Timecrimes is a film that came out of nowhere and surprised me with an extremely intelligent script. Finally something that we can actually sit back and enjoy for more than just an extreme amount of violence and gore. This is really much more than that and even when the film is over you will want to watch it again just to piece together the puzzle. This movie is the equivalent of the sci fi version of Saw. That is the best way to describe the film to someone. It has the potential to become a big franchise and I think it will easily achieve that.

The story is one that is hard to describe without ruining it for you. Basically a man is being stalked by someone in a pink bandage. As he tries to escape he finds a man in a distant building who tells him to jump inside an odd looking machine to hide from the stalker. He jumps inside the machine and wakes up the next morning only to discover he has traveled back in time! Now he must lay low and not run into himself or he may cause irreconcilable damage.

Director Nacho Vigalondo did a great job of hiring the right actors for the job. The main character, Hector, is played by Karra Elejalde. Now what makes this casting choice appealing to me is that this is not the guy you will see doing underwear ads over in Italy. This is your average, balding, blue collar working type that you can identify with or at the very least have some sense of connection with. He creates a great bumbling character who is trying his hardest not to mess up time forever by causing some kind of "butterfly effect".

Here is where I must talk about the engaging, inventive, and very intelligent script. When dealing with things like time travel and other sci fi elements you run the risk of making the film to smart. Or making everything a little too complex for the audience you are targeting. But instead he doesn't get into the details and jumps into the human element of the story. You don't need to concern yourself with how the machine works.. it just does and it is executed perfectly here. Some regular joes just happen to fool around with it in the course of one day and the shit hits the fan.

Vigalondo does a tremendous job at making the complete story understandable and believable. With so many elements of this story going at once he still is able to bring them all together and tie up all the loose ends within the context of the film. This is something I definitely did not expect from a first time director. But he was able to make everything come together at the end by bringing together some fantastic talent. All of this done on a very small budget and much better than anything I have seen so far this year.

Overall I have to say this is one of the better films I have seen that uses time travel. I can say it is the best use of time travel in a horror film in recent memory. Currently Magnolia has the rights to this film and hopefully soon we will see a theatrical or a prompt DVD release from them. I highly suggest hunting this one down and checking it out before the U.S. remake comes out. Keep an eye out for Vigalondo, this guy is going places.

- Luke Franklin