SNAPSHOT
William Blakely, a top genetic researcher, awakens after a catastrophic accident with no memory or motor skills. As he begins to relearn his past and identity with the help of his mysterious twin brother, the memories that return are not his own. As he tries to reconnect with his estranged wife, Jules, he begins to unravel the strange circumstances surrounding the events that led him to fall into a coma. Searching for the source of these fragmented memories, he uncovers a shocking truth about his family and his employers. (official synopsis via Blastr)
There must be nothing more disorientating in this world that waking up one day in a strange place with no memory, none at all, of who you are, what makes you you and how you became you in the first place.
All gone, just like that.
Even worse when the memories do come back, they’re not even your own – clearly there’s a sixth sense at work here because if how would you know whose memories you’re getting otherwise – and suggest that something very wrong happened to you or someone you love somewhere back in your forgotten past.
It turns out that Williams Blakely is not a blameless man at all, and that in fact he might be guilty of a host of things he’d rather not have to confront in a film that Variety described like this:
“A genetic engineer tormented by the accidental death of his son resorts to cloning in The Reconstruction of William Zero, a basement mad-scientist movie from Dan Bush, one third of the team behind 2007’s The Signal. Cinematically speaking, this high-concept, low-budget sci-fi mind-bender falls into the same category as Shane Carruth’s shoestring marvel Primer, relying on creative ingenuity rather than elaborate effects to keep geek auds ensnared by its multi-layered mystery. But the more apt comparison seems to be with such literary classics as The Invisible Man and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in which tragedy strikes when mortals fool with Mother Nature.”
To say anymore would be to give away the full details of a very clever premise and even smarter execution, but suffice to say that Blakely might have been better off not remembering anything at all.
The Reconstruction of William Zero, which also stars co-writer Conal Byrne, Melissa McBride (The Walking Dead), Amy Seimetz, and A.J. Bowen (You’re Next, The Signal), opens in USA on April 10, 2015 via theatre and VOD release.