Hannah MacPherson's film is a nostalgic teen drama disguised as horror.
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| Image Credit: Netflix |
Behind Time Cut there are several errors, shortcomings, and a basic miscommunication. The film directed by Hannah MacPherson and co-written with Michael Kennedy (who is not new to the horror scene) was sold by Netflix as a disturbing slasher movie with nostalgic elements that have a certain comfort, a perfect film for the autumn season.
From the premise, it is clear that Netflix's intentions are to follow the algorithm and make an impact on a particular type of audience. There would be nothing wrong with investigating the huge slasher subgenre or in mitigating horror with different themes, the real problem is that Time Cut has nothing horrific, not even the presence of a murderer who terrorizes a small town, but it is closer to a teen drama in which nostalgia reigns supreme.
The plot of Time Cut
Even the widely exploited incipit makes nostalgia the key to understanding a film that wants to be reassuring and not disturbing. Time travel - also in this case as in many other narratives a pretext that has no scientific roots or explanations of any kind except in the messy ending - is used here to create a setting, the atmosphere of a very specific type of lifestyle and cinematographic style: that of the 2000s. The protagonist is high school student Lucy Field (played by Madison Bailey) who from 2024 finds herself catapulted into the chaotic 2003, the year in which her older sister Summer (Antonia Gentry) was killed by the Sweetly monster along with her best friends. A tragedy that shocked the town and that 19 years later all the inhabitants still remember with terror.
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| Image Credit: Netflix |
A teen drama dressed as a horror film
As we were saying, Time Cut doesn't even try to be scary and this is the big disappointment. The killer vaguely recalls the monsters of slasher movies, but without ever reaching that uneasiness and evocative atmospheres that those films bring to mind. Instead of the horror music - impossible to forget that of Halloween - that accompanies the arrival of the killer, increasing the suspense, in Time Cut they are replaced by the voices of famous singers at the beginning of the millennium. The inspired and disturbing masks are replaced by a mask whose features recall Trump, but without ever really delving into the criticism of US politics that is exhausted in a few lines.
The narrative plots and the killings that precede the final clash between the killer and the final girl have no bite either in terms of writing or direction. The film distances itself from horror by not exploiting its potential, just as the time travel gimmick is superficial, poorly cared for, and simply useful for a plot that never takes off. Emptied by its reference genres, Time Cut ends up resembling a teen drama like many others on Netflix whose tender aftertaste and final message that invites you to live in the moment and enjoy the present has a dusty, already-seen feel.
Time Cut: evaluation and conclusion
Time Cut is an easily forgettable film and that's a shame. It invites you to watch it thanks to this mix, which could have been successful, of horror, sci-fi, and nostalgia for an era that is still not much explored in today's cinematic panorama, but which seems to replace the vision of the 80s that we had in the early 2000s. It's a shame that no element is well written: the characters are poorly outlined, the killer is not scary, the message is boring and the story has no bite. The main disappointment, however, is given by the totally wrong communication that wanted to sell Time Cut to the public as a horror film perfect for Halloween while instead we are faced with a teen drama with fantastic elements.
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