Horror movie Countdown is a film that instantly gives me flashbacks to a scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall where Russell Brand, Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Jason Segel are discussing a film where cell phones can kill you.
Countdown is exactly that, an app on your phone that can predict your death and it’s not a gimmick.
It’s a real entity tracking down and killing all those who install it.
Whilst it’s hard to take it seriously this film does have its merits. It’s cheesy but it’s bold.
The premise is a social commentary on our reliance on technology and how we’re braindead as a society. So addicted to what we see on screens that we believe just about everything we read.
The film revolves around Quinn (Elizabeth Lail), a nurse who is looking after a patient who thinks he’s going to die because of an app he’s installed. Quinn not believing a word he says laughs it off. Not long later the patient dies at the exact time the app predicted.
Quinn had already downloaded the app herself and her time of death isn’t far behind.
With the help of a friend, she seeks to try and figure out how to prevent deaths icy grip from taking her life.
Relying on jump scares far too much makes the film a little predictable to the point where you can predict where the scares will come.
One scene and one scene alone thou, however, gave me physical chills. I
watch horror movies daily, for me to have chills is rare indeed but the morgue scene in Countdown got me good.
It was giving me Autopsy of Jane Doe flashbacks and it was seriously creeping me out!
As the film continues more characters are introduced and things get a little messy.
We get comedic relief from a mobile phone shop manager (Tom Segura) and a goofy demonologist (P.J. Byrne). But now we’ve entered horror-comedy territory and not the somewhat suspenseful but cheesy tone we’ve had up to this point.
Countdown gets more entertaining the more it goes on.
It becomes quirky and somewhat immersive. We know their death is predicted so this in some way almost prevents us from being scared. It rids every scene of the tension it’s trying to build.
We know nothing is going to happen to these characters until the app says so.
I felt this was the main limitation of the storyline.
Everything is pre-planned and being displayed for us frequently thus dampening the horror element of the movie.
Overall
If I’ve learned anything from watching Countdown it’s to always remember to read the terms of service before downloading an app.
You seriously have no idea what you’re signing up to!
Countdown film Review by Sean Evans
Rating
Summary
A film of two halves that already has me divided and jump scares aplenty doesn’t make Countdown scary it makes it as predictable and inevitable as the Countdown clock itself.
