Film Review: Countdown

Countdown, in case you haven’t heard anything about it, is quite a silly little picture. It’s about a group of characters coming to realize that an app they downloaded – which claims that it will predict and countdown to their death to the second – is real, and not only is it real, but the ones with a time that is a little too close for comfort are actively being sought out by something a supernatural force that seems to be out to get them. And no matter what they seem to do to avoid danger as the timer hits zero, they can’t seem to escape their fate. So…yes, it’s a very silly premise, even by the standards you’d expect from one of these disposable PG-13 horror films.

However, for a solid chunk of the movie, it seems to be aware of its silliness. It’s actively playful, and it doesn’t take things too seriously. At times, it will tonally transform into a full blown comedy. It’s at these moments where the film truly flirts with the potential of being pretty good. Not great, by any means, but good and fun. And for the most part, I did have fun with Countdown. At the very least, it does not commit the sin of being a boring movie. It is anything but, for better or for worse.

It helps that the main plot, while ludicrous, moves at a fast enough clip, and remains engaging through the performances, particularly from our lead, Elizabeth Lail, who plays Quinn, a nurse who downloads the app out of morbid curiosity, only to find that she only appears to have a couple days left to live. Lail is a solid screen presence that is able to give some emotional heft to dopey material, especially when it comes to her relationship with her little sister, Jordan (Talitha Bateman), which has been a bit strained due to the recent passing of their mother. Another character, Matt (Jordan Calloway), is awkwardly introduced as a second lead about halfway through, but forms a bond with Quinn as they both deal with a countdown ending soon.

Like many of these kinds of throwaway studio horror films, it’s largely a jump scare fest with little going on under the surface. The scares are done in a very broad way, and don’t tap into anything meaningful despite the premise inviting some insight. Even as a basic “our obsessions with cell phones are killing us” metaphor, it’s pretty limp, and writer/director, Justin Dec, doesn’t seem remotely interested in exploring our relationship with technology in any interesting way. I can’t say the theming is hackneyed because frankly, it didn’t even really try.

Thankfully, it’s through these comedic digressions where the film really comes to life. Around halfway through we meet a couple characters who make a pretty big impression. One being a cocky cell phone shop owner played by Tom Segura, and an excitable priest played by P.J. Byrne, who is perhaps a little too eager to catch him some demons. I enjoyed the energy these guys brought to the movie, and I wished the whole movie operated on their vibe, tackling familiar horror elements through humor, similar to the way the first Happy Death Day did its thing.

The scares in the film rely largely on the jump scares, most of them being telegraphed a mile away. Though, there are two moments that genuinely creeped me out. The thing that is pursuing our characters is shown, and the design, while not super inspired, is unsettling and intimidating. The violence doesn’t feel like it was being watered down by the PG-13 rating, but it is a missed opportunity to do something interesting with the death scenes.

Countdown isn’t a film I would necessarily recommend, but if circumstances have put you in a situation where you would have to sit down and watch it for one reason or another, it’s totally doable, and in fact, with the right crowd, you might even have fun with it. For a number of portions, the film comes close to being a good movie, but at the end of the day, it’s just kinda mediocre. There is a notion explored in how the characters have to overcome their situation by learning to move on from some kind of guilt they hold from the past. It’s not as thoroughly explored on the page as it could have been, but the performances manage to sell it better than I would expect from a film like this. It’s not a total waste at all. It’s a reasonably amusing way to kill some time, which seems appropriate enough.