While reading others’ blog posts trying to find inspiration for the week, I realized just how horrifying the idea of a time-loop really is. The way that these situations tend to play out is with a lone protagonist trapped in a seemingly never-ending loop of events where they are the only one who seem to be reliving these moments. For the one stuck in the loop, it’s not time that loops at all. While all others peacefully pass through the moment in their respective timelines, the one who is trapped is getting older, they’re all alone, and they’re losing time. Nevermind the fact that they usually don’t know how this even happened in the first place, if they don’t find some way to break the loop, they may never return to their normal life.
At least, this is how it is in the 1993 romantic comedy Groundhog Day. And sure, there exist plenty of variations of the above set of circumstances, but I would still argue that there is an aspect of existential horror in the vein of “losing” time. Whether the stakes are as high as a life being lost, as in the game 12 Minutes, or as low as missing your flight out of a town that worships a groundhog, the concept of some higher power turning our life into a puzzle is bound to feel pretty freaky.
60 in a loop
While I think Ashtrick’s time loop class was extremely clever and it definitely lifted me out of my 7th week blues for a good 40 minutes, I have to say that it failed to evoke these horrifying sentiments. With reference to @Breathtaking Apricot’s class review, the only way for this experiment to be successfully horrifying would be to add an aspect of isolation. Unfortunately, this would be morally questionable as proposed, but all the more immersive as well! With such a large group of students and the occasional opportunity to conspire, the experience of a time-loop class was not at all horrifying. There wasn’t even much frustration because frankly, I could just sit back and watch as class unfolded. Without the pressure of breaking the loop weighing on our shoulders, it loses an aspect of immersion, and of horror as well.
I definitely agree that much of the horror and despair that comes with longer-running time loops is whether or not you’re the only one experiencing it. So often in media, after the awe of being in a time loop wears off, the lone protagonist seeks desperately to find someone who can validate their experience of being in a time loop, and even better, accompany them through it somehow. Perhaps it’s not just the idea of “losing time,” but the more generalized dread of being alone in a situation with a whole different set of rules, and that no one will “know.”