Spooky Season 2024: Time Cut Review

Time Cut is a new time travel slasher directed by Hannah Macpherson. Taking place in present day, the story follows Lucy (Bailey), a high school senior and amateur inventor who accidentally finds a time machine and inadvertently travels back to 2003, the year her sister Summer (Gentry) was killed by a masked killer. Torn between solving the mystery plaguing her parents and hometown for years, saving the sister she never knew, and irreparably altering the future, Lucy must figure out how to stop the killer, and save her family all while trying to blend into the year 2003 before its too late.

Ever since Time Cut was announced, it drew a fair share of unfavourable comparisons to last year’s Totally Killer. However, that criticism seemed warranted at least on paper as the film does feature a similar premise, but the shocking part is that the former was in production and was filmed an entire year before Totally Killer, so any comparisons they may be present between both films, are entirely coincidental. Even with the knowledge, the film still absolutely pales in comparison to the superior Totally Killer and feels like the poor man’s version as a result.

As a whole, the film is merely another generic streaming release that will likely be forgotten shortly after dropping on Netflix. Despite being familiar, a great premise with the potential to have been so much more fun than it was takes itself far too seriously and fails to take advantage of what it could have been. Outside of the opening, the slasher elements largely disappear until they do come back but then, they are few and far between. Most of its beyond tame kills occur off-screen which makes for a sanitized experience befitting of a TV-14 rating catered for younger audiences which makes no sense since it’s premiering on a streaming service. That being said, the lack of gory kills could be forgiven if the film had at least an engaging mystery at its core but unfortunately, its whodunit aspect falls completely flat. Ultimately, it just lacks the energy, style, and fast pace one might expect, coming off as more of a teen drama for a majority of its runtime than the horror comedy its promotional material made it out to be.

While the film is far from anything awful, it does have some redeeming qualities to it that help to keep it watchable. The pair of Bailey and Gentry, as Lucy and Summer, are both good here thanks to their strong chemistry. Their sister relationship is the one genuine thing the film has going for it, giving the film its few sweet and heartfelt scenes. Meanwhile, Griffin Gluck is reliably solid as Quinn as the film is at its best with its most entertaining moments are the scenes whenever its killer is lurking around.

At the end of the day, Time Cut lacks the tension, laughs, and charm a horror comedy like this needs to succeed, essentially amounting to a swing and a miss. Though the film is not bad enough to warrant sitting on the shelf for 3+ years before being dumped on Netflix a year after a similar slasher was also released, there is a reason why there isn’t much fanfare or talk surrounding the film. On top of that, it is also very noticeable that every time the film even mentions the year 2024, it’s all done through ADR. Do yourselves a favor and watch Totally Killer or The Final Girls instead because this film doesn’t even compare to those.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/