The Man in the White Van (2023) (dir. Warren Skeels)
Some movies are considered “slow burns” in that they take their time in hopes of ratcheting up tension. Most will anticipate what’s about to come around the corner while others could get bored and restless playing the waiting game. Warren Skeels makes his directorial feature film debut with The Man in the White Van here and it’s clear that he wants us to feel prevailing dread and a suggestion that a confrontation is imminent. We know who the villain is, we know who he wants to victimize so we’re sitting here waiting for the inevitable.
Inspired by a true story, The Man in the White Van dives into the dark underworld of a seemingly quaint, comfortable 1974 Florida town, and follows the traumatizing experience of young Annie Williams (played by Madison Wolfe), a spirited girl whose carefree existence is turned upside down as she becomes stalked by an ominous man in the titular vehicle. Fans of true crime might enjoy the simplicity of the “stalking” premise.
There really isn’t much plot outside of that, which is a bit of a flaw despite wanting us to get to know Annie and her family. We do have the skeptical parents questioning her (Sean Astin & Ali Larter) and the fact that they aren’t taking her seriously is upsetting to witness. But there’s mainly just scenes of characters interacting accompanied by cutaways to the killer successfully murdering others. The film runs close to two hours and there was a repetitive sense of “let’s get to it.” Despite adopting a slower approach, this could’ve used a tighter running time since we’re mainly subjected to flashbacks of previous encounters the murderer has had with other victims.
Unfortunately, Skeels’ narrative choices get the better of him to where the tension is diffused until the very intense final act which ultimately grips the audience and doesn’t let go. How it all plays out - that’s what makes this worth seeking out. Before that, we constantly jump between years, starting in 1980 and moving backwards from there. There is barely any focus on the stalker (based on the real life serial killer Billy Mansfield Jr.) which does make him feel like a creepy entity rather than anything human. Perhaps that’s the intent - a boogeyman/Michael Myers approach.
While never particularly terrifying or haunting, the film moderately succeeds in ramping up the tension once the inevitable home invasion occurs. Dealing with an unwanted evil presence in a place you consider to be a safe sanctuary is bound to affect just about anyone. And since we’ve spent a lot of time getting to know Annie, we genuinely fear for her safety since we’ve seen what’s happened to others once the man in the van gets a hold of them.
In the end, this is a mediocre film that really could’ve used another pass at the script, some better pacing and less wonky jumping back and forth through time - a technique that’s been done to death. The Man In The White Van succeeds in mainly playing with our expectations about when and how our protagonist comes face to face with her captor. Once they finally meet, that’s when the film takes off. Sadly, there’s a bit too much filler before we get there. At least this film does go out bang instead of a whimper and the final moments stick with you to where the unease might in turn make it difficult to go to sleep that night.
