Streaming services have been struggling of late. What was initially a new medium of entertainment, one that a slew of production houses invested in heavily, has proven to be a short-term money-making gimmick rather than something that production houses would like to sustain long term.
Not only has it hurt home media sales, it has practically eradicated an entire line of revenue for films, making quite a few studios wonder if it is worth working with streaming at all.
Netflix’s Time Cut, a film that is described as Back to the Future meets Scream, is a telling sign of how content on streaming is dwindling, given that Amazon Prime has already done the concept. Fans are not impressed by Netflix’s attempt at bringing a concept that’s already been done by a rival service, calling out the creative bankruptcy of the service.
Fans are not happy seeing the same concept milked without any creativity
Taking to X, a slew of fans are very annoyed at the fact that Netflix’s Time Cut is ripping off the exact plot that Prime’s Totally Killer has done so well. The unimaginative story beats seem to have been a little too much for fans, who believe they are in for the same product that they have seen another streaming service work with so well.
Both films deal with the issue of a serial killer and time travel, as the protagonist goes back through time to stop a killer with a personal connection to them. While Totally Killer was able to pull the plot off in 2023, Time Cut‘s plot is so similar that it might as well be a sequel to the Amazon Prime offering.
Even before Time Cut is out, fans have dubbed Totally Killer the better film
Despite Time Cut being part of Netflix’s Hollywood lineup, audiences don’t seem terribly excited about the film. The film could have a different story when compared to the Kiernan Shipka starter, but fans have already crowned the latter as the better film. Totally Killer was well-received by critics and audiences, which is also the reason why they are less keen on giving something like Time Cut a choice.
As streaming services mature as a business model, the content that is being made available on these platforms seems to be becoming more homogenous. While industry trends have a role to play in it, one of the major pulls of streaming was that it offered entertainment that the industry at large might not have thought of producing. There was also the fact that it was a convenient space to rewatch a lot of fan-favorite content on a budget, which is also something streamers are moving away from.
Totally Killer can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
Time Cut will begin streaming on Netflix on October 30, 2024.
