“Countdown” wants to be a horror film about a mobile app that tells users when they will die. It is not. It is a film about a mobile app that tells users when they will die, and it cannot decide whether it is a teen slasher, a tech thriller, or a possession drama. The result is a movie that runs 90 minutes and wastes most of them.
Trailer, via STXfilms.
Quinn’s App
Elizabeth Lail plays Quinn Harris, a nurse who downloads the app after a patient named Evan skips his surgery. The app says she has only two days left to live. She ignores the notification. The app says she has broken the user agreement. She runs home.
The premise is simple and cruel. A timer is attached to a person, and the app watches them. The film does not question why the app exists or who built it. It just hands Quinn a phone and watches her panic.
Evan’s Crash
Evan is played by Dillon Lane. He crashes his car at the same moment Quinn receives her first warning. Courtney, his girlfriend, is killed by an unseen entity as her timer reaches zero. Quinn finds Evan’s phone in the morgue. The app reads zero.
This is the film’s best idea. A timer that belongs to a dead person. The app knows when you die before you do. It just does not know how to say it.
Matt and Jordan
Jordan Calloway plays Matt Monroe, a young man Quinn meets at a phone store. Talitha Bateman plays Jordan Harris, Quinn’s younger sister. Together they try to stop the demon Ozhin, which Quinn’s app has brought into her life.
The film explains the demon with a father figure named Father John, played by P.J. Byrne. Father John is a demon enthusiast who tries to help Quinn, Matt, and Jordan face Ozhin. The film does not explain why the app works, only that it does.
The Stairwell
Evan skips his surgery and is told he has violated the user agreement. He tries to escape the hospital and is killed by the entity in a stairwell, where he sees an apparition of Courtney.
A Demonic Figure
Quinn is attacked by a demonic figure in the parking lot of the phone store. She meets Matt, who has his own Countdown app. The two team up to defeat Ozhin, the demon that Quinn’s app has brought into her life.
A New Phone, A New App
Quinn tries to buy a new phone. The app downloads itself onto it. The film’s central mechanic is a timer that cannot be removed. The app follows its user wherever she goes. This should be terrifying. It is not.
The film’s failure is not its premise. The premise is fine. The failure is its execution. The timer is a gimmick, not a story. It is a counting-down clock that tells you when you will die, and the film does not know what to do with that information.
The Verdict
“Countdown” fails completely. It fails of premise, of execution, of ambition. It is a film about a mobile app that tells users when they will die, and it cannot figure out what to do with that idea.
The film is not scary. It is not clever. It is not well made. It is a film about a mobile app that tells users when they will die, and it thinks that is enough.
The film’s ambition is small. It wants to be a horror film about technology. It is not a horror film about technology. It is a horror film that uses technology as a prop.
The Score
“Countdown” is a failure. It is a failure of premise, of execution, of ambition. It is a film about a mobile app that tells users when they will die, and it cannot figure out what to do with that idea.
- Runtime: 90 minutes
- Director: Justin Dec
- Written by: Justin Dec
- Worldwide gross: $48 million
- Budget: $6.5 million
- Score: not specified
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