Christopher Webster [Celluloid 08.12.15] apocalyptic scifi horror



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Edmonton filmmaker Richard Boylan's new short film, Timelike, is a gripping, found footage time-looping mind fu*k that will have you glued to the screen and scratching your head as you try to figure out exactly what is happening and why it's destroying the world.

In the film, Madeline is a young physics student (that's important I think) who is visited by a stranger claiming to be her. I won't spoil it from there.


Synopsis:
Madeline and her boyfriend are enjoying a quiet evening at home when they are interrupted by a visit from a stranger bearing a message from Madeline’s future self.


We are collecting theories below!



Recommended Release: Looper






Via: io9.com

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Winb (6 years ago) Reply

Cool.
So just things I thought about.

The found footage is what the person in the future is watching. Someone (I don't think it's her from the future, the message might be) goes back in time and tries to recreate the events as they are in the video. But each time little by little things get distorted.

I don't know about all the sounds and stuff going on. A rip in the space-time whatever.

I feel like the camera looking at the TV and it feedback looping is more important than just a weird effect.

Not sure about what is written on the paper.
The final time the message is destroyed. Somehow ending the loop?

Just some thoughts maybe something will help someone else come up with a good theory.

blayne (6 years ago) Reply

At 6:42, you can see an equation, and some notes above it. Given the quick shot of an acceptance letter to the Physics department of some university seen earlier -- She's likely trying to tell her self how to create time travel - or perhaps how to fix it in the future.

Or perhaps she's trying to sabotage herself so that she never creates time travel. It's uncertain if the timeloops becoming shorter are a narrative device of the video (so the viewer understand it happens multiple times, distorting/changing each time -- or if each loop exists until the blond woman travels back.

Interesting stuff.

Mark (6 years ago) Reply

I think both previous comments are correct.

As the loop repeats itself, the instances of the time/date stamp on the video increases exponentially illustrating how many times the loop has repeated and how many times the visitor has been back. As we've seen in other films though, there may be multiple loops created with each visit where the slightest changes having have been made (wine, clothing, etc.)

My theory is the girls were lab partners in college or were working together on a time travel project and stumbled onto a working model and they set into motion something that has a negative outcome. This would happen after the events of the video. They must then go back to the night on the video to correct the course of events. The letter may have been lottery numbers or something initially, who knows, but it evolves to contain the information to correct the change to avoid whatever problems they created. Unfortunately so many small changes have been made each time the visitor arrives (again, wine clothes, etc) and the spilled wine destroys the instructions so they are doomed to whatever negative fate the initial letter brought them.

Amazing the creators can wring this much intrigue out of an 8 minute film and Hollywood can’t find original ideas. Kudos.

poiuyt (6 years ago) Reply

the movie Groundhog Day came out in 2/1993.

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