As weakling Peter Parker discovered to his cost before his transformation into web-spinning superhero Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility.

Three high school students learn a similarly harsh lesson in Josh Trank's low-budget sci-fi thriller, which imagines the catastrophic consequences for the friends when they are suddenly gifted incredible mental and physical skills.

Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan) is powerless to help his bed-ridden mother Karen (Bo Petersen) fight the terminal illness that has stripped away her dignity.

He suffers in silence, weathering the beatings from his alcoholic father Richard (Michael Kelly) and persistent bullying at school.

The film opens through the lens of an old-fashioned video camera that Andrew has just purchased to record each waking minute, in the hope this might protect him from his old man's fists.

"I'm filming everything from here on in," he shouts to Richard through his locked bedroom door, establishing Chronicle's stylistic conceit of recounting events from the perspective of the different devices that track the characters' movements.

Andrew's cousin and only friend Matt (Alex Russell) wearily tolerates the omnipresent camera but is quick to shoo away Andrew when he is trying to impress old flame Casey (Ashley Hinshaw), who has a penchant for video blogging.

Late one night, Andrew, Matt and high school golden boy Steve (Michael B Jordan) discover a strange artefact in a crater.

Soon after, they are blessed with powers of flight, telekinesis and invulnerability.

Chronicle is a sprightly tale of corruption and redemption that curries sympathy for Andrew despite his heinous crimes in the latter stages of the film.