"Time Cut" has a cute concept but feels tame and uninspired

Time Cut (2024)

"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 in the early-2000s fashion (Heelys and UGG boots) and soundtrack with the likes of 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. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: C

Netflix released "Time Cut" (91 min.) on Netflix on October 30, 2024.