‘Romance is dead,’ despairs Alice Lowe before her character meets one of many sticky ends in this cheeky reincarnation comedy. Following up her daring 2016 debut Prevenge, Lowe gives us an anarchic, twisted spin on the love-will-conquer-all template, balancing smart ideas with pomposity-puncturing wit. With this British comedy stalwart acting as both writer and director, as well as star in multiple guises, it’s an impressive all-round achievement.

Lowe plays Agnes, who we follow through time as she goes from ‘umble villager in 1688 to lady of the manor a century later, to groupie in 1980. In each setting, she’s pursuing Aneurin Barnard’s smouldering and aloof Alex, something that feels increasingly humiliating and inexorably leads to her death. A great cast flank the pair, with Jacob Anderson, Nick Frost, Tanya Reynolds and Kate Dickie also popping up.

There’s a touch of Bertrand Bonello’s recent (and much more po-faced) film The Beast here, somewhat coincidentally, while Peters Greenaway and Strickland plus Brian De Palma are amongst the apparent stylistic influences. Nevertheless, Lowe has a distinctly feminist and funny voice, and she’s very much the star of her own show (her comic timing is to die for), with an atypically unpleasant Frost also standing out.

Although initially and intentionally disorientating, Timestalker settles into something very cogent, while retaining a visual dynamism and admirably askew sensibility. If it’s happy to exist outside of the British commercial-cinema box, it remains reliably entertaining. This irreverent yet ultimately empowering ode to those forever drawn to the wrong guy is an anti-romcom for the ages.

Timestalker is in cinemas from Friday 11 October.