HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Seconds Apart'' is a 2011 American
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
directed by Antonio Negret and starring
Orlando Jones Orlando Jones (born April 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is known for being one of the original cast members of the sketch comedy series ''MADtv'', for his role as the 7 Up spokesman from 1999 to 2002, and for his role a ...
, Edmund Entin, and Gary Entin.


Plot

Four friends are seen at a high school house party drinking and gossiping in a private room. Their fun is cut short when a pair of identical twin brothers - classmates of the friends - enter the room with a video camera. The twins force the friends to play Russian roulette, the game ending only when all four friends are dead. The next day, Detective Lampkin launches an investigation. He interviews classmates of the dead boys, and one student named Katie mentions having seen the twins, Jonah and Seth Trimble, at the party. It is revealed that the twins had once forced Katie to have sex with another boy on camera. Lampkin summons the twins for interrogation, but they maintain their innocence. It is also revealed that Lampkin is a haunted man, traumatized by his inability to save his beloved wife from a house fire. The twins torture their Headmaster for the name of the person who told Lampkin that they were at the party; they eventually force their Headmaster through telepathy to stab himself to death, after making him painfully pull out an artery. They then force Katie to kill herself as well, and then a pedophile whom they meet at a park. Lampkin deduces that the twins possess telepathic powers, and in his search for a cause, he learns that their mother had submitted herself to experimentation at a fertility clinic in order to get pregnant with the twins. Meanwhile, Jonah falls in love with another student named Eve. As Jonah grows closer to Eve, he pulls away from Seth, finally telling Seth that he wants nothing more to do with the mysterious "project" that they have been conducting. In anger, Seth impersonates Jonah and has sex with Eve to "prove" that Eve cannot tell them apart and therefore must not really be in love with Jonah. The twins brawl at school. Jonah goes home, only to be confronted by Lampkin. Seth returns home shortly after, and it is suddenly revealed that their parents are disfigured and their house is in ruins; as children, the twins forced their parents, who had become suspicious of the twins, to stab each other in the face. Although he had been compliant until now in their charades, Jonah decides that he no longer wants to force people to hurt themselves. After knocking out Lampkin, Seth attacks Jonah and sets the house on fire. Eve shows up to the house and tries to intervene by shooting Seth in the leg. She flees upstairs, but Seth follows and chokes her. Jonah rescues Eve; as Jonah and Seth struggle, the burning floor gives way and the twins fall through onto the dining room table. Lampkin wakes up and saves Eve from the fire; although he dies from his burns, it is insinuated that Lampkin has redeemed himself for the death of his wife. The twins lie paralyzed on the dining room table as the house burns around them. Understanding that they will die, the twins finally experience fear for the first time - the ultimate goal of their "project".


Cast


Production

Director Anton Negret was brought in to direct the film after the company After Dark Films saw his earlier film, ''Towards Darkness''. They sent him several scripts, one of which was ''Seconds Apart''. Negret stated that the script was "original, fresh and I was surprised by how twisted it was." Twin actors Edmund and Gary Entin were hired to portray the movie's central characters, Jonah and Seth Trimble. Negret wanted to avoid having a single actor play both roles and was familiar with the Entins after seeing them in the ''
Rest Stop A rest area is a public facility located next to a large thoroughfare such as a motorway, expressway, or highway, at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary roads. Other names include motorway servi ...
'' movies. Orlando Jones was also brought in to portray Detective Lampkin.


Reception

Dennis Harvey of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it a jumbled film with "some visual panache". R. L. Shaffer of
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
declared the best of the ''After Dark Originals'' DVD collection while noting "there's not much particularly original about this morbid tale, which plays like a
Dean Koontz Dean Ray Koontz (born July 9, 1945) is an American author. His novels are billed as suspense thrillers, but frequently incorporate elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and satire. Many of his books have appeared on ''The New Y ...
adaptation." as well as noting the film being derivative of
David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation ...
's ''
Scanners ''Scanners'' is a 1981 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual telepathic ...
''. Patrick Douglas wrote in ''
Great Falls Tribune The ''Great Falls Tribune'' is a daily morning newspaper printed in Helena, Montana. It is one of Montana's largest newspaper companies. History The first edition of the newspaper then called the ''Weekly Tribune'' was printed on May 14, 188 ...
'' that the film was "just different enough to stand out from the pack".


References


External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, seconds_apart 2011 films 2011 horror films American horror films Films about telepathy 2010s English-language films Films directed by Antonio Negret 2010s American films