Time Lapse

Time Lapse is a 2014 American indie sci-fi thriller directed by Bradley D. King and starring Danielle Panabaker, Matt O'Leary, and George Finn. King's directorial debut, it centers upon a group of friends who discover a machine that can take pictures of things 24 hours into the future, causing increasingly complex causal loops. It premiered on April 18, 2014 at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. Plot Finn (Matt O'Leary) is a painter with a creative block, who lives together with his girlfriend Callie (Danielle Panabaker) and his best friend Jasper (George Finn) in an apartment complex where Finn works as a manager. Because elderly tenant Mr. Bezzerides (informally called "Mr. B" by the protagonists) has not paid his rent in two months, Callie checks on him, and discovers a strange machine in his apartment that takes Polaroid photos of their living room's picture window—apparently 24 hours in the future, always at 8 pm, although Mr. B's photo display includes daytime photos and is missing some photos. The friends check Mr. B's storage unit and find his inexplicably charred corpse; he has apparently been dead for a week. Gambling addict Jasper pushes to use the machine to win bets but loses, and the next day's photo confirms they will do just that. It also shows that Finn has finally created a new painting; copying the work in the photo gets him past his block. Based on what happened to Mr. B and notes in his journal, they theorize that they have to make sure the events in the photos—whatever they may be—have to occur, or their timeline will stop, and they will therefore cease to be. Several days go by. The friends cover up Mr. B's disappearance, including lying to the complex security guard, Big Joe, claiming the old man is in the hospital. After a week they get a disturbing photo: Callie kissing Jasper, while Finn paints in the background. Feeling that they have to do what's in the photos, they pose at 8pm the following night. But the actual kiss goes on too long while Finn paints, and he gets angry and jealous. The next photo shows Jasper's violent bookie Ivan at the apartment. Not knowing why he would be there, Jasper calls him the next morning, saying he won't be making any bets that day. The call raises Ivan's suspicions and he visits Jasper that night, learning of the machine. Ivan forces the friends to now pose for the photos with many more event results for Ivan to make bets on.