REVIEW: ‘Time Cut’ Just Doesn’t Cut It

Time Cut, directed by Hannah Macpherson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Kennedy, sees a young woman given a chance to change her world. Twenty-one years ago, the town of Sweetly, Minnesota, was rocked by a string of murders. Lucy Field (Madison Bailey) has grown up in the shadows of those murders, living in a town with parents who have never moved on.

Standing out is important in the packed media landscape we live in. Telling a familiar story, even if executed well, isn’t enough to get people’s attention. Something unique is often needed to deliver a memorable experience. However, along with that unique twist, there also has to be quality. Sadly, Time Cut is sorely lacking in that department.

The element in this story that has the most potential is the main character, Lucy. All of her life leading up to the movie’s beginning is overshadowed by the murders that rocked her hometown, killing three people, including her older sister. A trip to the past opens doors.

Having grown up living with the specter of a sister she never met, Lucy’s startling arrival in the past creates more opportunity for exciting character exploration than many time travel stories. Her view of her life and her family’s feelings towards her shifts feels compelling but reads sadly underdeveloped. This is due to the story’s worst element: the killings.

The “Sweetly Slasher” murders each play out with predictable actions that feel straight out of any high school film student’s script. Teens scramble and cower in fear as a silent killer wearing a cheap plastic mask stalks after them and cuts them down. Little tension is created in these moments to draw the viewer into the impending demise.

The camera work brings as little creativity to these scenes as the planning for the kills themselves. Stand-off, predictable angles walk viewers through the sequences with little to catch their interest. Lackluster acting further harms these moments and Time Cut in its entirety. No single character or moment manages to shine throughout the film’s hour-and-a-half runtime. While most of it doesn’t hurt, none of it ever helps the film, either.

Failing equally hard is Time Cut’s attempt to explore time travel. Even though it’s fair not to expect a slasher flick to have too much depth in this narrative construct, there are several moments where events play out without anyone questioning them, despite there being obvious reasons why they should. And that’s with a couple of literal geniuses in the core group. These head-scratching moments only distract the viewer from the dangers that the film tries to grab them with.

The time-traveling aspect does provide a few moments of levity within the film as Lucy contends with noisy modems and out-of-date fashions. While these brief spots provide some giggles, they don’t add much to the bigger picture the film takes a swing at. It is little more than a distraction that further undermines the film’s failure to craft any tension.

The final place where Time Cut further stumbles is in its handling of Lucy’s long-dead sister, Summer (Antonia Gentry, Prom Dates). The film wants the viewer to see Summer as this exceptional person whose absence would diminish everything around her. But she’s not that great. While not a bad person, Summer is an average high schooler. This leaves the viewer disconnected whenever Lucy talks about how amazing her sister is, even once she’s met her.

The only thing Time Cut manages to deliver truly is the fantastic early 2000s soundtrack. Songs like “Teenage Dirtbag” and “Complicated” are fun musical selections for anyone who fondly remembers those years in pop music. And though I believe a great soundtrack can do a lot, some fun pop nostalgia isn’t near enough to save this trainwreck.

Time Cut ultimately fails in nearly every regard. Despite some promising elements, the movie never finds enough time to explore them. Instead, it delivers run-of-the-mill slasher kills that will fail to entertain anyone. It’s best to skip this one, no matter how much of a die-hard you are for the genre.

Time Cut is streaming now on Netflix.