Displaying items by tag: Madison Bailey

TIME CUT

US, 2024, 92 minutes, Colour.

Madison Bailey, Antonia Gentry, Griffin Gluck, Samuel Braun, Megan Best.

Directed by Hannah MacPherson.                               

The first years of the 2020s saw a proliferation of horror films, many of them slasher stories. This is one of those. However, it is one of the better examples of the genre and has a wider appeal.

On the one hand it could be described as a serial killer film. And it is. On the other hand, it could be described as a time travel film. And it is.

For the 2003 timeline, there is a focus on young students, friendships, secrets, proud parents, socials, and the serial killer.

For the 2024 timeline, things are much more sober, the parents have a younger daughter but are still grieving the death of their daughter 20 years earlier, almost ignoring the present daughter. However, the contrivance is that she is taken back to 2003, encounters her sister, tries to intervene to stop of the killings, has communication with the teacher from school, and becomes very friendly with a rather nerdish student interested in time travel.

The screenplay is often quite ingenious as it moves from time to time, especially the role of time travel in the identity, motivations and unmasking of the actual killer. And, yearning for the past, the heroine decides to stay in 2003 with her surviving sister, with affirming parents, rather than her cold life of 2024.

1. The combination of serial killer thriller and time travel? Credibly combined?
2. The title, incorporating each of the themes?
3. The popularity of the film, well-received? A young adult audience?
4. The town of Sweetly, Minnesota, 2003, vibrant and lively, the look, style, language, technology? The contrast with 2024, downtown neglected, the preoccupations of the inhabitants? The musical score?
5. Summer and her story, her parents, at class, friendship with Emma, the class celebration, the history of the two deaths, the Masked Slasher, Summer, morose, attacked, the escape, her death?
6. 2024, Lucy, with her family, the parents morose, not affirming their daughter, her skills at school, intelligence, science, NASA? At school, the professor? The people discussing the mystery, not solved? The Memorial at the shrine?
7. The discovery of the time machine, Lucy using it, arriving 2003, two days before Summer’s death? Her consulting the teacher? The encounter with Quinn?
8. Quinn, victim of bullying, interest in science, reclusive? The clash with Ethan? Lucy, helping, the explanation, his help with the refuelling of the Time Machine? The ingenuity of restarting the machine?
9. Lucy, going to visit her family, the difference in their personalities, their encouragement of Summer, Summer not so much interested in her studies, Lucy offering to help her?
10. The mall, the murders, the death of the guard?
11. The effect on Summer, Lucy finding Quinn’s letter, his love for Summer? Summer declaring her love for Emmy? The setup for her death, Lucy saving her?
12. The revelation about Quinn, his motivation, his time travel, Lucy returning, encountering the future Quinn, confrontation and his death?
13. Lucy, not finding a place in 2024, deciding to stay in 2003, with Summer, with a happy family, and the apprenticeship with NASA?
14. The successful combination of slasher themes and time travel as well as family issues?