The new suspense-horror movie “Man Finds Tape” was released in select theaters and online streaming services on Dec. 5. It is the story of two siblings investigating a tape recording that the brother, Lucas Page, found. The film dives into how “monsters” can hide in plain sight. They use a mockumentary and found-footage style to make it feel like something that viewers shouldn’t be watching or that they’re watching something being exposed.
Actor Paul Gholson plays a character named Reverend Endicott Carr, who is a priest and something much darker. Other actors William Magnuson and Kelsey Pribilski play the Page siblings, who are the main characters. Kelsey seems to have experience in some mainstream shows, but for the other two, this movie seems to be their breakout. “Man Finds Tape” has two directors, Peter S. Hall and Paul Ganderson. They had previously worked together on movies such as “Scare Package” and on short films such as “No Signal” and “Seek.”
In the movie, Lucas found a tape with his name on it, and it shows a video of a man feeding him an unknown item when he was a child, which he had no memory of. The finding of the first tape led them to investigate what's happening in the fictional town of Larkin, Texas. Many more strange things happen in the movie. The camera randomly cuts to a distorted spiral often, which refers to something that happens later in the movie. Hole wounds appear on people in the movie, which seems to be trying to trigger trypophobia, the fear or disgust of a cluster of small holes or bumps. A man we never hear the name of is also a very big character he is The Stranger, played by Brian Villalobos. The movie is full of twists and turns and almost never strays away from the mockumentary and found footage style. The movie is very good at sticking to what it is and reminding the audience that it is a mockumentary, and we’re watching recorded footage, with most scenes making the people seem to have genuine emotion.
The camera work in this movie is unique and its highlight. The film uses a found-footage and mockumentary style, both of which aren’t widely used and are newer to the big screen. It even has some analog horror tropes, such as flashing things across the screen and the way they present phone calls and text messages. A camera angle used more than once, whether it was b-roll or during an interview, was the Dutch Angle, which is used to bring unease and disorientation to the viewer. The movie is very good at sticking to what it is and reminding the audience that it is a mockumentary.
The movie is a good watch, some deliveries are not as good as hoped or somewhat feel rushed, but it is a very unique movie and stays true to what it is the whole movie, with most complimenting its interesting style, scares and build-up. Overall, it got an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics as of Dec. 8. This movie is a good watch to experience a brand new way to get scared and be on the edge of your seat.