Time Cut Review: Netflix’s latest retro horror flick

PLOT: A high school student accidentally travels back to 2003 and decides to stop the serial killer who murdered her sister.

REVIEW: Time travel and slashers seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly as this is now the second major streaming release in the last year to feature this Back to the Future meets Scream aesthetic. As such, I’m sure there are some that would immediately roll their eyes at the idea of approaching the subject matter again. But I’m not one of those people. Just like slasher movies, I’ll take as much time travel shenanigans as you’ll offer. And Time Cut certainly has plenty to offer…

Time Cut follows Lucy as she lives a fairly sheltered life. Her sister was murdered 20 years prior, causing her parents to go a bit overboard with their protection of her. But when Lucy goes back in time, she may be able to save her sister and finally live her life. Lucy is a fairly generic lead, though I wouldn’t say it’s Madison Bailey’s fault. The script just doesn’t do her any favors in giving her much personality. Despite her being bland, I still enjoyed Lucy as Bailey just has a likability to her. Too bad the writing just doesn’t support her well. Griffin Gluck is really fun and is the stereotypical nerd of the story. His character arc isn’t unexpected, but it’s pulled off well.

In terms of time travel, Time Cut seems to break every rule in the book. From constantly telling people about their futures to interacting with nearly everyone, it’s like they’ve never even heard of The Butterfly Effect. But there’s a simplistic approach to the actual time travel that works really well. It’s not some big elaborate event. It just sort of happens and there’s no questioning of it. It helps that the digital effects work is well handled, and never goes overboard. As a Millennial, I got a big kick out of the very early 2000s soundtrack. Even the costumes were a complete nostalgia kick with bejeweled jeans, double collars, and Uggz getting their moment.

Lucy is conflicted because the only reason she was born, was due to her sister’s death. So she has to contend with saving her sister and potentially not existing. My favorite element of the story was the change in the parents from present to past. Shows how much the death of their daughter completely changed who they are as people. I have to admit, I was a little perplexed at all of the similarities between Time Cut and Prime’s Totally Killer. And like that film, the complete lack of intervention in kills from the past makes the time travel feel a bit pointless. Even the killer design is nearly the exact same. If someone told me this was in the same universe, I would believe them.

The kills end up being really generic and could fit in with most CW fare, with brief stabbings lacking in impact. I was hoping they were ramping up to a big finale, but it ended up being fairly tame. As much as it seems like it would be, this hardly even takes the slasher approach. The killings have little weight to them and it just feels like we’re waiting for the eventual killer reveal. And obviously, we can’t get into that because of spoilers, but I did find it very satisfying, if not predictable. Not everything needs to come out of left field.

Lucy falls in with the 2003 crowd a little too easily, without much questioning of her mysterious entrance into their lives. They’re very accepting of Lucy’s absurd story but it does allow us to get past the stereotypical “convincing I’m telling the truth” scene. And the killer reveal is… very obvious to say the least. Anyone with even an inkling of whodunit knowledge will immediately know. But it’s still handled in an interesting way that I wouldn’t say that it destroys the film. Writer Michael Kennedy continues his streak of putting an out-of-nowhere gay relationship in his scripts. Inclusiveness in film is a good thing, but it’s made Kennedy’s scripts extremely predictable and boring. Maybe if they weren’t treated as twists when they’re so obvious, they wouldn’t be as cliché. Maybe just treat them as humans versus a box that needs to be checked for marketing. As is, it just makes the film come across as tired. Add to it that it’s very similar to another horror film released last year, and it’s hard to care.

While I always enjoy time travel stories, Time Cut is very hit or miss. There are some really interesting ideas introduced in the second half, but the first half is so generic that it’s hard to maintain interest. It fits in well with other time travel-y stories like Happy Death Day but it pales in comparison to the very similar Totally Killer. With a boring lead, very little violence, and horror that feels non-existent at points,

TIME CUT IS EXCLUSIVELY ON NETFLIX ON OCTOBER 30TH, 2024.

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Time Cut

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