Alice Oscura, Featured Writer
Happy Halloween Folks! Thank you so much for sticking with me throughout these 31 Horror reviews. It’s been swell and exhausting at the same time, but we’ve finally come to the end of our journey. Let’s close off the season with the severely underwhelming and disappointing recent Netflix release Time Cut (2024).
The premise is extremely similar to 2023’s the time travel, slasher horror/comedy Totally Killer (2023) starring Kiernan Shipka (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). Like Totally Killer, Time Cut uses the theory of time travel in its plot. In a small town named Sweetly in the year 2003, four teens are brutally killed by the Sweetly Slasher, including Summer Field (Antonia Gentry, Ginny & Georgia). Twenty-one years later, the town of Sweetly is a mere shadow of its former self and Summer’s younger sister, Lucy (Madison Bailey, Outer Banks), who was born a few years after her death, feels stifled and trapped under her traumatised, overprotective parents. On the anniversary of Summer’s death, Lucy gets a summer internship with NASA, but the catch is that she would have to spend three months in Washington, an idea that her parents are not too keen on.
Lucy stumbles upon a time machine hidden in an abandoned barn when she goes to visit her sister’s memorial. The machine transports Lucy to the year 2003 where she comes face to face with her sister two days before she is killed by the Sweetly Slasher. Lucy reveals that she is from the future to Quinn (Griffin Gluck) one of Summer’s friends. Quinn warns her against changing the past, as a ripple effect can permanently alter the lives of people in the future. However, despite the fact that Lucy wants to prevent the murders from happening, she is faced with one main dilemma — if she saves her sister, her parents would never have decided to have another child. She would hypothetically not exist in the future.
There are many theories regarding the long-term effects of time travel and the consequences on the timeline if we alter the past and present on the future. I mean, just think about DC comic book character Flash and the Flashpoint paradox. When choosing time travel as your central plot theme, things can get more than a bit tricky. And unfortunately, Time Cut’s disappointing execution lacks passion and creativity.
The film should have stuck its claws more into the drama aspect centering around Lucy, Summer and her parents. That was one of the few elements that I thought was interesting within the main story. Lucy narrated in a monologue that she felt like she was living in a black hole left behind by the death of a sister whom she never met, and she is being raised by grieving parents who lack the emotional depth to engage themselves with another child. Another positive is the 2000s nostalgia as Time Cut not only nails the fashion but showcases some great jams from popular singers of the era like Avril Lavigne, Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton. And boy oh boy, what a blast from the past that was to see discmans and CDs. Seems like a lifetime ago.
But cut out the drama and nostalgia and Time Cut is just a sloppy, mindless version of a plot that was already executed brilliantly in last year’s Totally Killer. My advice is to skip past this lacklustre film and just watch Totally Killer to see a time travelling serial killer flick done right.
And with Time Cut’s review, we conclude Dark Alice Reviews’ first annual 31 Days of Horror Reviews.
Dark Alice’s Score: 3.5 out of 10
Dark Alice has an old soul and a curious mind. I believe that anyone can be a hero and that the good guys should always win! I dislike cruelty to animals and think that they have far superior qualities to humans. My motto is there is no future without the past. I also have a weird penchant for Paranormal TV shows even though the slightest sound makes me jump. I enjoy writing reviews and throwing in fun facts to pique the readers’ curiosity. My ultimate goal in life would be to become a published writer one day. Read More