12 Amazing Premises Wasted On Underwhelming Horror Films

Premise: An app which tells you how long you have before you die starts appearing on people's phones.

The idea of a killer app was a very strong one, so it's a shame that it was wasted in one of 2019's worst horror films.

Idiotic, unscary, poorly made and thoroughly dull, this one is basically exactly like all those terrible studio horror films we got all the time in the 2000s: a PG-13 jump scare-a-thon with no subtext, tension or atmosphere.

The main idea is completely mishandled as well, since the villain behind the app is a silly demon and the entire thing is impossible to take seriously. What makes the inadequacy of Countdown even more frustrating is that there were two potential easy fixes.

Firstly, it could've tapped into the wacky nature of the story and been done as a horror comedy; after all, Countdown's biggest asset was that it was actually quite funny at times, so it could've played to this strength.

Secondly, if it was to be done as a straight horror, it should've had a human villain and gone down the slasher route; that would've worked far better. Alas, it wasn't to be.