‘Time Cut’ Movie Review: Teenybopper Time-Travel Slasher Bleeds Little Inspiration
Photo from Netflix
From Jeremy Kibler
The Final Girls and Happy Death Day walked so impending high-concept horror-comedies could hopefully run. It was fresh then, even with last year’s sharper, funnier, and bloodier Totally Killer—Back to the Future with an ‘80s slasher twist—and now the mash-up idea is turning into a bit of a one-trick pony. That creative wall begins with Time Cut, a decidedly uninspired and disappointingly tame effort for teenyboppers…Back to the Future with a ’00s slasher twist?
Since her popular sister Summer (Antonia Gentry) was murdered by the Sweetly Slasher in the town of Sweetly, Minnesota in 2003, ambitious student Lucy Field (Madison Bailey) has felt a void. She never actually knew her sister, but twenty years later, Lucy and her parents (Michael Shanks, Rachael Crawford) celebrate Summer on the anniversary of her death by going to Olive Garden and then paying their respects. Well, this time, Lucy zaps back to 2003 (in the most unimaginative way that it’s not even worth explaining here). In this timeline, she meets Summer, alive and well, and must try and stop her sister and others from being killed by a masked killer. As we all know, if Lucy alters the past, she could create a paradox.
Less of a slasher movie and more of a time-travel drama, Time Cut barely even tries, forcing our protagonist to just stumble upon a Time Machine. Co-written by director Hannah Macpherson and Freaky/It’s a Wonderful Knife writer Michael Kennedy, the film offers a little amusement with the early-2000s fashion (Heelys and UGG boots) and a soundtrack featuring Hilary Duff, Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton, and Michelle Branch. There’s also an always-welcome queer angle and an okay stalking sequence in a maritime museum. Otherwise, it’s almost as if the concept was created first as a pitch, and then everything else was just supposed to write itself. Not even the whodunit of it all is that engaging.
Resembling Zendaya, Madison Bailey (Netflix’s Outer Banks) is likable enough as Lucy, but the character is also kind of a drag without that spark or arc of Sidney Prescott or Tree Gelbman. The rest of the cast doesn’t leave much of an impression, either.
Time Cut too often resembles a TV production, and there’s entirely too much voice-over and ADR that spell out everything. There’s also the question of “who is this for?” It’s never bloody or suspenseful enough for horror fans, and the teenage target audience will be too young for the 2003 nostalgia to matter, as if the aughts are the ‘70s.
For better or for worse, Time Cut would have fit right in on ABC Family with the mediocre quality of a meal at Olive Garden.
Rating: 2/5
Time Cut is available on Netflix on October 30, 2024.
