Notes from an introduction to Timestalker (Lowe 2024) by Jonathan Williams at our screening in October 2026. Our audience gave this film 3.8 stars.
When we watched the Timestalker trailer at our selection meeting, we thought it looked a bit weird, a bit funny, a bit different… and it is those things! It’s a hard film to talk about without giving things away, so I hope we see a bunch of you at the film chat on Saturday to argue about different interpretations!
Timestalker is a 2024 film directed by and starring Alice Lowe. I’m a fan of Lowe’s films, and I agree with both the reviewer who described her body of work as “gleefully gruesome” and another who called it “deadpan absurdity”. Lowe’s 2012 film Sightseers (which she co-wrote and co-starred in) follows a pair of caravanning, holiday-making serial killers as they travel through the British countryside engineering horrible “accidents” and killing people who irritate them. Her 2016 dark comedy-slasher Prevenge (which Lowe wrote and shot almost entirely while she was pregnant) follows a woman who sets out on the urging of her unborn child to get murderous revenge for her husband’s death (an accident while on a team building outing). The key motif of multiple deaths, accidental or intentional, carries through into Timestalker, albeit this time it’s mostly the same person dying over and over again. (So, content note that while it is extremely stylised, there is some gore and blood in this film.)
In brief, Timestalker is a story of desire, fantasy, attachment, love, obsession, romance, delusion, limerence - call it what you will - told across multiple lifetimes. The earliest dated timeline is 1688 (though there are flashes of “prehistoric” lives) and the latest is 2117. Some lives appear so briefly (like the Victorian schoolmistress), I wonder if the filmmakers shot more of them but edited them down to make the narrative snappier. The story of each lifetime, and as a whole, turns around a small key cast of recurring characters.
Our protagonist Agnes (Alice Lowe)
Alex, the object of her infatuation (Aneurin Barnard)
Meg, variously Agnes’ servant, friend, companion (Tanya Reynolds)
George (Nick Frost), who appears as a troubling figure in most of Agnes’ lives - obsessed with her as she is with Alex
Scipio (Jacob Anderson), a sly observer and a pot-stirrer who often incites Agnes to action
The main part of the film is set in 1980s New York. Or perhaps I should rather say “1980s” “New York”. In keeping with the heavily stylised aesthetics of the film, the setting feels more like an idea of that time and location pieced together from media of the time. In fact, I would say that the 1980s New Romantics video clip aesthetic actually infuses the whole film: we have a 1980s take on 1793, a 1980s looking 2117, and so on. If you want to take it even a step further, it’s a 2020s version of a 1980s version of the past/future! The multiple layers of aesthetic nostalgia and stylisation also subtly push the question of whether any one of the lifetimes is the “real” one.
For film aficionados, there are nods to - or pastiches of - other directors, stories and styles. Reviews mention Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General, Sally Potter’s Orlando and Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. I also read a comparison to Horrible Histories that wasn’t meant to be complimentary, but I like Horrible Histories! I’ve seen the film grouped with women-led horror films (though it feels less horror-focused than Lowe’s previous offerings) while one reviewer called it “the pinkest film since Barbie”. If those references sound all over the place… then enjoy the genre-mashing of this film!
Despite the jumble of influences and the sometimes hectic jumping of timelines, Timestalker holds together well. First, by sticking to its central idea - which, debatably, is the more serious question about how much time women have lost over the centuries pining for extremely substandard men in pursuit of a fantasy idea of “romance”. Second, due to its the bold visual style. The film is often colour drenched with magenta-tinged pink, electrolyte-drink blue, and flashes of bright red. Recurring objects and colours - the blue rose, the red bird - help to stitch together the different locations and eras.
Despite some of the larger underlying questions, and despite all the death, this is a fun and fairly light film. I don’t want to bog it down with pre-analysis, so I think we should get to it!
Further reading
Timestalker (Review) - Anna Bogutskaya, Time Out, 7 Oct 2024
Timestalker review: Alice Lowe has concocted a frothy, funny time-travel marvel - Clarisse Loughrey, Independent, 10 Oct 2024
Timestalker review – Alice Lowe’s anti-romcom is a darkly hilarious spin through history - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 10 Oct 2024
Timestalker review - Laura Venning, Empire, 10 Oct 2024
Timestalker: Alice Lowe is dying for love in this gag-and-gore-strewn comedy - Kate Stables, BFI, 11 Oct 2024