Flashback (15)

Flashback (15)

Director: Christopher MacBride

Runtime: 98 minutes

Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Maika Monroe, Hannah Gross, Emory Cohen, Keir Gilchrist, Amanda Brugel, Josh Cruddas, Sima Fisher, Aaron Poole, Liisa Repo-Martell

Synopsis: After a chance encounter with a man from his youth, Fred experiences terrifying flashbacks that send him on a wild journey into his past, where he begins to unravel a long-buried mystery about a missing girl. As his past, present and future begin to both intersect and parallel each other, Fred begins to question his entire reality and explore all of the possible lives he could lead.

URL: https://youtu.be/JMvJtpz4Bbk

Director/writer Christopher MacBride [The Conspiracy (2012) and Scout (in development)] brings us Flashback, an ambitious psychological thriller which mixes elements of science fiction and horror into a dramatic narrative.

Starring Dylan O’Brien [The Maze Runner franchise (2014-18)] as Fred and Maika Monroe [It Follows (2014)] as the mysterious Cindy, Flashback is a twisty brain-teaser.

Fred Fitzell (Dylan O’Brien) is a man on the precipice of adulthood. With a new corporate job, a long-time girlfriend, Karen [Hannah Gross – (Joker (2015)] pressuring him to define their future, and an ailing mother, Fred’s whole life changes when a chance encounter with a man from his youth, Sebastian [Emory Cohen – (Brooklyn (2015)] results in terrifying flashbacks that send him on a wild journey into his past. As he slowly attempts to piece together his fragmented recollections about taking an experimental drug called Mercury, his mind begins to unravel… What is the long-hidden mystery surrounding the missing girl, Cindy, and what is the terrifying creature that has been with him every step of the way?

With his past, present and future colliding, Fred begins to question his entire reality and explore all of the possible lives he could lead. Which one will he choose?

An engrossing and original take of themes of teenage angst and time travel and interesting concepts such as drug addiction, agency, accountability, reality versus maladaptive dreaming, memory, loss and love.

Thanks to a strong acting ensemble and an exceptional central performance from Dylan O’Brien, with brilliant cinematography by Brendan Steacy and an evocative score by Anthony Scott Burns (as Pilotpriest), all blend into a truly creative mindbender of a film.

Streaming on digital services.

Images courtesy of Vertigo Releasing.