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Last year, Amazon and Blumhouse released a fantastic slasher horror/comedy from Nahnatchka Khan.Totally Killertold the story of a teenager who goes back in time to save her mom. It was a terrific blend of great kills, a fantastic script, and a ton of heart. If you were a fan of that, no film this year will be as offensive asTime Cut. Director Hannah Macpherson tells the same story, but with a PG-13 rating, worse kills, a weaker script, lamer direction, and a less talented cast, this throwback thriller is another terrible addition to Netflix’s uninspired catalog.
Time CutReview
InTime Cut, we follow Lucy (Outer Banks’s Madison Bailey), a mopey teenager still grieving over the death of her sister, Summer (Ginny & Georgia’s Antonia Gentry). Before she was born, her sister was murdered by a serial killer. In a bizarre twist of fate, Lucy can travel back in time to 2003 and tries to save Summer.
The first immediate problem is in the film’s throwback. Why set this in 2003 if you aren’t going to try and replicate any of the visual style of that era? It’s impossible to tell that this took place in the early 2000s, although the marketing seems very keen on cashing on nostalgia for the early naughts. Like everything else in its script, horror, and cinematography, Macpherson struggles to makeTime Cutstand out.
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This script sucks, majorly. Macpherson co-wrote the script alongside Michael Kennedy. On Macpherson’s side, it makes sense that the script is bad. Her filmography is not good, and it’s very possible that her talents just aren’t in writing. For Kennedy, it’s surprising that the script sucks, given he wrote Christopher Landon’sFreaky, which is this fantastically intense horror film with a sci-fi twist. He also wroteIt’s a Wonderful Knife,which is another innovative and exciting slasher flick. Why, then, is this film so bland?
One of the biggest things holding this back from being good is its PG-13 rating. PG-13 horror is simply much duller, and inTime Cut’s case, it leads to a film that’s too melodramatic for its own good. The basic drama here is that our main character’s parents aren’t that excited for her to have a NASA internship. Boo hoo. She sits around moping about her sister being dead, using language that makes her seem like a middle schooler.
I sense that most of this is Netflix’s fault. The streamer seems almost incapable of producing good films at this point because everything is designed to reach as high of viewership as possible. Throw in two mildly talented actresses from their two biggest shows and put them in a horror film because it’s Halloween. Add a bit of romance to appeal to teenagers, and make sure it’s PG-13 so everybody can watch it.
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It’s all so sappy and saccharine that I hesitate to even call this a slasher. When only about fifteen minutes or so of the entire film are designed to be scary, it’s ridiculous that Netflix is even marketing this as horror. There’s one good kill that happens about halfway through, and from there, Macpherson totally gives up on the scares, turning an already uninspired slasher into an uninspired heist film.
It’s also a shame that this is just a visually ugly film. Everything is clearly shot on a set, and many of the set pieces seem like they’re from a Disney Channel sitcom. The lighting and color grading are tremendously flat. There’s not a single visually compelling shot in its entire 90-minute runtime. Where’s the grit? Where’s the color? Where’s the creativity? Did anybody really care about making something good here?
At one point,Time Cuttakes us into Olive Garden. It’s unclear why, but we return three times to the Italian restaurant, but there’s no actual branding of it in the film. It’s such a bizarre thing to set a chain restaurant as a key location in your film only to not actually use the design of a restaurant. It seems like a little thing, but it’s one of the examples of how stupid and corporate this film is.
Obviously, thiscouldn’t have been a ripoff ofTotally Killer. In fact, this was shot in mid-2021, a full year beforeTotally Killerwas even announced! How, then, does this feel like such a ridiculously weaker version of that? How, when written by a guy whose first writing credit wasFreaky, does this script feel so uninspired and dumb?
IsTime Cutworth watching?
Time Cutis now on Netflix.
Time Cut Review — Boring, Ugly Slasher Flick is a True Time Killer
Cole Groth
Film/TV Critic
Articles Published :71
Hi! My name is Cole. I’m a twenty-year-old attending the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. I’ve watched one movie every day since May 2020, with my all-time favorite film being Max Barbakow’s Palm Springs (2020).
