“Time Cut” isn’t helped by arriving a year after the similarly structured time-travel slasher comedy flick “Totally Killer,” a relatively clever, largely entertaining romp from the budget-conscious horror masters at BlumHouse that can be streamed on Prime Video.
Ultimately, though, the problem with “Time Cut” — debuting on Netflix on this, Halloween week — isn’t its shared traits with “Totally Killer,” including a time-traveling heroine out to save a family member from being killed and a serial killer in an at least vaguely similar mask.
It’s that it’s so bland.
That there’s almost no fun to be had with “Time Cut” is surprising considering it is co-written by Michael Kennedy, the writer of 2020’s “Freaky Friday”-inspired slasher comedy “Freaky,” as well as last year’s Christmas-tinged “It’s a Wonderful Knife” and the rom-com slasher “Heart Eyes,” due in theaters in February.
Co-penned by its director, Hannah Macpherson (“T@gged,” “School Spirits”), “Time Cut” is a dull-and-dragging affair aimed squarely at teens.
Its protagonist is an impressive teen, Madison Bailey’s Lucy, who’s been accepted into a NASA program for the coming summer. Still, Lucy lives in the shadow of a sister she never knew, Summer (Antonia Gentry). The latter was killed more than 20 years ago, along with a couple of other high school students, by the masked Sweetly Slasher — named for the otherwise-idyllic town where the affair is set.
The prologue of “Time Cut” shows us the Slasher’s offing of Summer, at a party where she obviously has her mind on something other than her cocky-and-annoying ex, Ethan (Samuel Braun). On this night, we also meet Griffin Gluck’s Quinn, who is trying to give Summer a note that reveals his love for her.
In the present day, around the anniversary of the slayings, Lucy tells us that the NASA program appealed to her “because sometimes it feels like my life is a black hole,” and soon adds, “I want to try to understand the darkest parts of the universe and where I belong in it.”
With that bit of antimatter-related foreshadowing accomplished, she soon encounters an elaborate hidden time machine and is zapped back 21 years and two days — right before the killings begin.
She heads to her school, where, after adjusting to the shock of early 2000s style, she seeks out a teacher she likes from her time, Mr. Fleming (Jordan Pettle), to ask some theoretical questions about time travel. Weighing in with strong opinions against the idea is the nearby brainy Quinn, whom Lucy befriends.
She reveals to him her circumstance — producing her smartphone as proof she’s from the future. “Time Cut” mines maybe a half-giggle out of Quinn’s bewilderment at the device and theory as to what it must cost.
Perhaps more importantly, she quickly grows close to Summer, who thinks she knows Lucy from a camp three years earlier. There’s an undeniable sweetness to this, exemplified by a scene in which unknowing big sis Summer gives Lucy a 2003 fashion makeover.
The sweet times in Sweetly are short-lived, however, as the killings are about to begin and Lucy knows any action she takes could affect others, as well as herself.
“This is not some Marty McFly situation!” Quinn warns, reminding us that while “Time Cut” isn’t “Totally Killer,” it also CERTAINLY isn’t “Back to the Future.”
We should note one more difference between it and “Totally Killer”: the newer offering has a TV rating, not one from the Motion Picture Association. Yes, they’re both streaming offerings, but “Time Cut” never feels remotely cinematic.
It’s pleasant enough to spend time with Lucy and Summer, thanks largely to the stars of Netflix series “Outer Banks” and “Ginny & Georgia,” respectively.
And while there’s not enough emphasis on figuring out who the Sweetly Slasher is, “Time Cut” does a decent job of keeping you guessing all the same.
Still, if you haven’t seen “Totally Killer,” we strongly advise taking that trip back to 1987 over this jaunt to the year before the founding of Facebook.
On the other hand, if you’re dying to revisit a time when kids were listening to songs such as Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” and Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” “Time Cut” won’t kill you.
‘TIME CUT’
1.5 stars (out of 4)
Rating: TV-14 (fear, language, violence)
Running time: 1:31
How to watch: Netflix
