Netflix has released a new time travel thriller that seems to be the perfect reminder to watch Kiernan Shipka's 87% Rotten Tomatoes-scoring slasher, Totally Killer. Produced by Jason Blum, Totally Killer landed on Amazon Prime Video on October 6, 2023. Despite being fairly derivative of many renowned horror and time travel movies, the movie mostly earned positive reviews from viewers and critics, with many singing praises of how it balances its slasher horror and time travel elements with effective social satire.
One year after its release, Netflix has released its own slasher thriller that, like Totally Killer, also uses time travel as a narrative device. Although the Netflix horror movie in question brings some of its own unique spin to the genre, it seems to have a lot in common with Totally Killer. Owing to this, it is hard not to be reminded of Totally Killer while watching the new time travel slasher horror flick on Netflix.
Time Cut & Totally Killer Are Both Back To The Future-Style Time Travel Slasher Movies
Both Films Play With Familiar Tropes Of The Sub-Genre
In a typical Back to the Future fashion, the main characters from both Prime Video's Totally Killer and Netflix's Time Cut accidentally travel back in time. This allows them to change things in the past and save the lives of their loved ones who a vicious serial killer murdered. While Jamie from Totally Killer finds herself in 1987, Time Cut's Lucy learns she is in 2003 after encountering a mysterious time machine in a barn. Despite understanding the rippling consequences of changing events in the past timeline, the two characters refuse to let history repeat itself.
Apart from walking through a compelling time travel slasher drama, Netflix's Time Cut also features memorable characters played by talented actors.
Although Time Cut and Totally Killer play with similar genre tropes and themes and seem quite similar in their opening arcs, they execute their ideas differently. Apart from instilling 80s nostalgia and featuring a few memorable kill scenes, Totally Killer also delivers some hilarious moments, making it reminiscent of other classic slashers like Scream. Time Cut, in contrast, inclines more towards portraying a relatively more serious coming-of-age story that cares little about the plot holes and paradoxes that come with time travel narratives.
Time Cut Vs. Totally Killer: Which Movie Has The Better Time Travel Slasher Story
Totally Killer Arguably Does A Far Better Job At Executing Its Ideas
While both films do not shy away from borrowing existing ideas and tropes from other movies of the genre, Totally Killer does a better job of etching its identity. Both films are ridden with narrative inconsistencies and paradoxes, highlighting how they incline more towards using time travel only as a vessel to explore human stories rather than strictly adhering to the rules of time travel mechanics. However, what makes Totally Killer a far better movie is that it does not take itself too seriously and still manages to weave more heart and humor into its storyline.
What Screen Rant has said about
Time Cut
:
"
Time Cut is a frustrating film, twice over. On the one hand, it takes a genre conceit that should be a layup and sleepwalks right through it, in a way that implies the audience deserves no effort beyond what it took to get them to press play. As if those who love slashers or time-travel movies are won over by premises alone, not the passion and creativity of their execution. Certain scenes left me feeling more insulted than disappointed.
" via
Time Cut Review: Netflix's Poor Excuse For A Slasher Should’ve Followed Its Dramatic Instincts
by
Alex Harrison.
Totally Killer boasts a fairly impressive critics' score of 87% and an audience score of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. Time Cut, in contrast, has failed to leave its mark by only earning a critics' score of 20% and an audience score of 36% on the reviewing platform. Despite the difference in their reception, both movies can be appreciated for the performances of their lead actors and the creativity with which they portray the rippling effect of one's actions across time. However, for viewers seeking a horror comedy that has a fair share of gory moments, Totally Killer might be a better fit.
Totally Killer is a 2023 comedy horror film by director Nahnatchka Khan (Always Be My Maybe) created for Prime Video. Jamie, a seventeen-year-old, plans to head out for Halloween night thirty-five years after the murder of her mother's three friends by a serial killer. When Jamie ignores her mother's pleas and heads out for the night, she becomes targeted by the infamous "Sweet Sixteen Killer." However, the chase ends with her being sent back in time to the year it all began- and now Jamie will have to team up with her teenage mother to stop the killer and return home before it's too late.
A teenage girl goes back in time to the early 2000s to save her sister from a dangerous killer.
Custom Image by Dhruv Sharma.
English (US) ·