THE STORY – Through his YouTube channel “Man Finds Tape,” Lucas Page has gone viral with a creepy video series that he says are home movies from his childhood — although online commenters are, naturally, skeptical. One day, Lucas reaches out to his sister, Lynn, to show her surveillance footage that shows a murder in the center of their hometown, Larkin, Texas, in broad daylight. Initially skeptical of her brother’s latest video, Lynn reluctantly heads back to Larkin to help him investigate the homicide. But in doing so, Lynn and Lucas quickly find themselves in the middle of a decades-old supernatural phenomena, one centered around the town’s charismatic yet enigmatic reverend that has plagued Larkin’s residents without them even realizing it.
THE CAST – Kelsey Pribilski, William Magnuson, John Gholson, Brian Villalobos & Nell Kessler
THE TEAM – Peter Hall & Paul Gandersman (Directors/Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 84 Minutes
Steven Spielberg’s breakthrough film “Jaws” has been having a resurgence amongst cinephiles as the 50th anniversary of its theatrical release draws near. Without a doubt, one of the film’s greatest achievements – and perhaps the number one reason for its success – is how it withholds the full appearance of the shark for over an hour of its runtime. Of course, this is partly due to mechanical problems on set, but without Spielberg’s ingenuity (not to mention the Oscar-winning editing by Verna Fields), the film wouldn’t have been as tense and impactful as it is, faulty shark or not. And even after the shark is revealed to the characters and the audience, the animatronic behemoth is wisely used sparingly. “Man Finds Tape,” the new faux-documentary from directors Peter Hall and Paul Gandersman, is similarly at its best when setting up its own mystery, building tension through simple lo-fi video work, inference, and suggestion. But once the film starts answering its own questions, things get decidedly less interesting. It’s a disappointing cashing in on the proverbial check the film spends its first half writing, but the build-up is intriguing enough to keep the film from being entirely disheartening.
The film is framed as the kind of slow-reveal true crime documentary commonly found on streaming services nowadays. The film’s in-universe director is Lynn Page (Kelsey Pribilski), an aspiring documentarian who tells the story of her brother Lucas (William Magnuson) and the mysterious events that befell him after he discovered a mysterious tape with his name on it in his deceased parents’ house. It turns out to be a strange home video showing a young Lucas eerily filmed in the middle of the night. He publishes the video and his commentary on YouTube under the channel name Man Finds Tape. It’s not long before it becomes a viral sensation akin to Marble Hornets and other creepypastas. Fans and haters alike start swapping theories and skeptical critiques, only adding to Lucas’ online success. But after he accuses a local reverend named Endicott Carr (John Gholson) of being involved in the creation of the tape and the subsequent conspiracy that unravels after its discovery, Lucas gets a cease-and-desist and must confess to parts of his channel being fabricated. This, of course, leads to him becoming an online laughing stock, which also affects the otherwise uninvolved Lynn, who begins to be harassed by people who recognize her as Lucas’ sister. But after Lynn receives a new unsettling tape from Lucas, she returns home and finds that more of what he purported to have uncovered may have been true than she, or anyone, thought.
Intriguing, no? Obviously, I’m not going to get into what happens after Lynn’s homecoming, but suffice it to say, what follows is a definite letdown from what’s set up. Not only is the latter half of the film lacking in the scares that the film’s previous acts seem to be building toward, but it becomes both convoluted and overly explanatory in a way that has a numbing effect. Things are not as they seem, to be sure, but the revelations uncovered are so off-the-wall that they seem to come out of nowhere. This may be a way for the filmmakers to catch the audience off guard, but given that it’s more confounding than compelling, this gambit doesn’t work.
One thing this film gets right that many found footage films don’t is the explanation for why the characters are filming in the first place. Too often, films purporting to be constructed of real-life material stretch believability to explain why their characters feel the need to have a camera turned on at all times, often in the face of abject danger. Here, not only is the narrator a filmmaker, but the main subject – her own brother – is fascinated with videotapes, security cameras, and other amateur methods of filming. Thus, it’s perfectly logical for his house to be outfitted with an abundance of constantly-running cameras.
Lynn is brought to believable, sympathetic life by Pribilski. She’s understandably skeptical of her brother, who’s been proven to have not only lied to his followers and his own sister, but his deceit directly impacted her life for the worse. Thus, she’s an excellent audience surrogate in that she’s far from initially trusting the strangeness that her brother uncovers. Magnuson plays Lucas as effectively nervy and paranoid but not so maximalized that watching him becomes uncomfortable.
“Man Finds Tape” is a frustrating watch, and not just because it deflates in on itself as the film goes on. Hall and Gandersman are clearly capable filmmakers with strong instincts for building tension, and their debut feature feels like an unfulfilled promise. Still, this is a directing duo to watch, and hopefully, their next cinematic offering will be more completely satisfying.
