Embedded Files
Movie examples from the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s up through 2023 & each movie have synopsis and reviews that include the coming-of-rage elements. Additionally the influences that tech advancements have had on media, media consumption, and Hollywood are covered peior to the reviews.
Tech & Social Media Beginnings
Tech & Social Media Beginnings
If you’d have asked people in the 1950’s what the world would look like in the year 2000 they might’ve said something about flying cars, highly advanced cities, and huge technological advances in medical science, maybe even the meaning of life. Instead, we got widespread suburbs, booming populations in cities, and an avoidance of dealing with issues like garbage and fossil fuel pollution.
After the Riot Grrl era of the nineties filled with anger and pushback the early aughts pop-music took complete control of the world with female celebrities like Destiny’s Child, Avril Levine, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears who had a more laid back and matter of fact approach to life and the patriarchy. Rather than fight against it, artistic acts that took the spotlight flowed along with the currents and those who didn’t make a fuss were rewarded while those that presented problems found themselves regretting having stood up for themselves in the first place.
The 2000’s isn’t denoted as a specific period of advancement for the best interests of women or huge changes to mark a specific wave of feminism. Some fashion trends included Y2K and emo, pick-me rhetoric and mentality ran rampant, and there was more than one opportunity to make it on TV by showing your breasts for little to no compensation. During this period much of the turmoil happened in rooms rather than in public, the demands upon women becoming more private and nuanced than overt. A demand to be the everything girl developed, like the speech at the end of Barbie, the pressures to be everything became heavier in the 2000s.
At the same time the real-world scrutinized...
At the same time the real-world scrutinized...
...women and informed them of the behavior they should embody; fictional media also imposed prescriptions and restrictions to how young women ought to behave. A push towards suburban homemaker took a forefront in womanhood, the expectation that this new, modern motherhood should be ideal and enough for the majority. Movies like Gingersnaps however portrayed two young women who pushed back against that expectation and the modernization of life.
The aughts ushered in an avalanche of rapid change, TVs became expected in every room not just every home, VHS got scrapped for DVD discs, and not long after the CD got replaced by MP3 Players, including but not limited to the iPod. All that glitters isn’t gold however and by 2008 the Great Recession had begun, wiping out vast swaths of wealth for a lot of Americans. The housing market crashed alongside the economy, people were out of houses and jobs with no real path forward. After the turn of the century the internet started to become more popular for personal use and sites like LiveJournal.com and blogger are two examples of pre-social media sites of similar ilk. Special interest blogs popped up, focused on topics ranging from video game dedicated content to users glorifying eating disorders.
The internet began to have an impact...
The internet began to have an impact...
...on culture and particularly girl and womanhood and how women viewed themselves and their place in society. I can recall not only knowing about but being interested in and talking about with school friends watered down versions of the tabloid stories lining grocery checkout lines of this time. The stories and how these celebrity women got framed had an impact on women from the top down to even girls.
The tabloid stories picked apart and judged women often for no reason or for them just living their lives. Gaining or losing too much weight could incur an unflattering image plastered across a tabloid cover with bubbles pointing out the specific imperfections. Diets are not only encouraged but it is an unspoken understanding that all adult women diet.
While all of that is happening in the financial sector the internet is becoming even more mainstream. Facebook came about in 2004 as The Facebook and social connecting sites aimed at children like Club Penguin came online in 2005. In the same year YouTube launched and shortly after Twitter in 2006. By 2009 the internet looked similar to how it does today, with social media platform MySpace dominating, YouTube getting exponential growth, and Twitter becoming finding its place as a social media juggernaut.
Social Media Boom
Social Media Boom
By the time 2010 rolled around social media had carved out a trajectory into everyday life. Not only did social media become a mainstay it also became an industry, an offshoot of the advertising and marketing world. For clarification, the Millennial generation is commonly and most recently defined as people born between 1981-1996, or people who are the ages 28-43 today. Generation Z, the following one that’s forming as we speak, is identified as people born from 1997-2012 or people aged 12-27 today. I mention that because it has come up a lot recently online and just as a refresher for myself
The pick-me rhetoric and mentality only got...
The pick-me rhetoric and mentality only got...
...worse going into the 2010s, celebrities like Chris Brown spent less than a year in isolation for heinous crimes and social media changed the game. Now, the internet provides a vast array of opportunities and obstacles for women in particular. Body image issues exploded during this time with the increase of social media sharing and deceptive image editing.
More women joined the workforce but found that it was harder than ever to quote-unquote “have it all” as a modern woman. Being perfect became more important than being authentic during this period and this is reflected in the media of that time. When financial issues came up the prescriptions included, drink less expensive coffee and have less avocado toast. Women still had roles as props in music videos, displaying idealistic and unrealistic portrayals of lifestyles that don’t exist. By 2017 Twitter looked about how it does today with most of the features associated with it and sites like YouTube had become integral parts of life. Becoming an influencer became a job aspiration rather than something you explained to someone. That sets the stage for Tragedy Girls which came out in 2017 and heavily centers around two girl’s obsessions with fame via their social media accounts.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Jennifer's Body (2009)
Tragedy Girls (2017)
Freaky (2020)
Tragedy Girls (2023)
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Ginger Snaps (2000)
The Basics
The Basics
The plot of Ginger Snaps (2000) starts with sisters Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald live in the suburbs and have an affinity for death, even making a pact with one another when they were 8 that they’d leave the suburbs or commit suicide together by the age of 16. Katharine Isabelle plays Ginger, an already 16-year-old Canadian high school student and her 15, almost 16-year-old sister Brigitte is played by Emily Perkins. Written by John Fawcett and Karen Walton, the movie came out in 2000 and did not perform well at the box office despite having a cult following today.
The movie opens with a series of dog deaths caused by a creature of some sort dubbed the Beast of Bailey Downs. The sisters don’t fit in at school, their extremely close relationship and quiet demeanor combined with their interest in death leave them outsiders. Ginger likes this and is the leader of this path whereas Brigitte is clearly beginning to question the status quo between her and her sister.
At school Ginger and Bridgette give their...
At school Ginger and Bridgette give their...
...death presentation which is an extremely creative and unique approach to their life in Bailey Downs assignment. The class applauds to their dismay and the boys in the class snicker and comment about Ginger's attractiveness in contrast to Brigitte being not attractive. After being overheard talking about Trina Sinclair, a popular girl at their schools, death Trina pushes Brigitte into the carcass of another neighborhood dog while they play field hockey. For unknown reasons the same taunting boys from class are able to watch the girls PE class play field hockey and comment on the entire class uninterrupted.
As a revenge plot the sisters go on a night mission to get back at Trina and Ginger starts her period. The blood from her period causes the werewolf creature that has been attacking dogs to attack Ginger. They get into an intense battle with B using a branch to smack at the wolf so it will free Ginger. Ginger eventually gets free and she and B run into the street narrowly missing being hit with the wolf right behind them. The wolf gets hit and pulverized by the van driven by Sam Miller, played by Kris Lemche. Sam gets out of the car, but the sisters are already gone, rushing home. Back at their house Ginger is severely injured and writhing in pain, B tries to examine her wounds only to find they've healed during the inspection. Ginger convinces Brigitte to not only not get help but to also not tell their parents about what happened.
Bridgette from the start seeks to reverse...
Bridgette from the start seeks to reverse...
...and/or stop the transformation Ginger is going through whereas Ginger is fine with the aspects that she likes but wishes to hide the more obvious things like her developing tail. Ginger begins to show an extreme aggression towards Brigitte as she transforms into a werewolf and Brigitte enlists Sam to help. Her jealousy extends to all facets of Brigitte’s life and any pulling away from her despite her also changing.
While Brigitte is transforming into a more independent adult woman Ginger is transforming into a werewolf hungry for sex and flesh with a desire to rip everything apart. Brigitte is appalled when her sister eventually succumbs to being a werewolf, enjoying the kills and sexual confidence as she becomes more and more wolf-like.
Sam is the pivotal romantic relationship, the object of Trina's affection that causes her to snap and confront Brigette after he seems to be interested in her. During this scene she alludes to possibly losing her virginity to Sam at one point and calls him a quote-unquote "cherry hunter" and warns Brigette that he will do the same to her. Trina almost makes it seem like they should work together against Sam, but Ginger comes along and takes Trina hostage inside to present an ultimatum to Brigitte to go along with the transformation. Ginger agrees to try and slow or reverse the transformation, but Trina accidentally dies. They are able to get away with involvement in Trina's death and the town believes she's simply missing.
The sisters are able to fly somewhat under the radar...
The sisters are able to fly somewhat under the radar...
...from their parents as their father is checked out and their mother is blinded by the desperation to be close with them and be needed by them. At first the extent is only animals and hide-able features, but Ginger soon kills their teacher after propositioning boys in the hallway and then the janitor after he walks in on the other murder. Brigette can't fully condemn Ginger however, even after she makes advances, because of their bond. Ginger goes after Sam after him and B makes a second dose of the cure, previously having tested it on the boy Ginger turned into a werewolf via unprotected sex. The cure is knocked away and Sam is dragged to the basement of their house where he leans against the wall bleeding out.
Ginger wants Brigette to join her and eat Sam, but Brigette can't bring herself to and finally stands up to her sister, shouting, "I won't!" which causes Ginger to kill Sam. Once Sam is dead B runs away and gets to the syringe, she tells Ginger she won't die down in the basement with her and when Ginger attacks she stabs her in the chest and kills her. With the syringe of the cure unused and Ginger dying Brigitte goes to lay on her sister's chest, holding her as she dies.
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
The two sisters have a general rage throughout the film, initially towards their peers and feeling they cared about vastly different things from them, also towards their parents, specifically their mother’s overwatch of them. Anger towards the boys that ogled their gym class or made comments after their presentation about their bodies, objectifying them rather than providing feedback on their art project.
There is a particular rage towards being forced to become a woman by one’s body and the inability to have a choice in the matter. This mostly comes from Ginger with Brigitte in more of an accomplice than leader role. There’s rage about the circumstances of Ginger becoming a werewolf and rage within their different feelings about that change. Ginger in a lot of ways embraces being a werewolf even when faced with possible solutions from Brigitte but Brigitte is always of the mindset that they are both working towards ending this curse or virus. Ginger takes out her rage on the teacher who is policing her behavior and on the janitor whose kindness she interprets as coming onto Brigitte. She puts all boys and men into the same box to justify her murdering them which is common in this genre.
Jennifer's Body (2009)
Jennifer's Body (2009)
Click the image to redirect to the Jennifer's Body review page that includes an analysis of the girl's friendship.
Tragedy Girls (2017)
Tragedy Girls (2017)
Brief Context to Tragedy Girls
Brief Context to Tragedy Girls
In 2017 Tragedy Girls came out, to little acclaim or fanfare. At the time stories focused on women The story follows two best friends who run a Twitter account called Tragedy Girls. The start of the movie is a red herring fake out; two teens make out in a car on a bridge at night. They hear a spooky noise, and the girl coaxes the boy to go check it out, which results in him taking a machete to the dome and dying. This is a trap however for Lowell, the serial killer, set by the girl in the car and her friend who run a Twitter account called @tragedygirls and seek internet fame. The girls explain to Lowell that they need training in the serial killing department and have abducted him for his guidance. The guy Sadie had been making out with in the car is still alive and they kill him together, telling Lowell his kill count is back down to 4 now.
The Basics
The Basics
Sadie and McKayla are at a loss for what to do...
Sadie and McKayla are at a loss for what to do...
...but continue working on a video with Jordan’s editing assistance. They do coverage of serial killers and have a fake out run over with a van scene. It’s tone deaf and on theme with their goals of becoming internet legends by following this killer rather than concern for victims. Their overall plan is to frame Lowell for the murders they commit to gain fame. Both girls are involved at school, participating on the cheer squad alongside their social media accounts. During practice they see Toby, McKayla’s ex who has some Twitter fame, and approach him. They request that he post about their account, but he says it wouldn’t be on brand for him and declines, which causes them to decide to kill him.
They decide to lure Toby onto a specific road...
They decide to lure Toby onto a specific road...
...that they have a spike strip on with a breathy phone call and a photo of McKayla’s bloody uniform. He goes into rescue mode and takes off on his bike with McKayla following and after they’ve caused him to crash off the side of the road, he says he’s glad it’s her if he’s going to be murdered, showing they sort of matched each other’s freak but she’s willing to sacrifice that for their greater goal together.
To their dismay Toby’s...
To their dismay Toby’s...
...death is thought to be an accident and no fame comes to them for having the scoop on the murder. They then decide they must murder someone else and make it clear that it’s a serial killer. This victim ends up being the cheer captain that they dismember in the woodshop, the janitor even passing them twice and being none the wiser. At Syl’s memorial they’re upstaged however, and this then becomes their next victim. Their murder rampage hits a stall when the trust between them is broken. Lowell uses this to his advantage to turn McKayla against Sadie by convincing her that Sadie is going to turn against her with Jordan. McKayla tests this by suggesting they murder Jordan only for Sadie to say he’s harmless. Regardless they break up as friends and Sadie rises the social ladder while McKayla is relegated to the shadows.
This causes her to take up Lowell’s offer and team up against Sadie. McKayla reveals that she and Sadie have been killing together for a long time, killing Jordan’s mom when she gave them a ride home. This also reveals Sadie to be the ringleader in the past, being calm and cool about murder in contrast with McKayla being upset. Ultimately Sadie chooses her friendship with McKayla over her relationship with Jordan and the pair complete their murder rampage by locking the students at their dance inside the gym and setting it on fire. It’s revealed that 124-something students died in the fire and both McKayla and Sadie say, “best night ever!” as the fire rages on. Both girls go off to college together to continue to grow their following and pursue the next phase of life together.
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
It's different for the genre to have...
It's different for the genre to have...
...the two end up together at the end which we don’t get in Ginger Snaps or Jennifer’s Body. Especially considering the newness and rather shallowness of the relationship at that point the fact that she chooses her long-term friendship and murder partner makes way more sense. Also, in spite of their evil crimes they faced little to no punishment and walked away rewarded and benefiting from their crimes.
This mirrors feelings around the time that it’s possible the good guys don’t always win. They can get away with the murders in part due to how the world views and treats them, they are taking advantage of a situation that will exist with or without them. They are understanding of a harsher financial reality for them outside of high school and a need to pursue a personal path. Although their path is unacceptable and laden with murder it is an extreme portrayal of a feeling many young women faced at the time of being lost.
The 2020s
The 2020s
The term “bimbofication” is a more positive way to approach femininity than “#girlboss feminism” that became “The year of the bimbo” in 2021. Reclaiming the slur ‘bimbo’ the ideas behind bimbofication are anti-capitalism and anti-MAGA, rooted in the goal of eliminating the barriers put in place by academia that would traditionally exclude those considered “bimbos” from conversations around gender and society. Mostly credited to Gen-Z, bimbofication is a left-leaning ideology centered around femininity. Bimbofication also promotes the idea that “The Girls, Gays, and Theys” are the only opinions that matter and that men are disposable and for benefit, very similar to how Jennifer views men.
Not feminism, which by definition is the pursuit of gender equality, but an offshoot of more radical ideas about gender that subvert the patriarchy into a matriarchy similar to what this movie does for the horror genre. More “go best friend, that’s my best friend” than “kill all men” Jennifer’s Body may seem anti-man but is more pro-woman than anything else.
Post-COVID 2020s
Post-COVID 2020s
Things would only get more lost however, because in case you still don’t know, in 2020 a global pandemic took over and shut down the world. This pandemic ravaged the plans and paths people had for the future regardless of age but in particular young people whose lives had just begun. At the time the yuck was President, which normally is a role I respect but in the case of this criminal whose handling of the COVID-19 pandemic caused excess deaths and suffering in the USA, I have none left.
Coming off the 4 years of Trump presidency in 2020 things had sort of just continued on the same path. The back-and-forth pendulum of women’s issues seemed to be swinging back yet again after the #MeToo movement, a regression to past feelings that it’s better to look out for number one only and not make waves.
The Barbie Movie
The Barbie Movie
Rather than support, the expectation became backlash against the victims and blaming of victims for consequences to the perpetrators (see Johnathan Majors for a very recent example). All the sudden the accountability had gone too far, and people started being made fun of for standing up for things like women’s rights and basic dignities. Once something is considered “uncool” or “cringe” it’s only a matter of time until it’s phased out, even if it’s something like fighting for social justice issues.
We can look back to the summer of 2023 “Barbenheimer” showdown to see an example of pro-women media being mistaken for anti-man media. Barbenheimer marked the release of two polar opposite movies with polar opposite target audiences vying for box office success pitted up against one another. From my POV, and For You page, it seemed like a Man vs. Woman showdown. After years of building friction over who dominates media (and thus is the focus of media for the foreseeable future) a reasonable cultural temperature test could be conducted.
Both Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, and Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, both received attention long before release for clickable headlines regarding budget, distribution disputes, high budgets, and a brewing SAG-AFTRA strike start that drew anticipation around their respective releases and subsequent receptions.
Neither movie suffered however, both benefiting from an unprecedented level of organic advertising in addition to their large marketing budgets, with historic box office numbers. Raking in over $2 billion on opening weekend alone, Barbenheimer both paid off for their respective studios’ investments.
With all of that in mind, that both movies surpassed expectations in both earnings and reviews, Barbie won that hands down. Not only did Barbie’s numbers dwarf those of Oppenheimer but the media spent the next few weeks making sure the coverage did not focus on how embarrassingly Oppenheimer lost to Barbie.
I would bet money that if...
I would bet money that if...
...Barbie had sucked and failed miserably like many Team Oppenheimer proponents had prophesied online, we would’ve never heard the end of how much women suck and shouldn’t be allowed to even have leadership roles let alone be high-budget directors in the film industry. Just to put this into perspective: Barbie grossed $162,022,044 domestically during its opening which is an extremely easy number to find and on the other hand Oppenheimer grossed half of that at $82,455,420 domestically during opening (aka Oppenheimer made only 51% of what Barbie made). Today, in October of 2023, Barbie has grossed a staggering $1.44 billion worldwide and Oppenheimer $945 million, both still not fully released on streaming and to purchase.
Barbie has gone on to be a cultural phenomenon and is reviving a dying toy brands’ titular product while opening the floodgates to women-centered and women-led media projects. Oppenheimer still gets acclaim but has come in at the third highest grossing film of 2023, not the second, not the first, third. Which would be fine if the narrative leaned toward Oppenheimer being just an alright movie, not a masterpiece but a blockbuster and that Barbie is in fact a cultural masterpiece that reignited the love of being a woman.
Barbie has carried the torch that movies like Jennifer’s Body, visual albums like Electra Heart, and the supportive drunk girl meme started on the internet, letting girls and women be whatever they are, imperfectly perfect, and encouraging them to have pride in that.
Freaky (2020)
Freaky (2020)
Brief Context to Freaky
Brief Context to Freaky
Freaky 2020 finished filming in 2019 and is somewhat of a time capsule of what would have been. If the pandemic hadn’t happened in 2020, we would have continued down whatever path movies like Tragedy Girls set us down in regard to this genre. Freaky feels like that movie, the one I’d expect to come next-ish in line in the best and worst ways. In contrast the other 2020s movie I’ll cover is Totally Killer which came out post-pandemic for trends in feminism and womanhood.
The Basics
The Basics
The opening sequence follows a group of teens hanging out at a mansion with lots of references to Halloween and Michael Meyers, featuring insane kills like a tennis racket through either side of the head from an overpowered killer wearing a mask. This is a good display of the Blissfield Butcher’s abilities and his callous approach to murdering, brutally murdering these teens after breaking into the house. He steals a dagger called the La Dola from the mansion on his way out.
We meet our main character Mille the next day, and her friends Josh and Nyla refer to her mom’s superpower as guilt. Inside school kids are mean to Millie for no clear reason other than her mother working at a discount store in town. We learn it’s been barely a year since Millie’s dad died and her friends are already pressuring her to move on with her life. We also learn that she has a crush on one of the jock guys who she sits next to in a wood shop.
Millie’s woodshop teacher...
Millie’s woodshop teacher...
...played by Alan Ruck from Succession, is an actual douchebag who targets her and humiliates her, to which Booker, the jock guy played by Uriah Shelton, looks on with secondhand embarrassment. Woodshop douche, Mr. Banardi, is about to force her to give a presentation a week prior to when he said it would be due, but alerts go off that distract everyone and end the humiliation. Despite the murders the homecoming game isn’t cancelled, and Millie is the mascot. As the mascot beaver, she gets bullied by her own teammates, including Booker. He makes a crude comment about her not even being doable and she overhears that, understandably crushed. Her friends encourage her to quit but she tells them she needs the extracurriculars to get a scholarship.
Millie’s phone dies right after she calls home only to learn her mom is passed out drunk and not just running late to get her. Alone in the parking lot the Butcher appears in the mist, causing Millie to become alarmed. She tries to ward him off with threats that her sister will be there soon and is a cop with a gun, but he walks towards her with the La Dola knife anyways. They end up in a tussle on the field while the storm rages around them, they are transported to the top of a temple and the Butcher stabs Millie in the shoulder which causes him to also bleed in the same spot. Her sister arrives and fires off shots that cause the Butcher to run off, leaving the knife behind.
At the station Millie is catatonic...
At the station Millie is catatonic...
...and her mom arrives distraught, more worried about her own guilt than Millie. Char, Millie’s sister, and her mom argue while she takes a bath and tries to drown out the noise. That night during the storm she dreams about what happened with the Butcher and at midnight her pig clock denotes the change. Millie’s mother wakes non-Millie to breakfast, who I’ll call Kill Mill when the Butcher is in her body and use he/him pronouns as stated in the movie and then for Millie in the Butcher’s body I’ll call Mill Butch and use she/her pronouns. Kill Mill seems calm and collected about the body switch, instantly ready to take advantage. He breaks into Char’s closet and opts for a leather jacket and red lipstick, very out of Millie’s norm which he comments on.
Across town Mill Butch wakes up in the disgusting under-tunnel lair of the Butcher and is shocked and appalled when she looks in a mirror and is faced with the serial killer. A homeless man comes up and Mill Butch asks if she looks like a teen girl to which the man accuses her of having drugs when she’d previously said she didn’t have drugs. Mill Butch runs out of the den in a stereotypical girly-run way after the homeless man charges her.
Across town Mill Butch wakes up in the disgusting under-tunnel lair of the Butcher and is shocked and appalled when she looks in a mirror and is faced with the serial killer. A homeless man comes up and Mill Butch asks if she looks like a teen girl to which the man accuses her of having drugs when she’d previously said she didn’t have drugs. Mill Butch runs out of the den in a stereotypical girly-run way after the homeless man charges her.
The song from Heathers plays as Kill Mill...
The song from Heathers plays as Kill Mill...
...struts into school past the pep rally festivities to shocked, jaws dropped. Once Kill Mill enters the school the record scratches and a metal rap song blasts out, signifying a more bad ass take on the old high school horror tropes. Her friends, Nyla played by Celeste O’Connor and Josh played by Misha Osherovich, rush Kill Mill questioning what the sudden, drastic change is about and noting her mom wouldn’t have normally let her wear that to school. Due to the attack the night before Billie has star power around the school, enough for the popular girl Ryler, played by Melissa Collazo, to come up and invite her to hang out in sharp contrast to her bullying her the day before. In a shock to both Nyla and Josh, Billie tells them to leave and decides to go with Ryler instead. Ryler immediately talks smack about the Butcher’s appearance from the news and Billie invites her to the locker room, saying they should go somewhere private.
Ryler assumes Billie is coming onto her and even texts her friends mocking Billie after saying she was fine with her being into women, but it wasn’t her thing. Billie then kills Ryler by trapping her in a cryogenic chamber and cranking it to the most extreme levels. Not quite sure about the science on this one but Mitcher ends up opening the chamber and Ryler’s frozen body falls out and smashes into pieces on the ground, the first switched body murder. Billie goes on to murder the woodshop teacher, dismembering him on a table saw after a battle. Mitcher is able to convince Nyla and Josh that it’s her inside of the Butcher’s body after they run away and try to stop him with kitchen utensils. The final test ends up being their handshake which Mitcher performs flawlessly and that convinces them he’s Millie. They run into Billie in the hall and rather than run away Billie snaps into scared woman mode and screams and cries pointing that the Butcher is after her.
The police end up chasing the threesome...
The police end up chasing the threesome...
...and they ditch Char, Millie’s sister, in the discount store their mother works in. Inside the store Coral, Millie’s mom, ends up coming onto Mitcher after her trauma dumps him about her relationship with Millie and Mitcher reassures her she’ll never be fully alone. Meanwhile Billie is hanging out with Booker and two other guys from the football team and is pretty straightforward about her intentions, which they take as flirtation. Booker is lured into following Billie in the mini golf course, and they divide and conquer into the course to protect him and Mitcher ends up knocking both out.
The threesome takes Booker and Billie back to a house and ties Billie to a chair while Mitcher watches him sleep longingly, calling him gorgeous. Billie tries to get Booker to listen to her, but Mitcher is sassy and straightforward with the backing of Nyla and Josh. Mitcher recites a love poem she wrote for Booker to convince him of her identity, it’s hella corny but it works. Mitcher is hilarious and not at all as concerned as you’d expect him to be. Now the three are four and they decide to leave Josh behind with Murder Barbie because it’s his house. Mill Butch and Booker wait in the car while Nyla goes to distract Char and get the dagger from the police station and Booker admits he likes Millie. Mill Butch also talks about the benefits of the body switch, even stating she liked the power from the switch. They end up kissing in the car which is really interesting on a lot of layers I don’t have time for in this video.
Josh’s mother comes home and in...
Josh’s mother comes home and in...
...a very 2020-esque exchange he comes out as straight to his mother who doesn’t believe him. Kill Mill shouts that his new body is useless in his attempts to get after Josh. Char treats Nyla like she’s the Blissfield Butcher and ends up locked in a cell, confirming she’s the worst cop ever. Kill Mill arrives at the dance with the Dola dagger and is approached by a guy from earlier who wants to redeem himself after she said he made her dry earlier in the film. As the clock runs out the team groups up to quote-unquote, “Stab this asshole.” Just as you feel bad for the jocks because Kill Mill will murder them you find out that the three are planning to assault Kill Mill. He, being the Butcher, slices one’s throat and manages to take all three out, one with a chainsaw.
The Phil jock guy has lured Josh to a secluded area and kisses him. When Josh rejects him, he calls him, and f-slur and Josh throws it right back mocking his lack of self-awareness. He threatens to kill Josh if he talks but Kill Mill hooks him through the eye, killing him. Kill Mill and Mill Butch are battling for her body and the cops shoot at her. Josh and Nyla are track stars that just fly into Kill Mill and tackle her for Mill Butch to stab. The alarm goes off before Mill Butch stabs Kill Mill to switch bodies, but they realize that the timer is wrong and it’s not midnight and Mill Butch flashes back to Booker saying he set the time 5 minutes ahead. There’s time! The stab happens and the switch occurs, Millie is back in her body and the Butcher is back in his. Josh shouts for the cops to shoot the Butcher who falls dead. In the end Millie is just an odd high school girl involved in taking down a serial killer.
But it’s not the end, because the...
But it’s not the end, because the...
...Butcher survived and killed the medics in the ambulance, escaping. The Butcher goes to Millie’s and attacks her, claiming he’ll fix things. He claims he knows how weak she feels but she says she learned stuff too and kicks him in the balls. She ends up delivering the death blow to the Butcher with the aid of her mom and sister. The screen is focused on Millie’s face, blood having poured out of her nose down to her mouth and chin looking at the Butcher’s body.
She says, “I am a fucking piece,” and credits. The pre-pandemic momentum showed an acceptance of bimbofication, domestication, and an edgy self-awareness of the leaning into stereotypes. Not all good or bad it’s a difference you can see when looking back at early pandemic social media content versus end of pandemic trends and what sorts of things came into focus.
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
But it’s not the end, because the...
But it’s not the end, because the...
...Butcher survived and killed the medics in the ambulance, escaping. The Butcher goes to Millie’s and attacks her, claiming he’ll fix things. He claims he knows how weak she feels but she says she learned stuff too and kicks him in the balls. She ends up delivering the death blow to the Butcher with the aid of her mom and sister. The screen is focused on Millie’s face, blood having poured out of her nose down to her mouth and chin looking at the Butcher’s body.
She says, “I am a fucking piece,” and credits. The pre-pandemic momentum showed an acceptance of bimbofication, domestication, and an edgy self-awareness of the leaning into stereotypes. Not all good or bad it’s a difference you can see when looking back at early pandemic social media content versus end of pandemic trends and what sorts of things came into focus.
Totally Killer (2023)
Totally Killer (2023)
Brief Context to Totally Killer
Brief Context to Totally Killer
During the pandemic many people spent time inside reflecting on themselves, relationships, and what they wanted for themselves. This came in conjunction with a huge push towards progressive social justice outlooks following a summer of protests across the USA. This push rippled throughout every issue including women’s issues and especially after the overturning of Roe by a conservative packed court. The relationship between women and society changed dramatically in a short period of time which can be seen in the coming-of-rage genre when looking from Freaky in 2020 to Totally Killer less than 3 years later in 2023. The plot actually takes place in 1987 with three teenagers being killed in a brutal attack. The teens Tiffany Clark played by Liana Liberato, Marisa Song played by Stephi Chin-Salvo, and Heather Hernandez played by Anna Diaz who all live in a small town called Vernon
The Basics
The Basics
The plot actually takes place in 1987 with three teenagers being killed in a brutal attack. The teens Tiffany Clark played by Liana Liberato, Marisa Song played by Stephi Chin-Salvo, and Heather Hernandez played by Anna Diaz who all live in a small town called Vernon.
Each girl had been stabbed 16 times on their 16th birthdays and the mask-laden killer became known as the Sweet 16 Killer. Thirty-five years later Chris Dubasage, a true crime podcast host who had been the yearbook photographer back in 1987 and son of a local journalist at the time, is leading a tour through Vernon focused on the murders.
The place that Tiffany Clark lived and got murdered is now a restaurant that leans into the murders and drives home the critique on society with how careless and capitalistic we can be about crimes. Pam Hughes, played by Julie Bowen, the fourth friend to the three-murder victims has a teenage daughter, Jamie Hughes played by Kiernan Shipka, who wants to go to a concert with her friend Amelia, played by Kelcey Mawema.
Pam and Blake have been sort of helicopter parents...
Pam and Blake have been sort of helicopter parents...
...due to the murders of their friends and going to the concert Pam makes Blake take her to the concert and wait for her in the back. They have an exchange where Jamie stands outside and texts which he thinks is weird. The girls talk about having Sativa weed gummies, a modern creation. Pam is home by herself and despite getting a scary text still hands out candy, even to people wearing the murderer’s infamous mask.The fact that Pam still felt the need to perform politeness is wild, but she does have defense training due to being worried about being murdered since she was 16. She runs into the kitchen and even holds the knife in the recommended way, another modern piece of knowledge. The killer fakes her out and comes at her from behind, she’s able to stab them but they eventually get the best of her and murder her in brutal fashion.
Chris ends up outside of their house live streaming about the murders, stating that the Sweet 16 Killer has returned, Pam having been stabbed 16 times. Pam was apparently the guidance counselor at the high school and a friend to the principal of the small-town high school. Coach Finkle gives the advice to run and avoid the knife to keep their life and the Principal pulls Jamie aside to talk to the Sheriff Kara. They inquire about her mom and Chris Dubasage’s relationship and whether Blake killed Pam due to being jealous. Jamie calls out Kara to her face and says she should let go of the high school bullshit and solve the murder her father couldn’t solve back in 1987.
To bring people back in and revive...
To bring people back in and revive...
...the image of the amusement park, the science fair is taking place there for free and Amelia, Jamie’s friend, is making a time machine. She hasn’t told anyone yet but is using her mother’s designs. The time machine needs Wi-Fi to connect to some sort of GPS locator and Jamie notices that the date is set to October 27, 1987, which is the date of the first Sweet 16 murder. Amelia’s plan was to go back to that day to stop the murders so that Jamie’s mom never gets murdered. While Jamie watches the newest episode of Chris Dubasage’s podcast about her mother’s murder, her dad comes in. He confirmed that Pam wasn’t friends with Dubasage but since Sheriff Limm had given up long ago, she’d turned to him for help to catch the killer. Blake confirms that Chris had a crush on Pam back in school and that he and Pam got together post-high school.
Jamie’s father asks her to not listen to Chris’ podcast, but she goes to meet him and confronts him about a potential affair, questioning why her mother kept it a secret. Jamie goes to Amelia to ask for help, but they are interrupted by the killer who chases her into the machine and stabs the dashboard causing it to take Jamie to the programmed date. To the Venus commercial song Jamie arrives in 1987 in the middle of the thriving amusement park and tells a man his Female Body Inspector shirt is problematic to which his girlfriend says she likes it. Jamie runs into a woman who offers to take her to school to find Pam, who is Miller because she isn’t married to Blake Hughes yet. The Vernon Red Devils is their old mascot to which Jamie comments it’s racist.
She goes to the front desk and is immediately...
She goes to the front desk and is immediately...
...let into the school as a junior despite no verification or checking, the lady even making fun of her for asking. Her first class happens to be gym and she must change into the school gym uniform. Rather than the usual walk out of the girl once she’s had the major shift or change, we get a mini walk out of the three murder victims when Jamie sees them alive, walking into gym class. This shows the relationship of characters in the coming-of-rage story, Jamie being a guest in the narrative. During dodgeball they’re getting pummeled, and she finds out her mom is the mean girl throwing the balls hard AF and we get a cool shot revealing teen Pam, played by Olivia Holt. Jamie’s nose is bleeding, and she approaches the friend group as they go to leave, in awe at seeing her mom alive again. The girls think she’s just weirdly staring and Pam refuses to shake her hand because she’s not an older man.
Jamie suggests they cancel their party at Tiffany Clark’s house, but they are just mean to her and tell her to fuck off and die in Spanish before walking away laughing. Jamie next tries to warn the cops about the murder, but they don’t believe her and haven’t seen Back to the Future so don’t know what she’s talking about. Sheriff Limm tells Jamie there’s never been a murder in Vernon and seems uninterested, he questions where she’s from and tells her it’s made up. They mistakenly believe that his daughter is called the Sheriff at school as a nickname, rather than that his daughter is the sheriff in the future. They threaten Jamie that if she doesn’t go back to school, they’ll arrest her.
Jamie asks for information about...
Jamie asks for information about...
...Lauren Creston’s whereabouts and the front desk woman just gives it to shoo her off, and she makes a comment about plane travel probably being insane in comparison during 1987 to 2023. Lauren is chill about the time travel situation since she has been attempting to invent it and Jamie comments, she didn’t know how close the foursome had been and thought her mom had just been an acquaintance with the murder victims and not a close friend.
Jamie inquires about changing the past having an impact on the future, and she says she saw End Game but didn’t understand it. In this universe time is like a river, and once you’ve jumped out the river keeps flowing, so the changes she’s making now will impact the future from what I understand. Blake confronts Chris in the future and Amelia comes up and tries to get the adults to help but the sheriff brushes her off. Chris tries to ask Amelia follow-up questions, but she walks away uninterested. Coach Finkle as a teen is an asshole who bullies Principal Summers with Sheriff Limm for trying to get into the party. Jamie shouts “unwanted touch” when Finkle reaches to remove her from the porch. She thinks Blake looks hot until she finds out he’s her dad, which shocks Lauren because Tiffany and Blake are together.
The girl’s friend group is called “the Molly’s”...
The girl’s friend group is called “the Molly’s”...
...and they all dress in a different version of Molly Ringwald characters. Jamie tells them they should be lifting one another up and that mean-girl-bullying is outdated but it just causes Tiffany to request her removal from the party. Jamie is unable to save Tiffany who is murdered in her waterbed instead of in the garage like she’d originally been, showing the timeline can change.
The police suspect it might be Jamie because the murders began when she showed up, but Pam sticks up for her and says she was just trying to protect Tiffany. Lauren and Jamie chase after Pam who’s tearing up as she walks home, despite Pam saying she didn’t even like Tiffany she is still upset. Pam asks how Jamie knows she was in danger and Jamie claims it was psychic ability which Pam accepts, especially after Jamie presents the crystal Pam gave her in the future.
Pam asks Jamie if machines...
Pam asks Jamie if machines...
...tear us apart, but she says they don’t but rather, “tear apart the fabric of society with Tik Tok dance videos,” which intrigues Pam because of the use of dance. The fact that Pam is a hidden sci-fi nerd is shocking to Lauren and then the list of people who had it out for their group being super long is a reminder about what they act like. Pam is super mean to her mom and Jamie says that despite not having a good relationship with her mom you never know when you will lose her so should be kinder and say you love them more.
Pam finds out that Blake is who she ends up with and she admits she has been secretly obsessed with him. Chris Dubasage comes up to Amelia and tells her about a Mandela Effect that occurred with the murder, and Jamie left a note that led them to investigate an entirely new suspect. He has photos he took for the yearbook, and they see Jamie in the photos, realizing it’s a message to her that she needs an extra metal conductor. Amelia begins to explain time to Dubasage similarly to how her mother explained it to Jamie.
Lauren tells her that she won’t...
Lauren tells her that she won’t...
...disappear but would rather just have no life if her parents don’t get together and have her. Jamie tells them they can’t call Fat Trish that anymore and then Finkle says he’s a better drunk driver, another stark difference that Jamie calls out. The girls inform Jamie of Lurch in the car, Fat Trish’s brother who spent a year in juvie and is now a super-junior student whom she sees drawing creepy doodles in class. She falls asleep in the car and awakes at the exact place she didn’t want them to go, which is the next murder scene. Jamie explains the obvious, but the girls are unphased and worried about vodka. The boys arrive with vodka and Limm.
Jamie tries to set rules for the night but the 80’s teens are more interested in partying and assume she’s wigging out. With their lack of knowledge regarding true crime they live in blissful, albeit deadly, ignorance of the true danger of their situation. Rather than Marisa being murdered like she is in the original timeline Jamie manages to protect her. Unfortunately for everyone Heather got murdered instead, switching the order of murders and the timeline.
On Halloween the group meets up at...
On Halloween the group meets up at...
...the amusement park as Lauren continues to work on getting the time machine online. Kara ends up killing who they believe is the killer at the amusement park and it’s revealed to be Doug. They realize that he used to date Trish and wanted revenge for Molly's getting Trish drunk one night which led to her accident and death. They reveal however that Pam wasn’t there and therefore not responsible and this puts a wrench in tying this revelation up with a bow because Pam is still being targeted.
A second killer is revealed as they slice Marisa’s throat, killing her. The second killer goes after Jamie and kills Chris’ dad, a local journalist. The new killer and Jamie battle in the time machine which reveals that it’s Chris from the present day. Doug is the OG killer, but Chris forged the note to get more podcast content. Jamie and Chris battle in the spinning ride and she can defeat him. Jamie returns to the present to find that she’s saved her mom, Pam, and created an older brother named Jamie because her parents got together earlier than the original timeline, making her name Colette. Lauren has a notebook of information for her with what is different in this timeline, anticipating her returning from the past.
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
In the end Pam and Lauren became...
In the end Pam and Lauren became...
...best friends after the Sweet 16 murders, Jamie’s older brother has a husband and child. Randy is the principal rather than Doug, and Chris became traumatized from his father’s death and is now at a monastery. The rage within this movie is more about rage towards circumstance than it is about society. Jamie is angry that her parents won’t let her go out, she’s angry that she does go out and her mom is killed, angry that the people at school don’t seem to care, angry that teen Pam is making it so difficult to save her, angry that the teens from 1987 don’t listen to her and about various outdated comments. Her rage is focused and controlled; she channels it in order to save her parents from a killer.
I really like how she shows up as a mostly formed person, she still has some things to learn still and a lot of growing to do but she has the foundational knowledge to stand up for herself and advocate for herself. She can tell what is right versus wrong in ways not common in previous generations. The younger Gen Z women face a unique set of challenges in paths we haven’t seen before, granted not time travel as far as we know, but circumstances otherworldly and outside of their control.
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