The Wasting Time endeavours to return the found footage trope to its authentic origin: raw, unfiltered, unsettling in its intimacy and honesty. Bailey is gifted a digital camera as a retirement present and quickly discovers the video function: clumsy experiments progress into careful and troubling voyeurism as his proficiency and psychosis develop.

The film is intended for a 15+ audience, skewing towards older viewers due to its themes and mood. Fans of dark psychological drama and intelligent horror - such as The Babbadook and The Relic - will connect with the tone and subject.

Bailey demonstrates symptoms of Gerascophobia - an abnormal, persistent, and irrational fear of growing old. This is linked to signs of Excoriation Disorder - compulsive skin picking caused by an obsession with the feel of skin. The two conditions lay at the heart of an enduring Paraphilia, presenting as a non sexual need for the feel of young, preferably pre-pubescent skin.

John Fowles’ “The Collector” is a logical reference point for the general premise of the film, although the central character of The Wasting Years possibly demonstrates greater nuance and more complex motives. There are echoes of Jame Gumb (“The Silence of the Lambs”) who engages in dehumanising behavior as he advances his implaccable quest to achieve transformation, utilising his victims as raw material.