"The Man in the White Van" (2023) [Newport Beach Film Festival]

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s The Man in the White Van, the feature debut of director Warren Skeels.

Synopsis

In a quaint, family town in Florida, 1974, an ominous white van stalks a young girl, and her parents' disbelief leads to a terrifying Halloween nightmare.

The Good

Joseph: Director Warren Skeels’ The Man in the White Van is an interesting film that walks a fine line between true crime thriller and horror movie. Using elements and tropes from both subgenres, it could serve as a cautionary fable for both youngsters to be aware of strangers and for anyone to pay heed to the concerns of those who feel they are being watched or stalked. It may be a bit strong for older elementary school students and some middle school students, but it keeps its violent imagery also completely off screen or suggested. This also serves it as being a gateway horror film. The main cast members — which include Madison Wolfe as Annie, the mid-teens target of the titular killer, Bred Bassinger as her older and popular sister Margaret, Gavin Warren as their gun-fixated younger brother Daniel, Sean Astin and Ali Larter as their parents, and Skai Jackson as Annie’s best friend Patty — all give fine performances. Some red herrings are at play, as might be expected in horror cinema tropes, but Skeels, working from a screenplay that he cowrote with Sharon Y. Cobb, also lays some bread crumbs that had me suspecting certain things before slowly revealing that I was wrong for heading down a certain path or two.

Mike: If you’re looking for a tense thriller, you’ve dialed up the right movie with The Man in the White Van. Skeels, in his debut feature as a director, does a great job at building and holding a feeling of dread or impending peril to just the right point before releasing it. The ominous sight of the titular white van which at first starts as merely an object passing by, or seen from a distance, but starts to get closer and closer like a shark circling its prey, is practically a textbook example of Alfred ‘s Hitchcock “vicarious suspense” — which he explained as "the audience knowing there is a bomb that is about to go off while the characters do not" — is a vice that grabs and holds you.

Madison Wolfe does a great job at portraying Annie who is stalked by the man in the white van, effectively bringing her character to life and making her someone we’re not only rooting for, but someone we care about beyond her immediate plight. The rest of the cast is just as good, and being a kid of the 80s, and a Goonie at heart, it’s always a pleasure to see Sean Astin.

I’m also always a bit nervous with — heck, I guess we have to call it a “period piece” at this point — a period piece set in the ‘70s or ‘80s, as many movie makers will go over the top or too broad and stereotypical in their portrayal of the time. Skeels, however, does a great job at capturing the feel of the late 1970s and 1980 with subtle touches that make everything feel pretty darn authentic.

The Bad

Joseph: The pacing takes some getting used to, as The Man in the White Van unfolds in a nonlinear fashion that feels initially confusing. The family’s constant dismissal of Annie’s claims of seeing the van or a man watching her from outside her window make it seem as though they consider her a fabulist, which seems convenient to further the plot. This is getting a bit nitpicky, but some name-dropping of rock bands feels as though it’s there to simply further authenticate the era of the film’s setting in a token manner, although the soundtrack choices for the film are solid ones.

Mike: Perhaps I missed something early on, but there didn’t seem to be much explanation as to why Annie is treated like Chicken Little aside from one scene where she exaggerates about her encounter with a snake while riding her horse. Without an explanation it just seemed as if treating Annie as a story-teller was the only way to get her into situations where she’d be alone to see the van. Some of the situations just struck me as being a bit too heavy-handed in how dismissive her parents and other adults were towards her insistence that someone was stalking her.

There’s also a flashback device used throughout that threw me off the first couple of times it was used because the indication that we’re watching a flashback doesn’t show as a transition. I DID catch on after that and I feel like even mentioning it is being pretty nit-picky, but I wanted to mention it nonetheless.

The Verdict

Joseph: Once I got into the groove of the film’s nonlinear pacing, I found The Man in the White Van to be a well-helmed thriller. Wolfe stands out in her role of an awkward teen girl who doesn’t quite meet her parents’ expectations and who isn’t one of the popular girls at school. Her character is a highly relatable one, and is well written and performed. The set design and costumes evoke the late seventies well without overdoing things. Seasoned horror movie aficionados may find the proceedings a bit underplayed at times, but there’s no arguing that the film delivers a considerable amount of tension and nail biting in its third act.

Mike: Warren Skeels delivers the goods in his debut behind the camera. The Man in the White Van is a tension-filled, white-knuckle thriller oozing with an ominous air of dread. A standout performance by Madison Wolfe gives us a protagonist who is immediately likable and as realistic as a character could be. The late 1970s setting is perfectly captured and enhanced by a great selection of music that really pulls everything together. The movie isn’t without some flaws, but I never felt like anything was enough to detract from my experience and I will not hesitate to suggest this to anyone looking for a good thrill ride.

The Man in the White Van, from Legion M, is playing as part of the Newport Beach Film Fest, which runs October 12—19, 2023. For more information, visit https://newportbeachfilmfest.com/.

The Man in the White Van