Take two parts Breakfast Club, one part Heathers and a dash of the manic energy of Gremlins. Blend until frothy and exhausting.

The writer/director was present at my screening. He told us, with some embarrassment that he was responsible for ‘Torque’ – a ‘Fast and Furious’ on motorcycles that failed in all measurable respects. He said that doing the bidding of a studio on his first film is the reason that movie sucked, and the reason that he spent his own money making this much quirkier, more high-concept action/slasher/timetravel/romance/black comedy.

The gambit mostly pays off artistically, by which I mean it really feels like his ideas reach the screen pretty much undiluted. I can’t say whether that will translate to commercial success, but the movie is cut at a pace that’s too young for me and so reference-dense that I can imagine the film becoming at least a mignight movie classic.