Formerly Known As Cinema

“Redux Redux” is a low-budget, sci-fi revenge-o-matic about a grieving mother hunting down the serial killer who murdered her daughter.

The twist here is that since we’re once again in that grab-bag world of the multiverse (groan), mom gets to take out her aggression not just once, but literally dozens, if not hundreds of times, cavalierly hopping from world to world in search of the same assailant in order to reenact her fury in various hyper-violent ways.

The opening shot is a stunner: Irene (Michaela McManus, “9-1-1: Lone Star”), the anguished mother, lights a match and sets the shrieking body of a bound man on fire, then watches blankly as he burns.

Alan Gwizdowski’s crisp cinematography frames a cobalt sky and shadowed mountain range behind her, while the yellow-white flames illuminate McManus’ razor-sharp cheekbones and searing emerald eyes. It’s mesmerizing despite the horrific imagery.

And for the next 23 minutes, the film’s narrative unfolds with striking efficiency. The story engine is driven by visually potent clues, jolting bursts of violence, and the imaginative repetition of familiar – if subtly altered – settings that map its parallel worlds.

McManus, playing a woman subsumed by a brokenhearted rage, proves a terrific protagonist, though her acting range is somewhat limited by the singularity of her obsession.

With the introduction of Mia (Stella Marcus, in her first feature), a near-victim of the same killer who’s rescued by Irene in yet another universe, the movie is sent into a derelict time/space slump from which it never fully recovers.

The problem isn’t the plot. Irene has long hoped to find an alternate world where her daughter might still be alive, so it makes sense that, after saving a fifteen-year-old girl from a serial killer, she’d form an attachment. And the resulting relationship nicely provides a compelling spine on which to hang the second and third acts, at least for the most part.

But newcomer Marcus, as game as she is, can’t provide the level of emotional intensity needed to convincingly portray a victim of brutal trauma. Her post-abduction demeanor suggests someone who’s stuck folding a tough load of laundry rather than someone who’s been tied to a toilet in a killer’s abattoir.

Still, as a thriller, “Redux Redux” mostly works. Sibling directors Kevin and Matthew McManus — whose sister Michaela plays Irene — pace things nicely, delivering a series of intricately choreographed, nerve-shredding action sequences that build to a banger of a climax.

Things work so well, in fact, that it’s almost hard to ding the film for its frequent missteps. But it’s these small bobbles that keep “Redux Redux” from becoming the top-tier indie actioner it might’ve been.

Time-loop/multiverse stories work best as hit-and-run affairs, and at 109 minutes, the film gives you plenty of time to spot the narrative inconsistencies that litter the story like gopher holes on an unkempt golf course.

At one point Irene hints to her ward, Mia, that she’s executed the same man thousands of times across multiple universes. But since it’s been established that she only kills him on payday — so she can steal his cash in order to survive — the math suggests it’s been at least ten years since her daughter’s death.

And yet time doesn’t seem to have moved forward at all. When we finally meet her daughter in a universe where the murder never occurred, she’s inexplicably still a teenager.

More disappointing still, the McManus brothers fumble the most poignant aspect of the temporal loop scenario: the learning curve that comes from reliving the same events.

In “Edge of Tomorrow,” Tom Cruise’s terrified recruit evolves into a hardened soldier, while in “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray transforms from a selfish jerk into a compassionate human being — all while mastering piano, French, and ice sculpting.

But in “Redux Redux,” repetition doesn’t lead to growth, only exhaustion. No matter how many times Irene kills her daughter’s murderer, she keeps making rookie mistakes, needlessly — and illogically — putting herself in danger when she should know better by now. These lapses don’t build suspense; they manufacture it.

The film does have one ace up its sleeve: the irresistible Jim Cummings. Ever since his brilliantly cringey funeral dance in 2018’s “Thunder Road” — which he also wrote and directed — Cummings has been one of cinema’s most reliable comic actors.

Here he plays Jonathan, a friendly local Irene encounters at a Nicotine Anonymous meeting. Though he doesn’t get to lean into his signature brand of humorous discomfort as much as one might hope, his effortless charm and disarming honesty bring a much-needed dose of credibility to the proceedings. Their hint of a romance offers a welcome touch of humanity in a story otherwise fueled by rage.

Despite its narrative stumbles, “Redux Redux” delivers enough stylish mayhem and committed performances to keep things watchable. And the craft on display, especially the lo-fi space ship design, is terrific.

But in a story built on repetition, what’s missing is evolution. Without it, even the most inventive loops begin to feel like dead ends.

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