Freak Show : Movie Review : Time Lapse (2014)

Time Lapse : Never mess with Time

Director : Bradley D. King
Starring : Danielle Panabaker, Matt O'Leary, George Finn
Studio : Uncooperative Pictures, Veritas Productions
Release Date : April 18, 2014 (BIFFF)

Plot : A group of friends discovers a machine that takes photos of events from the future, and soon faces the danger it imposes.

I'm not really fond of sci-fi movies but there are some movies that really make an exception. And one of the best films from this genre is this little movie called Time Lapse (2014).

When I first saw this film on Imdb.com, the first thing that really caught my attention about it was seeing Danielle Panabaker's face and name in the poster. I'm not a big fan of her but I liked her. I've seen her in a lot of horror films before (which I've just realized now). She's been chased by Jason Vorhees in the remake of Friday The 13th (2009), running from toxin-infected townspeople in The Crazies (2010) and fighting mother-fucking piranhas infesting their waterpark in Piranha 3DD (2012). Then, I read the description of the film and found it to be interesting. So when I saw a copy of this film, I immediately grabbed it and watched it. And I wasn't disappointed. It was just amazing.

Let me tell you why...

The Storyline
The best thing about this film is it's unique storyline. We've seen a lot of sci-fi flicks about time travel. But this one is different. Instead of the characters jumping into the future, they are just being given a photo of them in the future, specifically 24 hours from now. In this way, they will know what will happen to them soon. Which makes it more unique and stand out from the rest.

The characters then try to manipulate time by using the photos to their advantages, most specifically knowing what are the winning bets in the racing game the following day. Soon, things get more complicated as they are forced to do things, even if it's against their will, just to comply to what they saw in the photos that will happened in the future.
I mean, the concept is just amazing. And I must commend Bradley D King and BP Cooper for coming up with this great idea.

The Characters are not flat

Another good thing about this movie are it's characters. The movie really took a lot of time in fleshing out it's characters, making them more realistic. The actions that they were taking were not dumb. That's probably the same thing that I would have done. Well, at first. I'd use the machine to get some money then stop to prevent myself from being overcome by greed.
I also liked the fact that the characters themselves switched their personas later on and were revealed to have some other intentions.

The Pay-off blew me away

There's also another thing that I liked about this Sci-fi thriller. The twist.
The revelation about one of the characters manipulating everything all throughout the movie. That was totally unexpected and I was caught off guard. I never had any idea that there's more to what's happening on screen. It was just genius.

The bleak ending
I do love happily ever after endings in horror films, but there are times that I really prefer a tragic ending. Sometimes it works, like the tragic ending of Frank Darabont's adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist wherein the protagonist decided to end the life of his child and the rest of their group, thinking that they're all gonna die anyway in the hands (or claws and tentacles) of the monsters that have invaded their town, only to find out that they were just seconds away from being rescued by the military. That was one of the best movie endings I've seen in a while. But sometimes it just makes you feel like you were cheated. Like the ending was forced into the movie to open up opportunities for more sequels.
And a bleak ending turned out to be the best way to wrap up the whole story of Time Lapse. The ending of the film is actually a result of the revelation or the twist of the movie. It totally worked because I already thought that everything was going to be back to normal again because of what one of the characters has revealed earlier. But then, shit happens. And everything changed unexpectedly that until the last minute of the film, I was still praying that everything would turn out okay. It was just damn tragic and I really felt bad for the character.
Of course, I wouldn't want to spoil the rest of the details but I'm telling you, it's just so sad.

What I dont like...
The only fly in the ointment I guess was the film's pace. I dont know but I felt like the film was moving fast from the start up until the characters started using the machine for their own purpose. But after someone else discovers their secret and things became troublesome for them, everything else in the film started to feel slow.
But that's just a small thing since the pay-off in the end was just so good that I eventually forgot about the problem with the pacing.

Final Verdict
Aside from my problem with the pacing, everything else in this movie is just so good.
I just loved how things gone awry for the characters in this film. I mean, you basically liked all the characters so when things started to fall apart for them, you will also feel bad for them. This is one thing that most genre films are missing right now. They dont have any likable characters so when bad things started happening to the protagonists, you dont give a fuck.

In addition to that, the concept was also genius. And the movie's twist and ending just blew me away.