TICKING CLOCK is a shabby straight to video serial killer thriller in which a slumming-it Cuba Gooding Jr. plays a reporter investigating the journal of a crazed killer, played with customary relish by Neal McDonough. As the story gets more complex and Gooding Jr. befriends a twisted young boy who has an unusual link to the crimes, things take on a sci-fi twist that reminded me a little of the ones in FREQUENCY or DEJA VU. Sadly, this is a criminally low budget production, shot in a shabby and gloomy style, that merely comes across as depressing and bereft of ideas.