If you’re still in a spooky movie mood, but you’ve already seenSmile 2andTerrifier 3is too gross, Netflix has their own horror movie:Time Cut. Not just a slasher,Time Cutfocuses on a high school student (Madison BaileyofOuter Banks) that accidentally time travels to 2003, the year her sister (Antonia GentryofGinny & Georgia) and three other high schoolers were murdered by a killer that remains a mystery. Joining the two Netflix stars is screenwriterMichael Kennedy,who has previously worked on the holiday slasherIt’s a Wonderful Knifeand the body swap horror-comedyFreaky. WhileTime Cutmay seem like another horror riff on a well known film (this timeBack to the Future), audiences may be thinking of a more recent release…
Last October, Amazon releasedTotally Killer,a horror-comedydirected byFresh off the BoatcreatorNahnatchka Khan.Totally Killeralso features a high school girl (Kiernan Shipka) traveling back in time by accident. Now in the late 1980s,Shipka’s Jamie attempts to discover the identity of the murdererthat killed three of her mom’s friends in the ’80s and her mom in the present day. Along the way, Jamie sees a new side to her mom, getting the chance to see hernot as a parent but as someone who was once a teenager, just like she is now (also likeBack to the Future).Slight differences aside, it seems like Netflix is simply copying Amazon, right? Well, it’s not that simple.
Netflix Started Their Movie Before Amazon
Despite whenTime CutandTotally Killerwere released, the timeline is actually more complicated.Time Cutwasinitially announced and filmed in 2021, where it was described as “Back to the FuturemeetsScream.” A year later, Blumhouseannounced they had begun filmingTotally Killerand, ironically,Khan called the film in a press release “something I never thought of in my life” and “just so unique and exciting.“For reasons unknown, within the time betweenTime Cutwas shot and debuted on Netflix,Totally Killerwas entirely filmed, edited, and released by a rival company.
On the outside, this may seem suspicious, butthe distinctions in the details make each film their own.Time Cutreturns to an era that hasn’t been as mined for parody and allows a different generation to look back at their childhoods, as opposed to the same decade movies have been parodying sinceThe Wedding Singer. That said,Totally Killerhas a lot of fun with its ’80s setting (they even watchRobocop) and effectively taps into that coming-of-age theme of realizing your parents were once teenagers, just like you were. These differences might seem slight, but it is more likely these were developed independently than one streamer copying another’s work but changing it just enough. The truth is that movies with similar premises coming out close together is simply par for the course in Hollywood. This isn’t even the first time this has happened this year!
Movie Twins Has Been a Trend For Years
Remember back in the spring, within weeks of each other, there were two movies about nuns giving birth to the antichrist?ImmaculateandThe First Omenwere developed individually, with the formerbeginning development as early as 2014and the latterinitially announced two years later. It’s possible 20th Century Studios (then 20th Century Fox) developed the idea ofThe First Omenin response to reports ofImmaculateinstead of just buying the script and re-writing it, but it is impossible to know for certain, and quite frankly,this is a long tradition in the film industry.
Studios have been competing with one another to get similarly themed projects to the screens for as long as movies have been made. Whether that’s two movies individually responding to something in the culture at the same time, rival adaptations of the same source material racing to beat the other to theaters, or projects specifically developed to directly compete with something that’s been announced.Bette Davishadbeen considered the favorite to play Scarlett O’HarainGone with the Winduntil Warner Bros. cast her as the lead in another Civil War drama,Jezebel,and producer David O. Selznick refused to cast her.
Do Netflix Stars Get Free Netflix Subscriptions? ‘Time Cut’s Antonia Gentry and Madison Bailey Reveal the Answer
They also talk 2003 references, navigating social media, and crossing slashers off their bucket lists.
Two auteurs made films responding to nuclear war anxieties, withStanley Kubrick’sDr. StrangeloveandSidney Lumet’sFail Safeboth being released in 1964. AfterJeffery Katzenbergleft Disney,he pushed for the development ofAntzin order to beat Pixar’sA Bug’s Life(then titledBugs) to release. Sometimes it is less dramatic and just two studios pushing for the same thing, like two volcano movies,Dante’s PeakandVolcano, or two period pieces about magicians,The IllusionistandThe Prestige, or two re-imagined versions ofSnow White,Mirror MirrorandSnow White and the Huntsman.
It is highly unlikely there is any foul play with the similar premises ofTime CutandTotally Killer; this is the typical result of Hollywood studios racing each other for a clever idea. Only time will tellwhich holds the longer-lasting legacy. That said, only one movie features characters watchingRobocop, which is something more films should do in order to one-up their competition in this writer’s opinion.
Time Cutis available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
A teenage girl goes back in time to the early 2000s to save her sister from a dangerous killer.
Watch on Netflix
