive. Kieran Shipka is incredible in this film, and it’s cool to see her in this kind of role. I love this entire cast. So how involved were you with the casting process and finding all of the stars of the film?
NK: Oh my God. It was incredible. Once we had the script ready that we wanted to send out to actors like us, Amazon Blumhouse, everybody had her name on our lists. Terry Taylor, who’s the head of casting at Blumhouse, has worked with her before. I also worked with her briefly. She did one episode of Don’t Trust the Be In Apartment 23 when she was 12. She was a baby.
But we sent it to her and then she really liked it and we met and she’s just a dream. She was so perfect. She got the character, she knew all the levels that we wanted to work with. Then once we had Olivia Holt as her young mom, the two of them together were magic. Then Julie Bowen plays the older version of Olivia. All the pieces started to come together and the whole cast, I mean, they really just were a dream to work with.
DC: What was filming inside of a Gravitron like?
NK: That was a real challenge. I’m not going to lie.
DC: I can imagine.
NK: We found a traveling carnival, and we rented it from them for three days. We brought it onto our stage, and when we were walking it, we realized that you could kind of see where the light comes through the beds. So we had a lighting rig outside that was moving. We obviously can’t turn it on because we’re shooting, so we have to make it feel like it’s moving. We were shooting directionally, so we had the stunt team rig all the wires because once the Gravitron kicks in, they get thrown against the wall. So that’s them being pulled by wires and getting thrown back. We were in there for three days and it’s like a coffin.
DC: Did you have a favorite kill that you filmed? I mean, I know we don’t want to spoil anything, but was there a favorite kill that you were really proud that you accomplished?
NK: I mean, there’s a few of them, but I think the cabin sequence, for me, was a really fun one to put together because there were so many pieces. There are a lot of people there, and it’s all about the geography of the space, who’s where, who’s vulnerable. And then when the killer reveals themselves, that whole chase, there’s a chase on the top floor that goes down to the bottom floor, and then people come in and out and then it ends with a kill without giving away who. But yeah, that was a fun one to shoot. Challenging but fun.
DC: Would you ever direct another horror movie, and would you make a not-horror comedy?
NK: I think it’s all about the project. Honestly, I think it just has to have a streak of comedy in it no matter what it is. But yeah, it depends. I’m down for whatever, as long as it’s interesting.
DC: Is there a subgenre you’d ever want to tackle if the right project came along?
NK: I kind of like the idea of found footage!
Totally Killer is out now on Prime Video.
Categorized:Interviews
