All This Time (2024) Film Review – Time Makes Fools of Us All [Dead Northern Film Festival]

Posted on by Jim Cox

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All This Time is a 2024 English period horror film, written and directed by Rob Worsey. Mostly known for writing and directing short films such as Another’s Eyes (2015), and Black Belt Brian (2019), Rob plunged into feature films with the 2022 zombie horror Among the Living. Trapped inside a Gothic mansion in an endless time loop, Grace must unlock the secrets of the house, the previous night’s party, and her own past to find any hope of escaping and returning to her normal life and young child.

An unrelenting, slow-burn narrative, All This Time isn’t afraid to approach its story structure unhurried. Constructing an incredibly intricate composition reliant on hard cuts, a warped perception of the passage of time through flash forward/backward, as well as an ambiguity around the period itself; the film certainly relies on the bamboozlement from its audience. The film’s muted colour scheme aids in muddying the waters around the period, fitting certain scenes but seeming somewhat out of place in others. Furthermore, while the story is full of shocking twists, these are skilly alluded to throughout—never seemingly coming out of nowhere.

With amazing performances from the entire cast, the two lead characters, Grace and Elias, played by Emily Rose Holt and Daniel De Bourg, provide a captivating rendition of their respective roles. Being the driving force behind All This Time’s mysteriously twisting plot, Emily’s rendition as a woman struggling to discover the secrets of the past delivers a paragon of the fish-out-of-water experience. Whereas Daniel provides a mysteriously 

Providing an outstanding level of cinematography, All This Time is brimming with breathtaking establishing shots and examples of atypical angles and provides an exemplary visual display from start to finish. These stylish visuals, when twinned with All This Time’s orchestral score, give the impression of a fairytale at times—being fantastical and whimsical yet still dark and mysterious.

With exceptional performances, stunning visuals, skillfully mysterious narrative, and stunning visuals, All This Time is certainly a film to look out for upon release. Rob’s expert direction and extraordinary visuals from cinematographer Jordan Lee equate to an engrossing horror that will keep audiences guessing until the end credits.

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We Watched All This Time (2024) at this year’s Dead Northern Film Festival

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