Time Cut (2024)
yet another time travel horror movie
Time Cut is about a teen girl who travels back in time to save a family member from being murdered by a mysterious killer. Does that sound familiar? It should. It’s almost the same plot as Totally Killer, a movie that was released on Amazon last year.
In Time Cut‘s case, the heroine travels back to 2003 and encounters a murdered older sister that she’s never met. Can she change the past and, if so, what does that mean for her future? Time Cut was reportedly filmed before Totally Killer, so it wouldn’t be fair to call it a ripoff, but it would definitely be fair to call it a vastly inferior film.
Lucy is a high schooler who has recently been accepted into an internship program with NASA. She lives in the shadow of an older sister who was murdered before she was born. Lucy’s parents hadn’t intended to have a second child. They changed their minds after losing their first daughter, Summer (Antonia Gentry).
In the first of the movie’s many head-scratching moments, Lucy (Madison Bailey) randomly discovers a time machine inside a farmhouse. It whisks her back to April 2003, a couple of days before her sister Summer (Antonia Gentry) is murdered by an unknown serial killer dubbed The Sweetly Slasher. Lucy meets Quinn (Griffin Gluck), a physics nerd who harbors a secret crush on Summer. Unfortunately for him, Summer is more interested in her classmate, Emmy (Megan Best).
Of course, Lucy meets her sister, too. She is hesitant to tell her the truth about who she is, or what’s going to happen to her. Of course, the masked slasher is also around, and he hacks his way through the supporting cast. I will give the movie some credit for creativity: this is the only time I’ve seen a compact disc used as a murder weapon.
Sunk By a Half-Baked Story and a cheap ending
Time Cut brings up an interesting idea: should Lucy save her sister, even though preventing her death would mean that Lucy will never exist? Unfortunately, it doesn’t take the time to handle this agonizing choice in an intelligent way. Lucy goes from deciding not to save Summer to changing her mind and professing how much she cares about her in literally the next scene.
So much for character development. This movie is about 90 minutes long. Usually that’s enough for a slasher flick, but Time Cut needs more time to establish its characters.
Screenwriter Michael Kennedy’s storyline unfolds perfunctorily. It checks all the basic boxes (early aughts nostalgia, masked maniac, sister drama, time travel mumbo jumbo, etc.) but lacks any genuine emotional depth. Bailey and Gentry have nice chemistry, but their relationship doesn’t develop believably considering that the movie takes place over only a few days. The actresses are likeable enough, but director Hannah MacPherson doesn’t give them opportunities to show much range.
The identity of the killer is revealed in a rather unsurprising twist that seems inspired by the Netflix series Dark. After a final showdown, the storyline is resolved in a sloppy and absurd way that detracts from what little credibility the movie had. The number of loose ends that are never resolved is staggering.
Rating
Time Cut is a forgettable dud that isn’t worth watching. There are many better options out there. Totally Killer, The Final Girls, and Happy Death Day are all superior films with similar premises.
Rating from 1 (avoid at all costs) to 10 (masterpiece): 4
