The overlap of science fiction and horror has always been a very rich source of narrative entertainment. While both sci-fi and horror movies each boast huge popularity, many movies seek to appeal to both sets of fans, delivering us exceptional pieces of sci-fi horror that combine the best of both genres. This genre-bending even works on a more specific level, as taking a subgenre from each and combining them has also provided us with many great stories. This is essentially how the notion of a time-travel slasher was born, and the niche new subgenre has already provided some excellent movies.
There have been many influential time travel movies over the years, as well as many iconic slasher films. In that regard, maybe it was only a matter of time before the unlikely pairing was made, but the results are far better than many could ever have imagined. By having its characters travel through time to face a violent, murderous threat, these time travel slashers managed to capture our imagination in a way that we genuinely didn’t expect.
Time Cut is one of the most underrated slasher movies of recent years. The Netflix movie follows Lucy, a teenage girl who travels back 20 years to 2003, where she attempts to save the older sister she never met from a masked killer who was never caught. Combining ’00s nostalgia with a violent slasher story, Time Cut didn’t impress critics, who drew unfavorable comparisons between it and 2023’s Totally Killer. The similarities are noteworthy, but largely because the two films tap into a very similar premise that combines time travel with slasher horror. What makes Time Cut work is the dedication to recreating ’00s adolescence, while also paying homage to many of the tropes that have become common in slasher movies. It’s hardly a perfect movie, but it’s a decently enjoyable film that manages to combine time travel and bloody horror in a way that works far better than anyone seems to have given it credit for.
The Final Girls is an almost perfect overlooked movie from the 2010s, again because of the way it cleverly mashes up two genres. The movie’s time travel isn’t actually time travel in the most traditional sense, as it instead follows a group of teens transported into a fictional ’80s slasher movie that starred the protagonist’s mother. The fictional movie, Camp Bloodbath, is a supposed cult classic that pays homage to Friday the 13th. The movie’s status as a horror comedy relegates its pseudo-time travel to the background, but the film’s depiction of modern characters in a past setting technically qualifies it as a particularly creative entry into the blended subgenre. It’s a slasher that manages to explore common horror tropes in a particularly meta and comedic way, thanks in part to its use of a form of time travel. It uses the sci-fi idea to facilitate a love letter to slasher horror, and the result is a movie that’s uniquely brilliant.
Perhaps the best example of a time-travel slasher to date is Totally Killer, though despite receiving positive reviews, it has been unfairly overlooked in the few years since its release. It stars Kiernan Shipka as Jamie, a teen whose mother is murdered by a murderer who went on a killing spree 30 years prior. After hiding in a time machine from the killer, Jamie realizes she can attempt to catch the villain in the past, saving her mother in the future in the process. As well as being a great modern slasher movie, Totally Killer manages to combine the time-travelling nostalgia of movies like Back to the Future and Hot Tub Time Machine with the thrills of more straight-up slashers like Scream and Halloween. Its blending of the two seemingly unrelated genres feels reasonably seamless, resulting in a movie that perfectly represents the potential of this currently somewhat niche subgenre.
