Review: 6:45

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

6:45
Directed by Craig Singer
Storyboard Media; Cascrater Film and Media; Well Go USA Entertainment
96 minutes, 2021
www.645movie.com/
www.facebook.com/645movie/

Wow, there are a lot of films in the past few years where the day repeats over and over, each time with different results, such as one I recently reviewed from Serbia called Incarnation. 

The title of this film refers to a digital (flip) bedside clock that announces the time to re-awaken, at 6:45 AM. This particular clock is in a Bed and Breakfast on an island accessible only by ferry, where a lusty couple, Jules (Augie Duke, who has a Deborah Walley/Donna Pescow vibe) and Bobby (Michael Reed), have come for a long weekend getaway. Bobby has a history on the island, but does not remember much.

The island setting for the film is actually the Jersey Shore, including Ocean Grove, Asbury Park, and Seaside Heights. Thanks to some creative filmmaking, it feels like an island, with the Atlantic Ocean filling in for the body of water supposedly surrounding the locale. There is, however, a nice nod to the location when one of the characters smokes a brand called “Jersey.”

The owner of the place is the smarmy and disturbing Gene (Armen Garo), who creepily listens at the couple’s door while they, well, knock boots. This is a beautiful house among many others packed in together, rather than a middle-of-nowhere cabin, which is refreshing, relatively speaking (isolated cabins are more of a worn tale than repeating days).

Despite all the woo-hooing between them, this is a couple with some issues. Bobby is a bit of a hothead and lothario, and Jules has a deep resentment of him due to a past indiscretion. This causes them to intermittently have tension and being loving.

But the tagline for the film is “Vacation. Die. Repeat,” so it should come to no surprise that at the end of the day, there is no good coming. After a tour of the town, including a stop at a bar where they exchange words with a drunken woman, Brooklyn (Sasha K. Gordon), our intrepid couple meet a grisly demise at the hands of a cowled assassin (Joshua Matthew Smith). That is until it is suddenly 6:45 AM the same day (you saw that coming, I am assuming).

In Final Destination mode, Bobby remembers what happened as a possible dream, and events aren’t exactly the same as things are worded differently in conversations (e.g., in the first, Bobby complains about the bathroom, in the second, Gene mentions the bathroom first). Jules, on the other hand, does not remember anything, which is a bit confusing. Gene tells of a similar murder to the one Bobby and Jules experienced in the first incarnation a couple of years before (during the second 6:45 around). To me, this set up some ideas of the direction of the film and where it may go. I hope I’m wrong since I’m only 30 minutes in, and have lots more 6:45’s to go.

As is the case, each iteration gives more clues, more details to help Bobby possibly avoid a horrible fate for him and Jules. Is it a dream within a dream? A memory before death, as in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”? Ghosts like The Others? Fan mail from some flounder? Or perhaps it is something totally different. It has me curious. Especially why he knows, and she does not, since they are both involved.

One of the aspects of the film that I find intriguing is each 6:45 has shadows of the previous ones, but the more times it repeats, the further in the outfield it goes, with some actors playing different people at some point.

While Bobby is trying to figure out the mystery and Jules is annoyed at his behavior as he does, there seem to be others who have some idea what is going on, both giving clues and making it more confusing for everyone watching. Oh, and Bobby, too. Not even halfway through, and I am really curious for some solutions I am guessing will start coming and making more of an impact in the third act. One thing I can definitively say is that each time is bloodier. In fact, by some of the last scenes, the film has moments that are nothing less than gruesome in the context of the story.

Most films with the time repeating theme have subtle supernatural elements (like Groundhog Day), but this one has both feet in the psychological genre as we explore the relationship between Bobby and Jules. I figured out the ending a bit late in the game, and it was well worth the wait.

The two leads are incredibly solid in the acting department. I have been a fan of Reed since The Disco Exorcist (2011), and this role is reminiscent of Normal (2013). He can be an intense actor, as he is here, with Bobby taking the viewer down a road of angst and alcoholism. Duke more than holds her own as they have fine chemistry, and are a believable couple, even with the other dynamics that are swirling around them. There are also a couple of interesting cameos by rappers/actors Remy Ma and The 45 King

The Jersey scenery is beautiful, and with events occurring numerous times, we get to see some detail surrounding the area. But man, it looked cold (I’m guessing early spring before tourist season) as the wind whips around them on the beaches and in other open spaces. While the camerawork by Lucas Pitassi is fluid and occasionally imaginative, it’s the editing by Sam Adelman that caught my attention. This includes some interesting split screen shots that are peppered through a few of the incarnations, perhaps indicating the fracturing of the relationship, or of a personality.

This is the kind of movie that it may be a good idea to watch twice, to see all the missed clues that possibly went over the audience’s heads the first time. Luckily, the film holds up under multiple views.

IMBD Listing HERE