Filmed over five days on a shoestring budget, Chatlines defies simple genre labels; it’s a screen time drama (something rare outside of the horror genre), a love story and a time travel movie whilst also focusing on end of life decisions, care and the importance of living each day to the full even when we know our time is coming to an end.
Watching Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Neil Ely’s Chatlines, I was reminded of a quote from Lewis Carroll, “In the end… We only regret the chances we didn’t take, the relationships we were afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make.” There’s a lot of truth in that statement; after all, we turn down so many opportunities that come our way, without ever thinking about what those opportunities could have offered in terms of experience, memories, love, and connections in our relatively short lives on planet Earth.
As we near death, whether young or old, many of us choose to live life to the full, even if we are unwell, grasping the chances we may have missed when life seemed eternal, determined not to pass into the night with any regrets. Jordan (Lloyd Eyre-Morgan) is one of those people. Despite the sickness and fatigue of his chemotherapy, he is determined to live however long he has left by taking every opportunity available to him. He saw his mum pass from cancer, and her strength lives in him. Cared for by his older sister, Jordan knows the cancer is winning no matter how strong he is, but that’s not going to stop him from living as he documents his battle through TikTok and turns to an online chat room, similar to Omegle, to find fun, conversation and connection as his world narrows.
It’s on that site that Jordan meets the young, chatty and pretty damn hot Danny (Nico Mirallegro), a fellow Greater Manchester resident, fighting his own battle with stage 4 cancer. But there is something strange about their initial conversations. Danny talks about events from 2005 as if they were yesterday, and the room he chats from feels all too familiar. Then their connection is lost.
Intrigued and unwilling to let the opportunity to get to know Danny better slip through his fingers, Jordan spends hours on the chat line waiting and hoping that Danny might reappear. And his patience soon pays off, but why is there a strange glitch on the laptop every time Danny appears? The mystery only deepens as Danny states he lives in Jordan’s neighbourhood and the year is 2005. Is this a morphine-fueled hallucination? Or are Jordan and Danny connected through some strange time glitch when they both need that connection the most? And if Danny had stage 4 cancer in 2005, is he even alive in Jordan’s timeline?
One thing is for sure: Jordan and Danny aren’t going to let each other go, and they are not going to regret a chance not taken, even if time is playing tricks. For this is a connection that time can’t deny, a meeting of two souls written in the stars as their own light dims.
In 2015, Lloyd Eyre-Morgan brought us the beautiful short film Closets. In this delightful short, a boy facing homophobic bullying in 1986 travelled through time (via his closet) to the same bedroom thirty years later, where another boy is contemplating what it means to be gay in the 21st Century. Together, these boys find a connection across time and space in a short film about the past 30 years and the motion and motionlessness of the young gay experience. It’s a cracking short film, and if you haven’t seen it, I urge you to watch it.
Chatlines unquestionably shares similarities with Closets, as it builds on and expands many of the themes Lloyd Eyre-Morgan introduced in 2015. Filmed over five days on a shoestring budget, Chatlines defies simple genre labels; it’s a screen time drama (something rare outside of the horror genre), a love story and a time travel movie whilst also focusing on end of life decisions, care and the importance of living each day to the full even when we know our time is coming to an end.
Like his previous film, the fantastic Departures, alongside fellow director Neil Ely, Chatlines beautifully weaves humour and drama into a delightful tapestry of human experiences, with a strong emotional core. Jordan and Danny’s time-travelling connection isn’t just beautifully written and performed by Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Nico Mirallegro, it’s full of hope, life and love despite its more sombre underlying themes. Add to this an exemplary ensemble cast featuring Laura Aikman, Faye McKeever and Siobhan Finneran, and this five-day, shoestring-budget movie exceeds most Hollywood movies in creativity, emotional strength and story.
Lloyd Eyre-Morgan has been quoted as saying that the Russell T Davies era of Doctor Who served in part as inspiration for Chatlines, and that is evident throughout. In fact, one can’t help but feel that the BBC and Doctor Who, as a show, is missing a trick by not signing up Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Neil Ely immediately to write and direct. Proudly unique in its vision and delivery, Chatlines also embraces the ingredients that make every time-travel film tick, creating an emotional rollercoaster full of humour, love and hope, that carves a place in the heart and demands multiple viewings.
Chatlines premiered at Manchester Film Festival and will next screen at Sci-Fi-London Film Festival in May 2026.
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