“COUNTDOWN” — 3/4 stars — Elizabeth Lail, Jordan Calloway, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Peter Facinelli, Anne Winters; PG-13 (terror, violence, bloody images, suggestive material, language and thematic elements); in general release; running time: 90 minutes.
“Countdown” has its flaws, but this little metaphor for our times has enough fun with a clever premise to make for a solid Halloween option for those seeking something edgy.
Justin Dec’s film tells the story of a mysterious smartphone app that tells you when you are going to die, then unleashes vengeance on anyone who tries to outsmart it.
“Countdown” jumps in right away with a group of teens who download the titular app at a party. Then, after returning home, a girl named Courtney (Anne Winters) is murdered by unseen forces at the same time her boyfriend Evan (Dillon Lane) crashes his SUV into a tree.
Evan winds up in the hospital, where we meet our protagonist, brand-new registered nurse Quinn (Elizabeth Lail). Evan tells Quinn about the app, explaining that Courtney refused a ride home shortly before the crash. The same unseen forces claim him when he skips out on his surgery. Intrigued, Quinn winds up downloading the app, and discovers that she too is short on time.
It isn’t like Quinn needs additional problems. She’s still mourning the recent loss of her mother and has a strained relationship with her father and kid sister Jordan (Talitha Bateman). To make matters worse, a doctor at her hospital (Peter Facinelli) has been making increasing advances, and gets aggressive about the same time the death app tells her she has two days to live.
After canceling a planned weekend trip with her dad and Jordan, Quinn gets an eerie notification from the app, indicating that she has broken her user agreement. Right away, just as with the previous victims, she starts getting stalked by haunting forces that seem determined to torment whatever time she has left.
With the help of an eccentric priest (P.J. Byrne), Quinn and the similarly doomed Matt (Jordan Calloway) put together a bit more of the puzzle. The only question is whether they will solve it in time. To make matters worse, Jordan’s timer is set to hit zero three minutes before her big sister.
There are some really fun pieces in place here, and the director Dec does an excellent job of building tension with pacing and interesting visuals. There’s also a nice sense of humor at work, thanks to an amusing tech geek character named Derek (Tom Segura), or in subtle details like seeing the figure of death show up on a car’s backup camera.
All the plot aside, it’s important to note that “Countdown’s” tied-to-our-phones metaphor is spot on. The film constantly shows the characters checking their phones, wondering when they’re going to pass away. In today’s world, we’re doing the same thing — always looking at our phones, wondering when the next like or notifications will come sliding through. We’re attached to our phones as though they are life or death. In “Countdown,” that literally becomes the case.
Still, Dec also has an unfortunate tendency to rely on jump scares and loud soundtrack noises to provide frights, where just allowing the film to breathe would use its natural creepiness to its advantage. The third act gets the story across the finish line in one piece, but also feels a little overcooked, and the tease for a sequel just feels obligatory.
Like a lot of horror films, “Countdown” has just enough positives and potential to leave you wishing it were a little better. It’s far beyond the quality of deeply flawed efforts like last year’s “Truth or Dare,” but well short of superior horror outings like “Get Out” or “A Quiet Place.”
If you’re looking for a few good scares that push the PG-13 boundary without breaking it, “Countdown” has fun with its clever premise. It might seem quaint in a decade or so, but as a product of its time — and a comment on that time — you could do a lot worse.
Rating explained: “Countdown” is rated PG-13 for scattered profanity, some jarring violence and frequent terrifying moments.