Are YOU excited for Netflix's upcoming film Time Cut, set to premiere on October 30? Directed by Hannah Macpherson, Time Cut is about a teen named Lucy who accidentally time-travels from the present day to 2003, days before a masked killer murders her sister.
Parts of Time Cut recall the 2017 film Happy Death Day and its 2019 sequel Happy Death Day 2U. The Happy Death Day series and Time Cut both deal with time travel and a psycho killer who is out for murder. However, Happy Death Day focuses on time traveling through time loops and adds in a multiverse element, with the characters living through a series of events again and again.
Happy Death Day 2U begins with Ryan, who is living the same day over and over, a day that ends with a figure in a creepy baby mask (the mascot of his college) killing him. Tree, the main character from Happy Death Day, explains to him how she was stuck living a very similar day in the last film. Tree found out her sorority roommate Lori was the killer and killed her, breaking out of the time loop.
We find out that Tree was stuck in a time loop in the first place because of the Sisyphus Quantum Cooling Reactor, a science project Ryan and some of his friends are working on for a class. When Ryan attempts to close his loop, he misfires and Tree is back to reliving Sept 18 over and over again. However, some elements of that day are now different, which is where the multiverse element comes in.
Altogether, Tree Gelbman dies 10 times in Happy Death Day and eight times in Happy Death Day 2U. With Halloween around the corner and another time-bending slasher movie on the way, here are five time-travel lessons viewers can take away from the Happy Death Day series before watching Time Cut:
1. Everyone is a suspect
Everyone is a suspect. It could even be a roommate, someone you're least likely to be a suspect. Every killer in a slasher film has their own motives. The killer reveal can happen at any time and any place.
2. Say goodbye to those who have passed away in the current dimension
In Happy Death Day, viewers learn that Tree’s mom passed away on the same exact day she is now reliving, just three years prior. It's also her birthday. Tree meets up with her father for lunch on her birthday she still misses them. However, in the alternate universe from Happy Death Day 2U, her mother is not dead and she has a choice whether to stay in the current multiverse or go back to her previous universe. Tree decides to go back to the older universe and says a heartfelt goodbye to her mom.
3. Be bold and patient when trying to figure out the killer
What better way to find out who the killer is than with a fun montage scene of Tree constantly dying when she is trying to find out who the killer is all while Demi Lovato's song "Confident" plays in the background? Keeping a list of suspects is a genius idea and spying on them may lead to discovering the identity of the killer.
4. If all else fails, just end it all
This advice should only be taken if trapped in a time loop. In the first Happy Death Day movie, we get a montage of Tree being murdered by the killer. In Happy Death Day 2U, we get one of Tree killing herself over and over to avoid being stalked. This time, she chooses how she dies while behind the scenes people are working to get her out.
5. Always trust your gut instinct
In this clip, the audience sees Tree knocking on a door; she gets a surprise from her killer wearing a baby mask. Tree punches the killer and the lights turn on to reveal a surprise party that her sorority sisters are throwing for her. And the person in that baby-faced mask is Tree's friend Nick. The baby mask is the mascot for their university. Later, the real killer kills Nick while he and Tree are in his room.
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