Butterfly Kisses (2018)

In the basement of their new home, Gavin’s in-laws find a cardboard box labeled do not watch, which is full of video tapes.  Gavin is a filmmaker so he’s curious about was shot.  He finds a rough cut of what purports to be a student film by a woman named Sophia and her cameraman Feldman.

The film project is about an urban legend, Peeping Tom. The story is if you go to the railroad tunnel at midnight and stare into the tunnel for an hour without blinking, Tom will appear.  However it’s unclear as to why anyone would want to do this since one you’ve seen him, you can’t unsee him.  He’s one of those things in your peripheral vision and each time you blink he gets closer and closer until he’s right on you and you die.

Along with the rough cut made by Sophia, there are a ton of other tapes with interviews, footage of the tunnel, and Sophia talking with Feldman about the project. Gavin becomes obsessed as he is currently only doing wedding videography and feels this footage will help him get a footing as a real filmmaker.

Gavin does research to determine if the film is real or fake. He manages to track down one of the interviewees - an author - who he hopes can confirm if Sophia was a real person making a film or a character in a fake documentary. Gavin believes she’s real and just needs one person who met her to confirm his beliefs.   But Gavin is his own worst enemy as he gets aggressive with the author and asks if he had anything to do with the disappearance of Sophia and Feldman.  The author thinks the footage is fake, which offends Gavin so much that he calls the author and his books stupid. 

Gavin sees this film as his ticket to a career, not realizing that he’s basically taking someone else’s work and finishing it.  His belief in his project causes him to get aggressive or irritated anytime someone questions him or the validity of the film.  He is single minded in his focus on proving he is right, while ignoring things that don’t fit, and ignoring his wife, child, finances, job, and others opinions on the film.

This movie is interesting in that it’s from the point of view of a documentary maker who is filming Gavin as he tries to prove the found footage is real.  While Gavin can remove or add things to the rough cut of Sophia’s to suit his theory, he signed a release giving the documentary crew access to all the tapes. So if he manipulates things, their movie can call him out.

This is one of the better found footage movies. It’s got a different take with Gavin being the subject, rather than the person actually making the film we are seeing.

Sophia and her wall covered in Peeping Tom art

Gavin and his hat reenacting finding the box in the basement