Time Lapse (2014)

Three young folks head over to check on their neighbour, only to find his apartment empty and a large camera pointing towards their own living room. The walls are adorned with photos of their place, which is more than a little strange. What's even stranger is that they eventually realise that the photos, which are always taken at the same time, show the future. This could be a great thing. All they need to do, for example, is stand at their window with a paper showing the race results. They will then have that information on the morning of the races, allowing them to place bets and win lots of money. But, as is always the case with looking into the future, things start to get tricky when the photographs show something that they don't like the look of.

Starring Danielle Panabaker, Matt O'Leary and George Finn, this is a passable enough slice of sci-fi horror, although it's never quite interesting enough for sci-fi fans and never quite intense/svcary enough for horror fans. Others have mentioned that it's quite reminiscent of "Say Cheese And Die", a Goosebumps tale, and they have a point. But this is a concept that has been used many times before, and it's full of potential that this film doesn't really tap into.

Bradley King directed, and he also co-wrote the screenplay with Bp Cooper, so he would seem to be the man to blame. There are a number of small failings at every step, building up in a way that drags the whole movie down a few notches.

First point - the casting isn't great. I've warmed to Panabaker over the years, I guess, but still can't ever really see why she's picked for certain roles (attractiveness aside). O'Leary doesn't make an impression at all, and Finn is stuck with

Second point - some bad writing that never really gives us cause to root for the main characters. None of them seem like good people, and when they quickly allow the photos to start dictating their actions, leading to an interesting cause and effect conundrum never given due attention, it just becomes asier to dislike them. Which adds to the

Third point - lack of tension throughout. This is also caused by the use of the photos. If we have already seen what's going to happen then all we're waiting for is how it happens. This wouldn't have been a problem if there had been more time given to that aforementioned cause and effect conundrum, but there wasn't.

Yet the premise is enough to make this relatively enjoyable. It's the kind of situation that we can all dream about. We wonder what we would do in the same situation. And I suspect that many of those wonderings could end up better than this.

6/10

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