The Timekeepers of Eternity (Aristotelis Maragkos/Tom Holland, 2021, Greece/UK)

Though derided in its era, The Langoliers, Tom Holland's 3-hour miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's novella, holds a fondness in the hearts of many Stephen King fans. Arriving at arguably the peak of the "miniseries event" era of King, The Langoliers is one of the more idiosyncratic and bizarre stories from the author. It is also more conceptual, dealing with the nature of time itself. While some may still cringe at the corny visual effects and over-the-top performances, The Langoliers is still interesting. When we heard that an avant-garde adaptation of the miniseries had been made, we had to check it out.

Filmmaker Aristotelis Maragkos first distilled Tom Holland's miniseries down to an hour, largely by dispensing with many of the side characters and focusing the story on the "star" of the original miniseries - Craig Toomey (Bronson Pinchot). Pinchot's performance was insane in the original series, and here takes on a more surreal vibe. On condensing the film, Maragkos then printed out every frame on paper and animated it - a reference to Toomey's constant habit throughout the movie of ripping up pieces of paper. The formal experiment is fascinating - in moments of tension, or moments that Maragkos wants to accentuate, we see the actual paper begin to compress on screen. Later in the film, Maragkos's own hands appear, the film becomes progressively unhinged.

Yet Maragkos's film is no formal experiment. It is a satisfying re-working of Tom Holland's film, making some narrative changes that enhance the original and accentuate some of the weirder nuances that made us fall in love with it in the first place. It may be one of the few intersections of Stephen King and experimental cinema, and for that reason, it is worth seeking out for King-obsessed cinephiles or fans of arthouse cinema.

8/10