With video surveillance and social media at a fever pitch, the time for new takes on found footage is now, and you don’t have to reinvent the smartphone to do it. “Man Finds Tape” uses a traditional lo-fi approach to an elevated horror concept when a strange presence starts zapping minds in the small town of Larkin, Texas.
Written and directed by Peter Hall and Paul Gandersman, the supernatural mystery follows siblings Lynn (Kelsey Pribilski) and Lucas Page (William Magnuson) through a playful reconsideration of the unreliable narrator. The filmmakers’ background as novelists steers their world toward Stephen King territory, occasionally to its detriment. But in the end, their thoroughly imagined script pays off as a well-constructed monster movie — one that freshly challenges the sometimes-freeing, sometimes-suffocating subgenre and format.
Scary clips presented without context can be terrifying, but “Man Finds Tape” breaks new ground by tangling up its audience in a complex narrative told through dozens of perspectives. The pseudo-documentary is narrated by Lynn, whose self-directed interviews and childhood home videos reflect her deep care for the main subject, her brother. But only Lucas and a handful of the faux–film’s other cinematographers are human.
Having moved away from her hometown long ago, Lynn makes it clear she doesn’t believe Lucas’ crazy theories about Larkin when they’re talking on Zoom. When she does finally come to check on him, the Page’s home security system shows Lynn discovering Lucas in a catatonic state. To explain how they got there, she’ll use footage from her brother’s viral YouTube series, Man Finds Tape, and old episodes from the faith-based talk show her parents, Holly (Akasha Villalobos) and Richard (Shane Brady), produced before they died.
The mysterious illness that killed the late Pages indirectly kicked off their son’s decline. It’ll take his sister’s intervention years later to figure out how those pieces fit together, but after Lucas finds a bizarre tape hiding in the attic — labeled with his name — the amateur videographer wastes no time posting it on the internet. Like Lynn and his parents, Lucas has fun with the video project at first. Going viral like only “real” creepypasta stories can, the spine-tingling found footage shows Lucas sleeping as a kid. Who took it? And why?
That’s not enough of a narrative hook to sustain an entire feature film, something the slippery but not unruly “Man Finds Tapes” was smart enough to know. Lynn arrives on the scene hoping to find answers. Instead, more questions spark and fly as the reluctant investigator grinds away at a mystery her brother couldn’t solve. Reverend Endicott Carr (John Golson) was the star of “The Salvation Hour” back when the late Pages filmed it. Lucas had to apologize after publicly theorizing Carr was the voyeur in the video tape, so now both he and Lynn are stuck dodging legal action while trying to jog people’s memories.
Keeping a steady clip and clocking in at a blissful running time, Hall and Gandersman discover two of their movie’s best moment in car scenes. The bizarre blackouts are first explained with a bizarre hit-and-run that shook Larkin months earlier. The incident was caught on camera. It happened in broad daylight. And yet, there were seemingly with no witnesses to this man’s tragic death. Watching grainy storefront footage of the intersection, Lucas and Lynn begin their detective work realizing someone else fell asleep at the wheel.
We get a more intimate understanding of Lucas, and a better look at the ingenuity of these filmmakers, during a second crash scene. It’s shot entirely from the floor up on a “dropped” smartphone and relies on ambient noise to sell a calamity the driver isn’t awake to see coming. Wendy Parker (Nell Kessler) is Lucas’ girlfriend and — wait for it — Reverend Carr’s surrogate. She’s also the first of many in a wacky cast of local characters the Page siblings will have to interview on their quest to understand what is making everyone pass out. Winston Boon (Graham Skipper) is the first of many to nod off mid-conversation. It’s a production challenge Lynn mostly ignores and a clever textural decision that will make you wonder if the narrator is still with us.
Comingling Reddit posts, text messages, 9-1-1 calls, and more, “Man Finds Tape” mixes several types of media before giving its villain a satisfying physical form. Aptly credited, The Stranger (Brian Villalobos) is only part of that problem and not the centerpiece practical effects portion of this film that monster fans should look forward to. How Larkin’s unseen foe goes about manipulating minds without being seen proves key to protecting the town. Figuring out what its victims can — or won’t — remember is half the fun, and even somewhat lacking in personality, Lynn and Lucas sell their good nature successfully.
Heavy exposition from The Stranger, slightly evocative of the neo-western “Dark Tower” books written by King, give away the debut directors as authors. Balanced with enough ‘80s flair, that’s not a bad thing overall. A pleasant combination that doesn’t break the mold but nonetheless festers with originality, “Man Finds Tape” strikes a unique seriocomic tone. One minute, you’re leaning in to catch hints like you’re watching “Blair Witch.” The next minutes, you’re digesting motifs evocative of everything from “Slither” to “The Matrix.”
That chunkiness outstays its welcome by about fifteen minutes, and even bloated, the climax never gets as action, sci-fi, or fantasy heavy as you might hope. Still, Hall and Gandersman sell themselves as indie storytellers to watch through a combination of distinctly modern POVs and familiar horror tropes. Suffice to say, the found footage mark “Shelby Oaks” swung for but missed gets hit squarely here. That awkward effort, prematurely pushed by Neon as its big follow-up to “Longlegs,” won’t release until later this year. It also raises a new question: Can “Man Finds Tape” come out before then?
Grade: B+
From XYZ Films, “Man Finds Tape” had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, June 8. It is currently seeking distribution.
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