Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Imagine landing your dream internship at NASA as a teen, but instead of instantly celebrating it, your parents ask you to find something else in your dead town and then drag you to your sister’s memorial to mark her 21st death anniversary. You might want to run away, but Lucy runs into a time machine that makes her jump back to the past – to 2003 to be exact. And even though her life sucks in 2024, Lucy’s sole goal is to get back to her timeline without tampering with the past. But, well, plans change!
Directed by Hannah Macpherson, who co-wrote the script with Michael Kennedy, the 2024 time-travel slasher movie ‘Time Cut’ stars Madison Bailey as protagonist Lucy Field, who finds herself back in April 2003 (MySpace was still a few months away from its debut, as was social media). She meets a science genius named Quinn (Griffin Gluck), who agrees to help her get back home, but complications arise when Lucy comes into close contact with her dead sister, Summer Field (Antonia Gentry). You see, Summer is about to die in two days, brutally murdered by a serial killer will kill some of her best friends first. Will Lucy try to stop the serial killings, or simply mind her own business?
“If you knew something bad was going to happen, would you try to stop it?”
Lucy asks this question repeatedly in Time Cut. And while it might sound obvious to anyone with a sense of humanity, it’s not as ridiculous if posed by a time traveler. Should they be allowed to tamper with the past? The age-old conundrum remains!
Even before its release, much has already been said about how Time Cut and the horror-comedy Totally Killer look alike (I thought the same while watching the trailer, but Time Cut was announced much earlier) – which also follows a teen time-traveling to the past, where she attempts to unmask a serial-killer. Aside from the basic time-travel and serial killer twist, believe me, these two films are very different and entertaining in their own way. In the first few minutes, Time Cut does feel a little gloomier in tone than necessary—but remember, this isn’t a horror-comedy flick.
Time Cut is a lot more sentimental tone without being too mawkish, although, c’mon, a few more jokes would’ve been welcome. Lucy, the time traveler, has a personal connection to the serial-killing victims, even though she wasn’t yet born when her sister Summer died. However, Summer’s death looms over Lucy’s life, with her parents being over-protective and suffocating in the way they treat her. What’s worse than having a sibling who always outshines you? A dead sibling you can’t even compete with. But when Lucy meets Summer in the past, she sees her family in a completely new light—they’re a family she’d want to be a part of, unlike the overbearing, broken versions of them in the future. Familial grief and the way it spills over, is one of the subtlest themes of Time Cut – with a 90 minute runtime, the script has no time to do justice to it.
Madison Bailey and Antonia Gentry (Ginny and Georgia/Prom Dates) have great onscreen chemistry as siblings/friends Lucy and Summer. Their smooth portrayal of two different teens grappling with their own set of problems adds emotional depth to the movie. The writers give them typical clashing personalities but without overdoing teen-movie clichés. So, even though Summer is a popular kid at school, she’s by no means a mean girl and is quite likable. And while Lucy is the asocial one, she isn’t a timid coward—she knows how to stand up for herself and doesn’t shy away from stepping up for total strangers either. Griffin Gluck (Tall Girl/Locke & Key) is nerdy-sweet as science-whiz Quinn, and his fast-growing friendship with Lucy is the kinds of friendships you’d root for. Oh and you definitely will want the sisters to win the “siblings versus slasher” fight too.
One of the most entertaining scenes in Time Cut is a sequence where Summer questions Lucy’s dressing style, and the two spend a lot of time trying on different outfits for fun. But since this is a slasher-horror movie, there’s plenty of killing, though the gore is on the tamer side. Not much blood or guts to watch out for, so hardcore horror fans might be disappointed. Nostalgia enthusiasts would love all the music from early 2000s though – which ranges from Avril Lavigne to the band Wheatus. Although in a few scenes – the music choices didn’t match the tone of the scenes.
As for the suspense over the killer’s identity, Time Cut maintains solid suspense around the murderer, though honestly, there are only a handful of suspects since there are very few prominent characters in the film. It becomes fairly easy to guess who the killer might be, even though you might not be entirely sure of the motive. In fact, that’s where the biggest disappointment lies—the motive is quite flimsy.
Regardless, Time Cut wraps up with an unconventional ending for a time-travel movie, which is somewhat satisfying, though it leaves you with more questions than answers. But if you’re looking for a horror-slasher that sits somewhere between the Scream movies and time-travel flicks, you should try watching Time Cut.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10. Stream Time Cut on Netflix.
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