Time travel movies are a common occurrence, so much so that it takes something pretty special to break out of the pack and establish a reputation for itself as one of the greats. While 2017’s Time Trap admittedly isn’t one of them, it’s an entertaining and sorely underappreciated gem that delivers breakneck fun throughout its rapid 95-minute running time.

Recommended Videos

Writer Mark Dennis, who also co-directs alongside Ben Foster, craft a unique mythology that takes everything audiences have taken for granted about the subgenre and spins it into something fresh and self-contained, with the vast majority of the story unfolding in a cavernous subterranean tunnel system.

When an intrepid professor goes missing after heading out in search of a missing group of hippies in the 1970s, his students decide to try and locate him themselves, only to be drawn into a game of temporal mischief that spans centuries, upends everything they thought they knew about the established rules of the universe, and throws some life-or-death scenarios into the mix for good measure.

Respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 62 and 64 percent from critics and audiences hint that Time Trap is an above-average exercise in messing with the fabric of time, and it’s one that’s been playing like gangbusters on Netflix this week. Per FlixPatrol, the film is within touching distance of the streaming service’s worldwide Top 20, and it’s definitely worth tracking down if a group of characters getting a great deal more than they bargained for when trying to bend existence to their will is up your street.