Spoiler-y review of Countdown (2019)
When I first saw the trailer for Countdown, I'm not gonna lie. It looked like every other run of the mill teenage slasher movie. And after seeing it in theaters I... was mostly right. But not completely!
The movie is about a young nurse (Elizabeth Lail) who downloads an app that supposedly predicts the timing of your death after her teenage patient tells her it predicted his girlfriend's death. After she downloads it, she finds out she is supposed to die in two days, when she is scheduled to visit her mother's grave with her father and sister. She cancels these plans, and the app tells her she has broken the user agreement. After that, it's a race against time to stop the clock and stay alive.
Now, let's get this out of the way right now: this is not a groundbreaking film. It doesn't really do anything new, and it's filled with jumpscares. There are moments where it doesn't make sense, as well. Two of our main characters have a conversation about why they downloaded the app- what made them curious about their own deaths? They both talk about losing loved ones through traumatic events and the like. But honestly, it feels like just a tool to give the characters tragic backstories. Who WOULDN'T be curious about when they would die? Very few of us would resist downloading that app, especially if we didn't believe it was real.
Besides the shortcomings, a demon using an app to find victims? Like Hell's version of Tinder? That's the sort of ish I'm into. And I won't lie, some of the jumpscares definitely got me. It also doesn't hurt that our protagonist is pretty smart, which is few and far between in the horror genre.
The acting leaves something to be desired, which isn't surprising, but I particularly enjoyed Tom Segura's portrayal of an incredibly rude electronics store manager. As someone who has worked retail, it's a beautiful thing.
Overall, the movie is pretty predictable, but it's fun. If you're feeling the post-Halloween blues, go see Countdown. There's not much weight to it, but it's a good spooky popcorn movie you can enjoy with a few friends.
Final assessment: 6.5/10
