Timestalker
Written and Directed by Alice Lowe
Starring Alice Lowe, Jacob Anderson and Nick Frost
Runtime 1 hour and 30 minutes
New York Premiere at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
In theaters now in UK and Ireland

by Megan Bailey, Staff Writer

If you’re feeling unlucky in love, watching Timestalker might help you feel a little better. In this film, Alice Lowe plays Agnes, who we first see in the 1600s when she falls in love with a heretic as he’s being put to death. Through an accidental death of her own, she saves his life. When we see her next, two centuries later, she’s unfulfilled (despite the dildo that her lady’s maid has found under Agnes’s bed), and seeing the same mysterious man reignites her. Agnes resolves to meet him again, but he doesn’t recognize her. Hijinks ensue, and Agnes once again dies to save him.

As the film goes on, Agnes dies over and over for Alex (Aneurin Barnard), who never really seems all that interested in her. The recurring cast of Agnes’s life also appears, usually as different iterations of the same archetypes. Meg (Tanya Reynolds) is sometimes a friend, sometimes a lady’s maid. George (Nick Frost) is a domineering husband, stalker, or an actual dog. Scipio (Jacob Anderson) is a butler, a bystander, or Alex’s manager. They each repeat throughout decades, tessellating across time.

I really like the sandbox that Lowe plays in for this movie. Many, many romance films have depicted soulmates or star-crossed lovers, but none quite like this. Timestalker takes the romantic idea of soulmates across centuries down from the mantle, toys with it, and distorts it to exaggerated extremes. The more Agnes chases after Alex, the more she dies for him, to no response from him, the more we start to question if this bozo is even worth it.

Each reincarnation in Timestalker feels lived in but elevated. The costume design is gorgeous. Likewise, there are elaborate wigs in several centuries, especially a pink heart wig in one segment. It’s all a feast for the eyes. The recurring imagery—a canary or a big, mysterious pink heart, for example—is delightful throughout. As Agnes reckons with her lives, she realizes, and viewers do too, what those images meant in previous iterations.

The eighties segment is particularly fun, and there’s a gag about John Lennon that I’ve been thinking of and giggling over since I saw the film. Agnes also spends a good portion of her time in the eighties deconstructing the idea of soulmates and parasocial relationships. Without giving too much away, this part of the film is especially relevant now, in our time of very weird opinions about celebrities who don’t know we exist.

The standouts for me in this film were Jacob Anderson (who is notably excellent in AMC’s Interview with the Vampire series) and Tanya Reynolds (who I also really loved in Sex Education on Netflix). While everyone is great, these two were charming and fun to watch, with relatively small parts in the film. They’re each supporting Agnes throughout the film, and I could’ve done with a little more of their inner lives.

Having written, directed, and played the lead of the film, Lowe tasks herself with a lot in Timestalker. Her work here is impressive, and she’s a great comedic actress. While not every joke landed for me, I’d consider that more as the difference between British and American humor, and not an actual failing of the film itself.

This is a zany little film, and if you’re willing to follow along down the goofy alleyways it runs, you’re in for a good time! Despite seeing this film as part of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, this didn’t feel particularly horror-y. I suppose chasing a mediocre man across centuries is a nightmare in itself, but the film is much more of a black comedy than anything else. It’s a bit gruesome, but not ever really scary as one might expect. It’s a very funny movie, and some of the physical gags are downright hilarious. This movie probably won’t be for everyone, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.