Death Wireless: "Countdown" a tech-horror throwaway that's more dopey than scary but could have been worse

Countdown (2019)

90 min.

Release Date: October 25, 2019 (Wide)

What if there was an app on your phone that could tell you the precise time you would die? Cheating a timed death without knowing how it will happen calls to mind 2000’s “Final Destination,” 2002’s “The Ring,” even 2008’s awful “One Missed Call,” and 2017's "Happy Death Day," but it is also the premise of throwaway PG-13 tech-horror film “Countdown.” Debuting writer-director Justin Dec has an enticing hook, even if it’s in the service of a dopey script and cheap jump scares. It cannot be taken seriously enough to be scary and fails to make one genuinely fearful for the characters when their time is up, but there are times where “Countdown” lets the viewer laugh with it rather than at it.

After a teenage couple downloads an app called Countdown, which predicts down to the exact second when the user will die, and then mysteriously dies, curiosity forces registered nurse Quinn Harris (Elizabeth Lail) to get the app as a lark and see what the fuss is all about. Then, sure enough, Quinn discovers that she will have to cancel her weekend plans because she only has two days to live. Doing all she can to delete the app and destroy her phone once visions of something evil begin haunting her, Quinn goes to buy a new phone that automatically downloads Countdown and meets Matt (Jordan Calloway), who shares a short lifespan with Quinn, as well as her younger sister, Jordan (Talitha Bateman). Can they beat the demon that’s behind the app?

“Countdown” is a would-be frightfest that almost works more successfully as an amusing cautionary tale on phone users ignoring the user agreement of a cell phone application. The setup is actually creepy, as 17-year-old Courtney (Anne Winters) gives in to peer pressure and downloads Countdown; all of her friends seem to have plenty of years left, but her countdown says she only has a couple of hours to live, and while she wisely resists taking a ride home from her drunk boyfriend Evan (Dillon Lane), Courtney meets her inevitable fate in a freak accident. Later on, there’s also some nerve-jangling tension involving a pesky motion-sensor nightlight that just keeps turning on, but that is the extent of it.

Elizabeth Lail (Netflix’s “You”), who uncannily resembles Emily VanCamp, makes Quinn an acceptable protagonist to follow. The script has the decency to develop Quinn and give her a well-rounded life besides being next up on the chopping block. What it doesn’t do right is clumsily tack on a sexual harassment subplot for the Time’s Up movement involving Quinn’s predatory boss, Dr. Sullivan (Peter Facinelli). Tom Segura (2018's "Instant Family") and P.J. Byrne (2018's "Rampage") are the film's two lifesavers when it comes to comic relief, respectively playing a wisecracking cell phone store employee and a crucifix-tatted priest with knowledge in demonology. Their live-wire shtick might seem to come from a tonally different movie, but the two of them—wisely never in the same scene—are surprisingly funny. 

Writer-director Justin Dec does make nods to 1932’s “Freaks” and 1980’s “The Shining,” and he luckily leaves out the exposition of how a demon can design the coding for an app. As a horror film, though, all Dec really has in the way of scares are of the something-popping-out-to-make-you-jump variety. Imagery of Grim Reapers in hospital convex mirrors and car back-up cameras is spooky, but once you get a good look at the snarling demons, they look like generic CG creations. The rules of the app also get a little messy in the third act when a character merely goes on a hunch that killing someone who’s predicted to have more years under his belt will solve the problem. If nothing else, “Countdown” is certainly better than some other recent PG-13 horror movies—2016’s “The Darkness,” 2017’s “The Bye Bye Man,” and 2018’s "Blumhouse's Truth or Dare" and “Slender Man”—but it’s still slim pickings for theatrically released Halloween offerings.

Grade: C