When a group of friends download an app that determines their death to the exact second and punishes those who attempt to change their fate actually exists, they encounter a dark secret that affects their lives — an app called Countdown.
In the opening scene of the movie “A Countdown to the End,” a table of thrill-seeking teenagers all download the app in good fun, when Courtney, played by Anne Winters, finds that her life would end in a few short hours. She refused a ride from her drunken boyfriend and decided to walk home, only to fill her last hours of life with brief moments of horror — as the mysterious man watched her on the street, and unidentified noises came from her home. When Courtney became overwhelmed with the anxious feeling of death approaching, an evil spirit pulled her into her bathroom ceiling and abruptly ended her life in perfect time with the app. She wouldn’t have undergone such intense torture if she’d just accepted the ride from her boyfriend Evan (Dillon Lane), and taken the death she was intended to see when he wrecked his car as she’d anticipated.
Evan visits the hospital where he’s told he needs surgery but doesn’t believe he’d survive it because of the app. When he tried to run, he saw a ghost of Courtney that brutally murdered him, again in time with the app.
When Nurse Quinn (Elizabeth Lail) downloads Countdown, she does everything in her power to identify the curse and break it before her time runs out as the app grows in popularity, and more people experience torturous deaths. While people who believe in the app came hard to find, she came across Matt Monroe (Jordan Calloway) who joined her mission and swiftly fell in love with her. Father John (P. J. Byrne), the Hospital’s night shift priest also helps them out by further educating Matt, Quinn and her little sister Jordan (Talitha Bateman) on demons and spells, and how to escape them once they’d been relentlessly placed under them by the app’s user agreement.
I won’t spoil the ending, but what I enjoyed most about the movie was the perplexing detail put into each scene. While the majority of the film’s purpose was to break a curse, viewers could experience a higher level of thinking that involves the complexity of spirits and the dark sides of the medical industry. However, while very well written, the plots were all over the place and I found it difficult to keep up with everything that happened.
The overall casting and production were very well thought out because most of the actors fit their roles seamlessly. The best character would be Quinn for her clear displays of emotion through every scene that depicted heartbreak, sadness and plain fear. Matt came in as a close second with fewer scenes but still stellar execution.
I believe the moral of the story was to value every moment of life as it could end any second. I would recommend this movie to any venturesome young adult who is not afraid of a little horror. I would rate the film four out of five stars.
