MAN FINDS TAPE (2025)

New streaming on Tubi from XYZ Films and Vertigo Releasing!
Directed/Written by Paul Gandersman, Peter S. Hall.
Check out the trailer here!

A struggling YouTuber (is there any other kind?) named Richard (Shane Brady) who finds a box of video tapes, one revealing a strange, shadowy man walking into his room as a child. As he searches for meaning behind this encounter, a conspiracy that encompasses his entire small town of Larkin, Texas. When Richard’s videos go viral, he suddenly stops posting, forcing obsessed YouTube fans to track down Richard’s sister Lynn (Kelsey Pribilski), herself a documentary filmmaker, who doesn’t want to be bothered in her brother’s antics online. But when Richard fails to respond to her, Lynn goes home to do a wellness check, only to find that the conspiracy and something much more other worldly is real.

Are the actors successfully acting like they aren’t acting?
Both lead actors, Shane Brady and Kelsey Priblski feel natural and unrehearsed in front of the camera. There are a few recognizable actors in the film, namely Graham Skipper and John Gholson, who play significant roles and feel less convincing only because I recognized them from other films. I think with found footage, the lesser known the actor, the more believable they are. It’s less distracting when you’re not wondering where you’ve seen the actor before. Skipper and especially Gholson give convincing and decent performances, but their recognizability took away from the performances.

Does the footage found seem authentic and untouched by additional production?
MAN FINDS TAPE is filmed in a mock documentary format, something I refer to as shockumentary style, where there is produced music underscoring scenes as well as multiple edits from different cameras and format. Because the film is following the mockumentary format, a little leniency is always given, as this is clearly a documentary done to promote a certain viewpoint with less objectivity. There are scenes of found footage and footage caught in the moment that lack that produced feel that comes off as authentic scattered throughout, more so as the mystery deepens and Lynn gets closer to the truth.

Why don’t they just drop the camera and get the hell out of there?
Richard is a bit of an attention whore. So, he’s filming not only to get to the truth, but also for the hits. Lynn begins to believe in what Richard is saying about the small-town conspiracy and wants to capture it all on camera to root out the truth. Because of those two motivations, the camera is never dropped and always rolling.

Are there any found footage cliches like an up-nose BLAIR WITCH confessional or a REC-drag away from the camera?
Not really. For the most part, this is a film that doesn’t need to rely on such overused cliches of found footage cinema.

Does anything actually happen? Is the lead in too long and the payoff too short?
I feel as if a lot happens in MAN FINDS TAPE. Like any good documentary, the layers peel off like an onion revealing a much more diabolical and grotesque layer underneath. What starts out as a tape found that suggests some kind of perverse encounter between a man and a boy unravels into a bigger, more other dimensional horror-show. The information revealing this conspiracy and the horrors lurking under the surface in this small town is parsed out evenly through the runtime.

Does the film add anything to the subgenre and is it worth watching?
MAN FINDS TAPE was produced by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, the talented pair of filmmakers behind SPRING, THE ENDLESS, and RESOLUTION. Their work has always teetered around unknown worlds and Lovecraftian terror, and that’s what MAN FINDS TAPE eventually evolves to be. I loved the subtle way this movie moves from a small incident to a conspiracy that is bigger than anyone would have imagined. While low budget, the film stays within its budgetary constraints. Some of the final effects are a little dodgy and I don’t know if I understood all of what was going down by the end of the film. But the trip there is surreal, grotesque, and intriguing. The mocumentary format holds up throughout the film and while it never provides all the answers, it does open things up to an infinite number of places this film could go. Not that a sequel is necessary, but those who like all the boxes ticked by the end are going to be left wanting. Still, I found the mystery to be engrossing, the format to be authentic, and the horrors to be potent and unexpected all the way through MAN FINDS TAPE.

As always, before I go, I like to put out some recommendations to watch along with the films I covered. Instead of watching the waste of time that is ALIEN ORIGIN, I’m going to recommend the sci-fi conspiracy laden mockumentary OPERATION: AVALANCHE. It is from the guys who just released NIRVANA THE BAND, THE SHOW, THE MOVIE and follows a pair of hapless filmmakers who are brought in by the military to film a fake moon landing. This is some awesome filmmaking that makes you rethink everything you know to be true. It’s streaming on Tubi, YouTube, and Amazon Prime. If you’re looking for a double feature to watch with HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS, look no further than FOUND FOOTAGE: THE MAKING OF THE PATTERSON PROJECT. This is one of the best found footage films in years and deals with high strangeness at a cabin in the woods while mixing comedy and scares perfectly. It’s available on The Roku Channel as well as Amazon Prime. Now that you’ve finished ANACORETA and want to look into some more meta-horror? I’m recommending ONE CUT OF THE DEAD, which is one of the smartest meta-horror films ever made as it follows a filmmaker trying to make a zombie movie just in time for a real zombie apocalypse to occur. It’s a wonderful film that celebrates filmmaking and it’s available on Shudder. So, you took a chance with PRIMAL DARKNESS and want more cryptid horrors to experience? Howzabout FROGMAN, a solid found footager where a kid who swears he saw a frogman as a kid, returns to the spot where he saw it to see if it really exists? This one is a lot of fun and an excellent use of found footage. It’s streaming on Tubi. Finally, MAN FINDS TAPE is a taste of cosmic horror with a modern twist and I’d compliment it with STRANGE HARVEST, which was released last year, about an investigation into a serial killer that turns out to have ties to the cosmos. This unforgettable little number is streaming on Hulu. So, what do you think of the found footage subgenre and how important is authenticity to you while watching one? Let me know the answer to these and more questions…down in the comments.