This Netflix movie tells the story of Lucy Field (Madison Bailey), a science-oriented teen living in 2024, who accidentally time travels to 2003, days before a masked killer murders her sister Summer (Antonia Gentry). She must navigate altering the past without destroying the future.
I had a lot of problems with this one. The time traveling could've been an interesting tool to differentiate this film, but nothing was explained clearly. Lucy finds Quinn (Griffin Gluck), a fellow student who shares her love of science and decides to help her return to her time. We saw the continuation of the unimaginative trope where nerdiness is equated to enjoying science. WHY? These "nerds" become the physicists who launch rockets into space, and even if I don't understand it, I think it's cool. Spoilers ahead: Quinn himself is the masked killer. Because "he was bullied"? There was no build up; the plot went from 0 to 100 in five minutes. Present Quinn shared no interest in the violence that Future Quinn was committing, which just made the whole plot line so unbelieveable. Maybe have Present Quinn sympathize with the killings in a subtle way. I understand the want for a surprising plot twist, but you need to give me SOMETHING.
More spoilers ahead. The ending was unsatisfying, where Lucy ended up staying in the past with her sister. How does that even work. It's explained that Lucy is essentially a replacement for Summer; had Summer lived, her parents wouldn't have had another child. Since Summer lives, shouldn't Lucy be erased from existence? Apparently not. Also, you're telling me a teenager who's used to Wi-Fi and instant Spotify could survive in 2003 on MySpace? Sure, that makes sense.
The acting was so stiff, it was almost painful to watch. Everyone seemed uncomfortable to emote anything. I understand that Lucy's parents have been catatonic for 20 years, grieving the loss of their daughter, but there was no chemistry between the actors. The story sounded interesting in theory, which is why I watched it at all, but it was poorly executed. I'm not a person who enjoys watching horror movies, but even I know this can't be compared to the genre's predecessors like American Psycho or The Shining. If you're honestly curious about this movie and you have an hour and a half of time, then go for it. But I lost track of how many times I said "What?"
