Found Footage February Day 25 Butterfly Kisses!!

Day 25

Butterfly Kisses

This in title alone sounded interesting, It was one of those that when I saw it pop up on a few list, I blindly added it without checking out the trailer or anything else for it. I found it available on Amazon and gave it a thumbs up for February.

The poster is rather unassuming and we can all only hope for the best in this one. I mean we are in the final 4 for the month now! Time to get excited!

Or at least I am, Because no more late ass nights writing and recording my voice! Yeah!

Though I actually have been enjoying the audio part of this, and I hope those of you listening to it are enjoying it as well. DO please let me know as it is going to become part of the norm for me.

This film is not familiar for me, which part of me feels it should be, because at the time this came out, I was dating someone who, watched far more movies than me. Daily this person would watch 6-7 films if not more.

Especially horror. They put them on as background noise while they did crafting, and would stop when it got interesting. They were the reason back then, that when we’d broken up, and I went to browse for something to watch, I found nothing. Because they watched every horror on streaming, which I’d often have to hear while on my pc with the tv behind me. So that was fun. But yeah, did not recall seeing this one pop up or its box art so it is definitely a found film for me in the literal sense. And I got to share another story that doesn’t really matter, I’m on a roll already.

So with that, lets get ready and begin our final four countdown! HIT IT!!

The movie

Sophia Crane, is a film student. Who never learned that drawings belong in a sketchbook or on paper. Not your walls.

Or she is just an art student who expresses herself on all surfaces.

Seriously, unless you own a home, please don’t scribble your madness on the walls like Sophia has. Our first shot is an absolutely what the hell am I looking at, mildly disturbing image so, good on you film.

Her room is a scattered mess of drawings, etched out on the wall. They almost look like scribbles. All of them depicting a shadowy figure, with a wide brim hat, and claw like hands, sometimes knife like hands. Her desktop has an image on it, that’s also repeated on the walls as well, and hell her post-it notes even have this stuff on it. Sophia herself is….

She seems to be missing a few hours of sleep in her daily routine.

For the past few months.

She’s wearing a cute dress and seems fine outside of you know, staring at you like someone who would say “Did you know that IF is the middle word, in LIFE?!”, or try to sell me infused cookies. Either way, she is not having a good time.

She is presenting us with her thesis or final solution…hard to say.

But she is panicked, telling us to please include the first and third part of her tape in her film, and tells us creepily that its been days since she’s blinked, and she was researching “Peeping Tim”, which she now regrets horribly it seems. Alright well let’s get at it then shall we!

From there however, we are following someone else now. Gavin. Gavin dresses and looks exactly like a man from another film I love with all my heart, Bad CGI sharks. It’s hard not to chuckle seeing him dressed almost exactly the same way.

So why is he in this? Well. He has found inside his families home, a box full of tapes. This is the most basic of found footage boxes. I say this nicely as the box, aside being beaten up and old has written across a strip of tape DO NOT WATCH.

Which of course he absolutely did.

Because he TOO is a film major. He took the film tapes, watched them and went a step further, by editing the film all together to complete Sophia and her cameraman’s film. A special about Peeping Tom and his legend.

This is a local town legend, and everyone seems to know about them. There’s a ritual for summoning them. Contacting Peeping Tom. Which sounds absolutely torturous to do.

To summon him forth, you need to stand at the entrance to this train track tunnel. You need to stand there at midnight, and stare without blinking for one full hour. A full freaking hour?

Just go talk to Bloody Mary, all you gotta do is say her name in the bathroom mirror and turn the light off, sure as hell beats staring for an hour down a tunnel without blinking JUST to see a figure, who whoo grow closer and closer to you the more you blink, and eventually will stand in front of you, and if you blink? You die.

If this was for real, seriously. Why would you want to stare down a tunnel for an hour, forcing yourself not to blink. JUST to summon someone who’s going to kill you. It’s just….I mean different strokes for different folks.

So Gavin, after putting their film together and watching it, has said he hasn’t slept in days. It creeped him out, and he became obsessed with the idea of finding out, was this a student horror film? Or was this a real case of a found footage film. He even calls it Found Footage, and admits the movie could be just that, a horror movie in that style, or it legitimately could be, a real life found footage incident.

I like that idea, and it’s fun.

This movie is actually a lot of fun. It’s very self aware, and it’s also interviewing directors of famous found footage low budget films. It’s addressing a lot of tropes, it’s going over the usual foot steps WHILE, addressing the reality of the situation.

If you found an actual found footage film. Film of people making some sort of documentary or project, who end up going missing. How do you present this? Who do you present it to and what happens if no one believes you?

Because again every freaking Found Footage film does the whole “This is based on a true story”, they hype up the fact no one was found, no one was heard from again. So how can you expect people to believe you.

Especially in this case. Which the documentary crew following Gavin ask him. If you found actual footage belonging to two people who possibly went missing, possibly died while filming this. Why not hold a press conference? Why not present this to the police. INSTEAD of editing it all together to make the film these students wanted to make and finish. And present it to the internet, to the world, claiming it as real evidence. While trying to market the film at the same time.

It's funny because well yeah, it makes sense! But the guy just. The only answer he really gives. Is that He did it to have the first actual found footage film and present it to the world so…why not?

I like where this is going, I like the meta commentary on top of this being, a documentary within a documentary.

I mean we get interviews conducted by the film crew following Gavin, he’s paying them to document his journey of trying to legitimize this film and prove it is in fact real. While he is promoting the material himself to supernatural circles, the internet, any and everyone who might know the people involved in this. He tried seeking out the film teacher Sophia was doing this project for, the parents of both her and the camera man. Anyone who showed up in their film, but so far nothing has come from it. No record not only of our two students, but no record as well of anyone they worked with. It’s weird and cool, I dig it.

The first main moment we get in the oh shit department, and beginning development as to why Sophia was crazed and half out of her skull. The group present to us the legacy and myth of Peeping tom. They find the bridge where you supposedly summon them, and they have hired for the sake of their documentary, a staring champion! I did not know this was a thing. But yes. We have an official staring contest champion and he is going to stare, for them, down that tunnel. Even though it may kill him. Brave man, truly brave.

He of course fails. I mean who the hell could stare for a full 60 minutes down a tunnel without ever blinking? Your eyes would hate you and take off, never speaking to you again, they’d pop out and say “See ya never, asshole” and that’d be the end of it.

That is until our cameraman, Feldman. Has a brain fart. Or thought.

A camera lens is sort of like an eye. So why not aim it down the tunnel, record for a full hour and see what, if anything happens?

I mean worse case, the camera will get haunted by Peeping Tom right? Because it’ll be the camera staring down the tunnel unblinking not them. Right?

OF COURSE NOT! We wouldn’t BE HERE if it were the case.

Though a cursed camera does sound pretty cool, not gonna lie.

Well it appears their trick did not work. Feldman is pissed. They stood outside in the cold, recording a train tunnel for an hour, and all they got was a cold.

That is until they review the footage back in Sophia’s dorm. There by the grace of special effects, at exactly the one hour mark. Is Peeping Tom, rising up from the floor, like an eerie shadow monster. Standing in the center of the tunnel, staring back, in his cool hat.

The group are ecstatic. They caught an actual urgan legend on camera. Now to convince people it’s really super real. Sounds rather familiar.

I mean this really is a fun idea they are playing around with, and I like that his documentary crew keep asking him about this. It is a legitimate question, especially when you hire a crew to do a documentary about you and your discovery.

Why would you, a former film student. Hire a documentary crew, to document you finding possible real found footage. Why not yourself?

And now on top of that, the even better, and funnier question which he doesn’t want to directly answer. Why do you not just present the footage as evidence. Show it as it is and was. Why instead, are you paying money from your own pocket. To have the video cleaned, sound mixed professionally, and making this film appropriate for theatrical viewing?

It’s again one of those fundamental questions that come up any time found footage films are discussed and torn apart. Why release this theatrically, or for profit period, when this is supposed to be evidence of a supposedly real crime? He smirks a bit and, his answer is pure and somewhat genius. He wants to tell their story, he wants the truth of this to be verified and shown. But why can’t he also make money and a name for himself by presenting it theatrically.

Pretty simple and, I mean it IS implied the guy did not exactly finish film school, or it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. So here he is, he did nothing with his film degree except film weddings, and he feels he found a breakout project. So of course he wants the renown for it. He wants the profits that come with it.

It’s bordering on an obsessive behavior where you kind of get the feeling that ever since finding this. Either because of his financial situation(which we learn about from his wife and mother in law), or his need to be something more than a failure that he sees himself as. Or, he is just becoming as obsessed with this project as Sophia and Feldman were while they made it. It’s really fun and I like the questions its posing while showing us the almost unreasonable nature this guy is exhibiting while trying to get this film not only made and looking professional. But desperately trying to seek validation and people to watch it and “See what I see.”

Which brings us to the best idea of the film since Sophia hired a staring contest champion to risk his own life for their entertainment!

Gavin is presenting a single scene from the finished film, at the Veterans Association Hall, where he has asked a lot of local ghost hunters, supernatural experts, bloggers AND. More importantly, I can’t under sell how excited I am for this. He has invited a supernatural facebook group, run by 5 older ladies, who have nearly 8 thousand followers.

Now that is legit!

Good lord this is great.

I mean this can only go well for the guy, right?

Not just showing a bunch of crazy people a clip of your found footage, more specifically showing them AND 5 ladies with 8,000 facebook followers. The scene where Peeping Tom rises from the train tracks? A potentially CURSE inducing image, that may just invite Peeping Tom to kill every mother trucker in this room?

Good job Gavin!

Bold move, let’s hope it pays off.

Even better, I gotta give props to the writer for this, They have to be pulling this scene from their own experience.

When Gavin is presenting his film to a studio he’s hired to clean up the film digitally, and mix the audio for him. They ask him his idea of a budget he’s working with, which he doesn’t give them. And when they tell him this could end up costing around 10 and 20k? He does something I’ve seen, and heard of, sadly a lot. Where musicians, and filmmakers. When asked to pay money for you to edit and process their work? They offer you something more valuable than money.

They offer you, the experience, and exposure. For having been ‘the people’ who helped make the true magic happen. You can have the distinct honor of saying you helped bring to live this bands album, that will change lives, and the world of music. That you will help release a film. That is going to shock the world, and your business will just run with a river of cash because of this.

Seriously musicians have done this, and DO do this, filmmakers, even podcast asking for editing. NOT everyone mind you. But special people. Will bargain with you, to offer your services entirely for free, because they are just promising to be that amazing, that you’ll get shout outs and tons of work because of having done this. Which is worth more than anything they could pay you, that they aren’t. Because they can’t.

The look on the studio’s faces when they hear this from him. It’s priceless. It’s also sad. Because the man has no budget. He has no money. The absolute most he could realistically spend? Is 1,200 or 2k max. And as he put it, if he paid 2k, “It’ll be roman noodle dinners for a long time.”

This guy is committed to his vision, and it’s insane, I mean people have gone flat broke trying to produce their first film which is usually their dream project. It can end up being something that destroys families, relationships and it’s never fun. And we are getting strong vibes that this man, may be headed that direction. All for the sake of proving his find, and making a box office off of it in the process.

Again, lets hope it works out for him, and his wife. And Peeping Tom. Who they will owe royalties too.

So the film keeps shifting between the documentary on Gavin, and the film by Sophia and Feldman. We see the groups footage presented in black and white, sometimes in color depending on the camera they used at the time. Both look fairly rough around the edges, while Gavin’s own footage from his crew looks clean and well setup. Which is what you get from hiring a professional crew.

Whom I should wonder at, why are they sticking through this project. Now aware that Gavin is short on funds and likely will not be paying them, and may in fact turn around on them and offer them payment of exposure versus capitalist greed.

At any rate, we are progressing forward to a big figure from the original footage of Sophia and Feldman, our filmmaker has located the elusive and fun writer, Matt Lake. Popular for his WEIRD travel books. Like Weird Pennsylvania, Weird Washington, etc. Collections of folk stories, odd tales, supernatural hot spots and the such.

The original group contacted him as someone to talk to about Peeping Tom and his legend. Gavin looked him up online and was able to excitedly find him. Honestly the way the guy acts and gets excited. It’s teetering on the edge of being a fan having his inner geek shine through, and a man that would smile while explaining to you his vision at knife point while you are tied to a chair. So not someone of comfort, obviously. But Matt has invited him into his home.

Though I kind of like to imagine he just ‘found’ him in his home, geeking out over finding the exact location for Sophia and Feldman’s interview by hid stairway.

He’s here to ask the man about Sophia and Feldman, their interview with him, why he didn’t include the story of Peeping Tom in his ‘Weird Maryland’ novel.

He just wants a little truth is all. But the man is becoming ever so slightly unhinged. The interview seemed to go pretty well at first. Matt tells him that unfortunately, as long ago as this all happened. He didn’t recall being a part of the documentary, he didn’t recall Sophia and Feldman, he had no emails from communicating with them as he’d been jumping servers off and on, He has really…no record they existed.

Which immediately sets Gavin off. To a point he’s not only defensive and begins accusing him of lying to him, but he also begins accusing him of writing bullshit stories, while excluding Peeping Tom which for Gavin based off the footage he found is absolutely 100% real and why he didn’t include a ‘real’ thing in his book of paranormal, weird and urban legend tales. Just seems fishy to him.

He actually does point blank accuse him of covering up his conversations with the duo and states he believes he may actually have played a part in their disappearance.

Sooo that was a wasted trip. Obviously he is being kicked out of the mans house, and the interview is over. It’s becoming a bit sad just how invested and obsessive he has become over this documentary and the footage. As they drive away he is visibly upset repeating again that all the man had to do was answer to simple questions.

Two questions he never got around to asking him. Because he was going off on a tangent more centered on the legitimacy of the film than he was the filmmakers.

He even showed(Before they argued) some of his film footage to the man. Which also helps further along the story for us and how things were taking a turn for our duo of aspiring filmmakers. They start to learn through reviewing their footage, that at several different points while filming their documentary about Peeping Tom. They noticed off in the distance, for a second or so out of select frames, whenever the camera would ‘blink’, they would spot off in the distance. Growing scarily closer. Peeping Tom.

With stuff they shot, with their talks with their teacher, driving in their car. Having lunch at a café. It’s pretty damn creepy and well done. It’s just spooky seeing this figure pop up for a few seconds, and each time it IS closer, and closer. Knowing eventually like the urban legend told us. It will be right in their faces and will kill them.

Which that itself, is getting really. Hmm.

This is my only complaint with the film, and it almost feels like it was done purposely. I hope at least, because I don’t think the filmmakers would suddenly decide to fumble and fuck the ball, when they were guarding it so closely so far.

But we reach a moment in the film where to crucial bits occur.

First, we have Gavin at the studio, watching the guys work on the found footage and mix the audio track. They begin to notice that the footage shot with Feldman’s camera after the bridge incident where they first spotted Peeping Tom, there is digital distortion on both the audio and video source. More specifically on the audio, they discover when it’s isolated, it is a sequence of sounds. No specific sound mind you. But the sound when played, is coming off as morse code. Which much to Gavin’s excitement, they decide to run through a program to see if they can identify what it’s saying if anything, only to find that it is a digital noise signal, in morse code, that translates to one word, blink.

Of COURSE Gavin is thrilled about this. He feels vindication at long last. He has two people baring witness to an unexplained happening ON the found footage he edited together. So of course these two men will now have to offer a testimonial to his documentary. That they saw this and it is real. Peeping Tom, is real.

But nope, not so fast there Flash Gordon. The only thing these two will openly admit. Is that this guy either faked the film, and added it himself? Or. OR most likely. Whoever ‘made’ this first, put it in there themselves as a trick to help sell the scariness of their horror film.

So this has forced Gavin to outsource and look for confirmation elsewhere. This time in the form of a video analysist. Whom he pays to watch the clips and authenticate them. Which. He can’t.

Instead all he can tell him is the same as everyone else. It’s either faked by the filmmakers, or faked by him. But there is just nothing that suggest it is real. It’s all to convenient. Which also includes, the pop ups of Peeping Tome. Which is the second event that happens that I feel was done tongue in cheek, but that could be me reading into it wrong.

But we get a scene, Where Feldman has his camera on a tripod, out in a football field likely on campus. He is doing multiple takes. Where he records himself in front of the camera, turning it on, then turning it off, making the camera essentially blink.

Each time he pushes the play button, he positions himself in front of the lens. Then moves off screen to turn the camera off. Each time he moves out of frame? We see Peeping Tom getting closer and closer. Until he’s almost 10 yards from the camera and Feldman.

The part that makes this cheesy versus scary? Is their decision that, once they get Tom close enough, they make him wave at the camera.

It just feels too on the nose, you know?

For a film that so far has reserved itself, let out little bits and pieces of crazy, it still had managed not to go overboard or into bad territory. This just feels bad. Like you didn’t need this to happen. The film was fine without it, so adding it just felt like it cheapened things, in the hopes of creating a scare.

But it’s also setup as an obvious fake. It just feels like it. Like. Okay. Rewinding a bit.

Every time, that Peeping Tom thus far has appeared in the film? It’s literally peeping in them. It’s hiding behind things. Telephone poles, the sides of buildings. Sign post, trees and the such. But then. It just decides. Because Feldman is doing a test. This not only appear for far longer than a single second. But stay constantly in frame, every time Feldman appears in front of the camera and then conveniently moves so we can see the figure behind him?

I mean the only legitimacy here I can make of this. To justify the sudden move from teasing peeps, to out right near tap dancing. Is because Feldman chose to film this sequence out in an open field. With very limited spots for Peeping Tom to vanish behind. So many he did this as a test not only to prove if he is in fact getting closer each time they capture film and stop. But creating a perfect setup to leave no debate on this thing being a real deal spirit or shadow person by taking away its chance to hide?

It just feels off from the rest of the film. It had been so methodical and really sparse with how much it’d shown us, and what it chose to give us. To out right just putting him out there in the open, and waving. But more so. The fact that it comes off like a cheap trick. Which even the person trying to authenticate the footage for Gavin points out. That every time Feldman is in shot then moves aside. We see Peeping Tom. The button is on the back of his camera to record. So why is he purposely stepping in front of the camera to turn it on and off? Why wouldn’t he do so from behind the camera? Did he feel maybe having a lack of subject meant it could be faked still? That it’d appear he maybe had someone run out in the field, stand still for a frame, run off, then repeat 70 times? The bad part is, and I know the film is using this too. Is that we will never know. Because the original filmmakers are gone. And all we have, all the audience will have. Is Gavin’s film that HE edited together from their footage. So things are not going well for Gavin, the studio he pays to work on his film wont authenticate the film. Another person he paid to authenticate the film is calling it fake. At this point is one hope is the paranormal group at the VA hall.

If you can’t get a room full of paranoid people and ghost bangers to follow you, you know you have to rethink your life and project.

Sod o they believe him? Does the ghost group of old ladies with 8k followers on facebook believe his story of Peeping Tom and the found footage?

NOPE!

Every last soul there, is telling him they need more proof. They need audio, they need more video. Something more than just a scene of Peeping Tom appearing at the end of a train tunnel. They need to see more!

But Gavin is back to his same approach as earlier with the writer. He is insulting people for not believing what he believes, he is out crazying the crazies, and one of the funniest moments, is when an elderly woman ask him what kind of medication is he currently taking, and he tells her “That is very rude of you to ask that, and I would ask you the same, ma’am!”

It’s just hard not to laugh, this dude is trying too hard, and he could. He could offer these people more. But he isn’t. He could’ve shown them more, but he doesn’t want to give away HIS film.

His one dream, and hope. Was to make a public press conference, announcing the footage being found, and his release of it as a film for viewing. While having lined up behind him. Not beside him, but behind him, because this isn’t about them. A bunch of people who can stand there and say ‘this is legitimate footage’, “this is real”. But no one will. They all think it’s fake, and they feel he’s being a dick for trying to play everyone like other found footage directors have done previously. By publicizing their films as real to garner attention for the movies.

On top of all this, his married life is not going so well either.

His wife is home, while he’s out galavanting with weirdos, film specialist and his expensive documentary group. While she is using his laptop to do their finances and pay bills. With money they don’t have.

Because all their savings is gone. Since he began his film project.

Does he intend to stop?

HELL NO!

He keeps attempting to reassure her that, this is the rough patch they need to get through before being successful. That things will be tight, and tough. But once the film comes out. They will be rolling in money, and he’ll never ever, ever! Have to film a wedding. Again.

And there it is, once more with feeling. This guy is having what amounts to a mid life crisis. He is so dedicated to this film coming out and being finished, no matter the cost, and trying to legitimize it so hard, every way possible. So he can say he released a film about true events, capturing a supernatural occurrence, that cost the lives of its original filmmakers, now give him the money and acclaim.

I can say from experience, as we see him and his wife enter into a small argument that grows heated. That any time an argument concludes with one party saying “We’re done!”, and they usually mean with the conversation? But the other party counters with “You’re right…we are. Done.”

That, that is never a good thing. You need to rethink your approach and look at your priorities again. But Gavin is on a mission, from the film Gods.

Or evil.

As for Feldman. He is. Not doing so well. He is losing it in fact. Ever since filming his test, letting Peeping Tom get closer and closer to him, He’s growing more and more paranoid. And Sophia is growing distrusting of him, and scared as well. She is realizing that IF in fact Peeping Tom is real, which it seems to be the case. Then that means every time they are using the camera they filmed the whole thing with. They’re letting him get closer and closer to killing them. Which does not seem to be phasing Feldman. Which that, atop finding him drawing out diagrams of all they’ve filmed as well as the appearance of Peeping Tom in the tunnel. It has her considering maybe it’s possible he did fake it. But why would be do that?

That’s the next turning point in the film, which feels much more in line versus the field experiment.

The documentary crew wants to talk to Gavin about a student film that Sophia won an award for, called Portraits of Dead Friends.

Which Gavin does not want to speak about at all. Because for him it has nothing to do with Peeping Tom, AND. I also ruins his hope that what was filmed was legitimate.

We learn that as a project for a final. Sophia and Feldman worked together to make the film, based off an obituary in the papers. It was talking about people with family and friends who’d died. One of the women they planned to interview, did not wish to participate. They wanted nothing to do with it. So Sophia, wanting to do this project, feeling it was a good enough topic to follow on and not give up on. She hired an actress to play the girl, and deliver a false interview for the film.

She ended up winning a film award for it, and Feldman only got credit as the cameraman, no award.

So we have the possibility introduced then. That he felt shunted by her. That she got an award, and accepted it for a fake story. Add to that. Now here he is, in a position asked to work with her on this Peeping Tom film, he could’ve set it up as being faked, just to get back at her. To make her look like a fool for thinking this was real, and it will get her laughed off for it.

There’s also the other implication. Footage Gavin cut out on top of that footage discussing their trickery with Portraits of Dead Friends. There was a scene he edited out, where Feldman tells Sophia, “If we don’t capture anything at the end of the tunnel, I mean…we could always use special effects. Fake it like we did before.”

Add to this, the fact Gavin also has, for reasons unknown. Purchased the exact same style and type of camera that Feldman had used to film their footage. So it’s implied that if Gavin was willing to go to these extremes to prove the film is real, edited out anything that could come across as questioning the integrity and realism of this film. The film crew begin questioning his wife, his friends, other filmmakers about this whole situation and his decision to exclude this information. They all believe he could’ve faked it, that editing out those facts does create a bias and seem to cover up the possibility this was faked, and introduced the possibility that even he could have shot some of the film himself, as he had a camera similar to the one used in the making of it.

They are laying out a lot and Gavin is. Not happy. He doesn’t feel any of it is relevant. He will not relent on his vision, and his belief that this footage is real, and that this film. Is going to be an amazing film. It just needs people to believe it. Which is sounding more and more worrying the longer it goes on, and the more he says about it.

His life isn’t going to be getting any easier any time soon. He is getting desperate now. He has opened a website with a timer, promoting the footage. When it reaches the end of its timer. He will make available online for one hour. The footage. So people can see it, review it, and draw their own conclusions on it. His hope is that once it’s out there. People will begin salivating for his film, and a bidding war will commence for the rights to distribute and show his film. This man has high hopes. He’s got high apple pie in the sky hopes.

Only trouble is. No one is interested. He even tries contacting newspapers and other media to show up and spread the word. Nope. They couldn’t give a shit, even if they ate a full bag of dollar tacos.

He’s so desperate in fact, he’s asking the documentary crew to break the documentary code. Which is not to get involved, and stay objective. He is begging them to give him a name and number, of someone he can call. To do an interview with about the footage, and build hype for it. This surely, and truly. Can only go well.

So even though it breaks their ethical code. These guys are throwing him a bone.

Or, are they?

Gavin is going LIVE on the radio!

Mike of DC 101 is taking him on the news. His footage has been out there for people to watch on the site for an hour. The people are getting their turn to talk to him and. It is…blowing up in his face.

People are, not kind, and absolutely have the right. There are people absolutely livid about him both trying to pass this footage off as legitimate, and the possibility of it being real? They are mad he is profiting off of peoples death or missing cases.

They hate that he is trying to call his stuff real. They hate that he is so crazily obsessed with getting this out there for money. That he edited it himself and fixed it up instead of presenting it authentically. Gavin is, kind of being dragged over the coals.

And it is semi on purpose.

The documentarians are talking with Mike backstage and explaining the situation to him. That this is as they see it, a character study, versus an actual is it or isn’t it real story, and they have no ending to their film, so they need one and they felt him getting to go out there and tell the world. Hearing the truth of the situation. That might help get them there. They aren’t necessarily telling mike to run him through a gauntlet. They just want him to be nice, give the guy a few minutes and…make it entertaining.

Which it absolutely is for anyone who can’t stand Gavin, not so much for Gavin himself.

ESPECIALLY, when they get a surprise call from someone Gavin admires deeply. Eduardo Sanchez. The director of The Blair Witch Project. The original.

Yep, they pulled his bearded ass into this film and I’m glad for it. The mans looking good and I’m glad he’s got more gray in his beard than I do.

So what does he think of Gavin’s story and footage? “It doesn’t look completely genuine to me. I think there’s some acting and special effects involved, and I think it’s disturbing that he’s so obsessed with getting it out there, that he is trying to sell this as being real.” Nothing like having your hero tell you that you are full of shit.

But it’s a great moment in reality, outside of the films narrative. If anything, and something I enjoy with this movie. Is the documentary within a documentary. Like the film is giving us a commentary on found footage itself. We are hearing from people within the genre who’ve all made their own successful films. Not just that, but also SET the beats, formed the tropes of the genre. Having them discuss what IS found footage, how they present their own, discussing how you ‘do not’ present your projects as being real, you don’t purposely lie to the audience. Talking about how they marketed their films. It’s a real fun story within a story and I love it. All of it. All these film faces popping up and sharing their stories, relating it to the discovery of actual found footage in comparison to a ‘found footage’ film. It’s really great stuff. All mixed in with a guy, who whole heartedly believes what he has is the real deal, but no one buys into it, because of how the genre has become with everyone claiming their films to be real.

I mean shit, we watched Unaware, which sold itself as being as real as can be. And if that thing actually WAS real? Then we need to seriously put FBI agents back into workout programs, and aliens need to stop hiding in old mens sheds. We have nothing to be afraid of.

Anyway, I am loving this. On all its multiple stories.

Back to Gavin, he is. Not handling the radio interview well, at all. No one believes him, his hero thinks he’s setting himself up to fail and come off as a fraud which will kill his career. What could possibly top that? Right?

Well I have an answer for you thankfully!

Gavin returns home, a beaten man. A broke man. There are no lights on in his home, and his wife and son are absent. Did Peeping Tom get them?! No. unfortunately.

His wife left him and took their son, she headed for her mothers. Why?

Well, thanks to the documentary crew interviewing her and raising the question with her about her husbands constant trips out to document this film, paying them to film it, and all the work he’s done promoting and having the film fixed up. Where’s the money coming from?

She apparently found out, and the man has officially earned himself a collective kick in the nuts.

First he emptied their savings account, promising this film would be a success and solve all their problems. And now. Now his wife has found out, he dipped into and emptied out their kids college fund set up by her mother for him.

Dude stole his kids future, so he could fix up his film and let it set the film world on fire. Which no one is wanting, or cares about.

It’s sad but it also has a very sinister edge to it too. He’s just become so obsessed with this film and trying to not only prove it’s real. But getting it out there. It’s the one thing driving him past rational thought and into crazy town. Because he just HAS to get this done. But why and to what end?

I mean shit dude, you could have SRS put the movie out for you. They’ll put out anything. But no. The man is a lost cause, and he is sitting at home, with his white whale.

So what of Sophia and Feldman?

Well. Unfortunately. After the two stopped talking and filming things. They lost touch. And shortly after, he was found dead. He had gotten to a point he was forcing himself not to blink, he was doing everything possible to keep from blinking, and set up a trap…stick with me here.

He set up a trap, to catch Peeping Tom, He knows he is going to die. That if the legend is true. Then Peeping Tom is close enough to him now, that he can appear in front of him, give him butterfly kisses as they’re called, and kill him.

How he hopes to be fast enough to kill a…thing like that I don’t even know but. Well I mean he obviously failed. Spoiler alert, the news told us soooo. #Thoughts&Prayers

Meanwhile, Gavin is, not fairing so well either. He stopped communicating with the documentary crew, they hadn’t heard from him, or filmed him in days. Then out of the blue he contacts them and says he’s at the bridge. He found the site where Sophia and Feldman filmed the tunnel and Peeping Tom.

Unfortunately when they find him, their camera battery has stopped working, but they kept audio going and Gavin is….no longer among the sane people any longer. He is out of his mind, and when he talks to them, its about Peeping Tom, and his realization of his films topic, he drops the nugget of truth on the crew by telling them “It’s not, just when he gets closer to you…It’s when you get closer to him, that it happens…butterfly kisses.”

The crew have no idea what to do about him. They can’t contact his wife, she’s changed her number. They have no contact for his mother in law. There’s no family they can get in touch with. And now, being the only ones he can contact and has. They don’t know how to proceed. Where does their responsibility to him begin and end? They are trying to decide what to do, how to help him without exactly getting involved, or just dropping the documentary and doing something. But Gavin is…gone. He has taken his camera off the tripod he setup and is running with the camera. The crew is running after him and…suddenly claim they see something, or someone at the end of the tunnel. Which is where their last battery ends.

Now it gets weirder, well. Worse too.

Feldman recorded his death. He tried capturing himself killing Peeping Tom and instead filmed his own death. This footage was also edited into Gavin’s Project. The documentary crew are now piecing together things that happened with Gavin before he vanished on them again.

In the recording of Feldman’s death, it’s one of the creepier jump scares, seriously it’s pretty good. But it’s also creepy as shit. Not just because the closeup look, and I do mean close up look of Peeping Tom. But the video analyst who first reviewed the tunnel footage, he’s reviewed all of it now and he has discovered that, when trying to look at the eyes of Peeping Tom, to see if they could catch a reflection of like a camera crew, something, any indication there was trickery there. All they find in Peeping Tom’s eyes, are his perspective, looking down the tunnel. Like his eyes are displaying exactly what HE saw, when Sophia and Feldman, had setup their camera the night they recorded seeing him.

It's just creepy and so damn good.

But wait!
There’s more!

Remember that morse code from earlier that spelt out BLINK? The studio used a program to map out the sound frequency of the morse code. When they did this, and pulled up a sound map of those bits? Once it was display and zoomed out. Those sound bits produced an image of Peeping Tom.

This is just…damn man.

I did not picture this would get creepier, but it is, and it has. It’s also kind of funny just how many different ways they are just finding Peeping Tom popping up and lingering there. Just more and more clues that were left there from the start but no one found as they weren’t really taking it seriously. Until Gavin went missing.

Speaking of missing. The film crew has received a package. From Gavin. Which has an open envelope. Of something sent to Sophia. It’s Feldman’s journal. The same from the film that showed the sketches, their findings, his research on Peeping Tom. They also, found inside the package, a hotel card key. They track down where it came from, find the hotel and. Enter what was Gavin’s new home.

Which is lined with GoPro cameras everywhere. Surrounding his bed. Gavin also had the box of tapes with him of all Sophia and Feldman has recorded. Question is, where is Gavin.

He’s taking a bath.

A permanent bath.

Yep, in medical terms. He dead.

Gavin unfortunately met Peeping Tom, and according to the coroners report. He died of a heart attack.

The film crew are at a loss and have no idea what to do at this point. Do they hand over the tapes? Now knowing they have what seems to be proof they could be real? Or what they documented of Gavin before his death and how they hadn’t really helped him? What do they do. There IS a story there, a film and they aren’t sure how best to proceed. More to the point their director doesn’t know what to do. He just doesn’t want the cops getting the tapes. At least not yet.

Because, he has a plan now.

His crew is discussing, in front of the tunnel. How they need to let this go. Accept the loss. They were hired to film Gavin, and his story. Gavin is gone, and now their job is done. So let it go, and move on.

But their director has other plans. He feels there is something here, that there is a compelling story here, with the tapes, with Gavin’s story. All of it. He believes it’d be stupid of them to drop it and pretend there ISN’T something worth telling there, That they should pursue this and release it. Follow it through to its end.

The man….is sounding exactly like Gavin. It’s all making sense now. Same with Feldman. They became obsessed with the footage, with Peeping Tom and trying to explore the truth. They got closer and closer to him, until they ended up his victims. It’s like a curse and now its infected the director of the documentary, and he is going to become its next victim.

But what of Sophia you ask?

Sophia? She is…having troubling dreams, she tells us how she dreamt she went to the tunnel and she was staring down it. At midnight. She stared for an hour in the dream and saw Peeping Tom. When she woke up, she found herself actually there, 10 miles from her house…so that’s. Mildly unsettling, But now, we are ready for the final shot of the film. Where it all began. With Sophia talking to the camera about using the first third of her footage, and then using the end for the film. So Gavin did.

Her end, is admitting what they did, that they went chasing Peeping Tom, and they found him, and they were marked for death now. That it’s a curse, that follows anyone who sees it and him. That she now knows how he gets you, and where you see him when you blink. So she found a way to beat him.

Which she demonstrates for us, by destroying the film award she won for the film she lied on, taking up the glass shards, and cutting out her eye lids.

With that we get two surprises. Firstly, a small title card telling us that “Four Fingered Films has undertaken all reasonable measures to ensure the accuracy of this film’s content. If you have any information on the persons depicted, please contact your local authorities immediately”

Which, haha, and thank you.

But my favorite. Is the end credit scene. We see Sophia is alive. She is being filmed inside an Insane Asylum. Her eyes are nearly white, lidless, and she’s stroking the face of Peeping Tom.

The End

Fucking

Creepy

Man.

That was solid. It was really good, a fun commentary as well on found footage films in general, I loved the story within a story, and now connecting the dots, seeing the correlation between Feldman and Gavin’s obsession with the film. As Feldman was the one originally watching the camera when 1am struck so he was the only one of the two to see Peeping Tom originally, until Sophia joined in. She skipped the compulsion to film and document everything and lived her life in fear of dying and what they did. Feldman laid down the trackwork for others like Gavin to follow and draw himself in toward Peeping Tom, just as the director of the documentary had.

I like that the film followed a lot of the tropes in Found Footage, while at the same time pointing them out to us and discussing how they make no sense. Asking the same questions the audience ask, that I have been asking this whole month about these films and taring into their logic. While using that to just further the plot of this IS a real found footage film so of course no one believes them.

It’s just, so well done. You can tell the writer/director did their research and had a lot to say on the matter. While presenting a fun and pretty original character in this horror film. Again its documentary told story, while delivering the original story with a behind the scenes story thrown on top and it fits together like a triple double from In-N-Out burger. Animal style yo.

Man I miss that place, but not as much as Tommy’s burger. Man…..oh right the movie.

The movie came out not so long ago, actually. In 2018. It earned it’s place in creepytown list of creepy reddit, where it belongs. I also think, I used to know the director through a website long long ago, like waaaaay long ago. But it could be I am confusing them with an Erik Vesp, or another former writer for AICN. I used to frequent and comment on some of the articles there, back in the days of Cargill otherwise known as Massawyrm. The man could write reviews that were damn near comedic stage plays.

But the director has a nice body of work behind them, they also played in the film as the documentary crews director. So Fun bit there!

I really like what they did with this film. My only real complaint, which I feel again just has to come down to what I feel the film was laying down on a commentary about Found Footage. Was just how out of place it almost seemed, like tongue in cheek toeing the line near meta, with the football field sequence with Peeping Tom and Feldman. It just still feels out of left field with the rest of the film, but I think that also might have to do, if not it being intentional. Just the fact that, sort of like M. Night showed us with Signs. You don’t expect to see an alien roaming during the daylight at a birthday party. You don’t expect to see a creature just openly showing itself like that.

It didn’t ruin the film what so ever. I still enjoyed the scene, it just yeah. Struck me as feeling a bit out of place with the rest of the film. But all together it worked well. The story was believable, the acting at first was, It’s kind of funny, but Seeing Sophia, and Feldman? I could buy them. But the first time we meet Gavin. I wanted to check out. The guy was just too cheerful for this lol

Which sounds horrible, maybe? But the guy was more annoying than anything, but the further into the film you got. It made sense. He’s not that likeable. Once you get past the smile and kind attitude. The guy has layers that aren’t exactly glittering with cold and gum drops. And that’s before he becomes obsessed.

That’s another thing as well worth bringing up about the film too. This feels like the kind of movie where the more you rewatch it, the more you might pick up things you missed initially. I know once they started pointing out Peeping Tom popping up, I started darting my eyes around every black and white scene to see if he’d show up, and I also found myself wondering if you could actually find in the film, the exact moment where Gavin had flipped to the point of obsession. Or had he just been there already, before the crew arrived?

See I like when movies make you think about that and even more so. Make you want to explore the movie further to find out. To really see all there is too see, or if you DID catch all there was.

Honestly you’d think reviewing these while watching the film, you might miss things. But not really. I found a method that works for me and I go back over things if need be, and even then. I still like I said, want to rewatch this, Just to see what else could have popped up in the background. If there were other signs maybe that I didn’t pick up on. I wouldn’t put it past the filmmaker to have done so and tossed in hidden treats throughout. It just has that feeling to it.

While the film might not be reinventing the wheel. It absolutely was entertaining, it told a compelling, well structured story. It was fairly acted, everyone did a stellar job. And over all it worked really well. Even the meta documentary in the film about Found footage films in general, then the use of the tropes they talked about being poor tricks and bad form, being used in the film. It’s a fun commentary, and a real nice piece that brings it all together. Think the film Scream, but without the jabs of humor, and just more good horror creepiness.

We are now three films away from closing out this month, and we seem to be on a roll. I can only hope the other films will be just as great and prove to be prime examples of good Found Footage, and. I dare say. We will have a surprise soon for those who listen to the audio reviews. So check that out soon.

Until tomorrow, Staring down a train track at midnight, not blinking for a full hour, is not what I’d call a good way to spend your free time. But it sure beats the old game of hiding in a bush and jumping out in front of cars shouting BOO.