I think by now, pop culture would’ve prepared most people to some degree with regard to the possibility of certain previously inconceivable events occurring: zombie apocalypses, for one thing. I’d just step outside one morning, see the smoke coming from a burning mall in the distance, sirens blaring everywhere, and people who are missing chunks off their arms and legs and faces biting and killing other people, I’d simply say: “Oh, zombie apocalypse. Fuck.” right away and skedaddle.

It goes the same for accidental time travel. Oh, look, it’s suddenly morning again and events are happening exactly as they happened half a day ago: “Time travel. Neat.”

If the time travel spans years, one would just walk around town, notice all the different buildings, fashion and the newspaper on the stands, and realize what really happened. You shouldn’t go around thinking it’s some elaborate April Fool’s day joke involving the entire city block. Because really, nobody actually likes or hates you enough to play such an expensive prank on you.

Los Cronocrimenes Spoilers Ahead

So, in Los Cronocrimenes, the one annoying part is when the lead character finds himself back about half a day and begins asking why there is somebody around in his house who looks just like him and who is doing everything that he himself did half a day ago. Time travel is a pretty hard concept to swallow as something that happens in real life, yes, but when you see the evidence before you, I suggest you deal with it and adapt.

Which is exactly what the lead character does in this movie once he stops asking all the stupid question. He adapts to his situation and makes the most out of the disastrous hand he’s dealt, even employing some brilliant solutions to his problems. And the film becomes thoroughly enjoyable from that point onwards.

The plot goes: an everyman in his late 40s or 50s spots a beautiful woman taking off her clothes in the woods behind his house. Heading to the area to investigate, he gets stabbed in the arm with a pair of scissors by a maniac whose face is covered with pink bandages. He runs away, continues to get stalked, until the already mentioned ‘accidental time travel’ occurs. What follows is an intricate puzzle involving time and causality which sees several of the same plot events from new angles each time, all Rashomon-like. A more immediate comparison would be with Triangle, the British-Australian movie which came out several years after Los Cronocrimenes. Whether Triangle is a rip-off of Los Cronocrimenes, I’ll leave you to decide but it’s undeniable that they share many of the same elements and plot twists.

For the record, I’m going to say Los Cronocrimenes is the superior film, although Triangle has some of the more imaginative visuals. It’s simply got the tighter script of the two although I’m not so sure if either really had much to say. The basic message is time travel is complicated and given a set of circumstances, you can find yourself a totally different person by the end of the day.

This is a great science fiction movie that was probably shot with a shoestring budget (compared with Hollywood’s typical movie budgets). Director Nacho Vigalondo is all set to do Supercrooks, a ‘supervillain’ movie, with writer Mark Millar (Kickass, Wanted) and superstar artist Leinil Yu, so it’s intriguing to see what this guy can do with a potentially bigger budget.

More Spoilery Notes:

a) Yes, seeing what looks like zombies attacking the city, I would immediately follow standard zombie movie rules. But after I’m sure I’m relatively safe, I would have to make sure I’m really dealing with zombies and not ghouls, revenants, vampires or any supernatural variations.

b) When it comes to time travel, I’ll try to look for any expert involved in the phenomenon that had just occurred. I’d ask if there was any possibility of time paradoxes ripping the time-space continuum apart. If they state that it’s actually safe, I’d try to find a way to make money off the having travelled backwards in time part of it.

c) About halfway through the film, I was predicting how the movie would suddenly turn into a courtroom drama dealing with the legal implications of the“Time Crimes” in the title. How exactly would the lead character defend himself in court? It wasn’t my fault, your honor. I had to kill this girl and even assault myself with a deadly weapon in order to prevent a time paradox from occurring. If you had to charge one of me in court, I’d suggest charging the first “me,” the version of me that started the ball rolling in the first place.