Parents' Guide to Countdown

Despite a few mildly amusing scenes of comic relief, this horror movie offers little more than a set of ideas borrowed from other horror movies paired with flat, dull characters. To start, Countdown doesn't really even discuss the idea of whether we as humans would want to know the exact time of our own death; the characters simply download the app as if on a lark. Death doesn't mean much here, and the characters aren't very smart. The terror cooked up by writer-director Justin Dec consists mainly of jump scares or sudden, loud noises; it's more nerve-jangling than actually scary.

The techie (Tom Segura) and the priest (P.J. Byrne) offer a couple of laughs, but those end up feeling misplaced due to the seriousness and shallowness of the rest of the movie. The scariest moments -- usually involving mirrors or shadows -- are clearly copied from better movies. Even the main idea was better used in the Final Destination movies, which were almost existential in their simplicity, and the Ring series, which had a much clearer, more terrifying idea. Countdown actually comes closer to bad movies like Bedeviled (also about an evil app) and The Bye Bye Man, about curiosity leading to death. Like those, this movie will likely be forgotten, and that's something you can count on.