Netflix's Time Cut Review: Is This Time-Traveling Slasher a Halloween MUST-SEE or a HUGE FLOP?

Netflix's Time Cut: A Soundtrack for Two Eras!

Time Cut: A Nostalgic Slasher Trip Through Time!

Netflix's Time Cut, a YA slasher movie, arrived just in time for Halloween. It stars Antonia Gentry (Ginny & Georgia) and Madison Bailey (Outer Banks) as sisters separated by 20 years and a killer mystery! Madison Bailey's Lucy, a bright teen with dreams of NASA, stumbles onto a time-travel machine while visiting her late sister's death site in 2024. This sends her back to 2003 to save her older sister, Summer, from a masked serial killer – all while trying not to totally mess up the timeline! Griffin Gluck (Locke & Key, Cruel Summer) is also in this movie, along with other supporting actors.

The movie totally leverages needle drops; this excellent creative use of sound makes this soundtrack something special for many people. It brilliantly blends current and classic hits from 2003 to 2024 – we're talking Fat Joe, Olivia Rodrigo, Vanessa Carlton, Wheatus, and Avril Lavigne; there is something for many audience members who grew up within that timeframe, and its musical soundtrack acts as a clever narrative tool used to quickly change eras for the audience; creating those immediate connections through the sound! Other details like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer poster, a very prominent iPhone, drastically differing clothing styles; those smaller visual references make the contrast in eras easily noticeable.

Time Cut's Soundtrack: A Nostalgic Mix from Two Eras

‘Time Cut’ Soundtrack: All The Songs In The Netflix Slasher Film Image

The soundtrack cleverly uses these nostalgia-driven musical themes for immediate impact: These aren't just songs; the soundtrack creates the emotional context. Check this out!

The Slasher Genre's Current Predictability

Time Cut review – tinny time-travel Netflix slasher offers too much deja vu Image

Slashers are back; a welcome return for many fans! But there's something missing–those kinds of new creative ideas. Many newer releases rely on gimmicks like time loops, time travel, or reality-bending twists instead of great scary concepts that might otherwise appear in far simpler movies. Time Cut unfortunately looks like another formulaic teen slasher, trying to reuse previous successes. While it may have seemed clever; this kind of nostalgic repetition might already be predictable by many.

Time Cut’s Plot and its Familiarity: A Time Travel Storyline

Netflix's ‘Time Cut’ Cast List is Filled With Some of the Streamer's Biggest Names Image

The storyline is straightforward. The opening scene depicts Summer’s (Antonia Gentry) murder. Fast forward 20 years and Lucy is haunted by her sister's death; that very same spot still brings her pain. A strange machine brings that change. She’s zapped to 2003, trying to save Summer! This trope has been overused.

The biggest idea? If Lucy saves Summer, she doesn’t exist! It is really too dark for a fun movie; instead this theme remains unacknowledged entirely, ultimately losing its emotional impact in a misguided attempt at becoming “sentimental.” The result? No tension, boring kills, a bland atmosphere, resulting in something terribly flat and really awful, something typical in very poorly-produced and poorly conceived movies found exclusively online.

Time Cut’s Successes and Shortcomings

Time Cut isn't all bad! The use of nostalgia targeting that very specific fanbase was clever; using Vanessa Carlton and those era-specific visual choices create those immediate nostalgia pangs, however these methods were insufficient for achieving a larger scale impact! That heartfelt scene discussing LGBTQ+ acceptance provides a genuinely original moment; this small point amidst an incredibly derivative plot is a very small spark of creativity.

But the obsession with time travel mechanics? This completely overtakes all that could otherwise appear in such a simpler narrative – that kind of choice makes all those basic slasher moments way, way less effective, resulting in some generally unexciting elements; especially those kills which many expect from these kinds of slasher Horror Films; making these far less appealing to its audience.

Conclusion: A Missed Opportunity in Netflix's Halloween Lineup?

Time Cut was made in 2021 – but unfortunately this doesn't matter, as its reliance on a tired time-travel trope creates that really disappointing feeling that this was predictable, something audiences will already have seen; thus that entire concept completely loses whatever value and intrigue that may have appeared in older releases using such concepts. It misses the joy of a basic slasher Film, relying too much on a gimmick, and too little on clever scares. Fans really might want something much more imaginative from this horror genre and if the storyline can't deliver thrills in its setting or basic themes, that creates significant issues.