Everyday we download apps mostly to our smart phones. There have been movies on the subject like “Happy Death Day” to just name one for space restraints. In the latest ‘app’ horror/thriller “Countdown” written and directed by Justin Dec about a young nurse and students are sitting around in the hospital when one discovers an app to countdown how much time you have left on you life clock. This opening sequence takes place literally one minute into the 90 minute movie when each other accept the “terms of agreement” after downloading the death app.
Quinn Harris (Elizabeth Lail) is a young nurse and older sister to Jordan (Talitha Eliana Bateman) with the shortest time left on her countdown. All involved, and there are a lot, must race against time (pun intended) to figure out who is stalking her and why. She consults a priest (P.J. Byrne) for help who is just thrilled for a chance at demons with some humorous lines followed up by taking her phone to a store phone tech (Tom Segura) to “jailbreak” the device who is excited to just hack a phone. There she meets another victim of the download (Jordan Calloway) in the same senerio. Their friends are dropping like flies since the download even though they can’t decide if it’s all related. These three guys are scene stealers which makes this bad movie so good.
This film is mostly made up of scares by bloody images with creepy background music and with Justin at the helm this cheesy psychological horror/thriller works. When this great concept story goes the sexual route it gets seriously fun, twisted and revengeful even though the frights were over kill. Oops! Every now and again a movie will sneak up on you and scare the popcorn right out of you until you eventually uncover your eyes because the outcome of the movie or that particular scene must be known. This is the best fright movie of the year thus far but comes crumbling down in the end. Will you download the app? You know there will be a sequel. See it everywhere October 25, if you have time. 4 stars (out of 5)
