“Butterfly Kisses” was recommended to me via a horror podcast. The 2018 found footage styled film is a relative unknown, even amidst the devout horror community. It was written and directed by Erik Kristopher Myers, who I learned sadly took his life in 2021.
Its combined use of documentary and found footage is interesting – conjuring reminders of “Lake Mungo” though not nearly as unsettling. “Kisses” is 91 minutes of suspect acting that’s still fun to watch.
Great open
The movie wastes no time in setting the stakes. A film student (Rachel Armiger) is recording a documentary for her thesis. “My name is Sophia Crane.” She states whilst staring right at the camera. “I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be alive.”
Sophia’s project is a documentary following Peeping Tom – a Baltimore legend similar to Bloody Mary. Peeping Tom is said to be conjured when someone stares at a creepy train tunnel without blinking. Tom then stalks you until he gets you.
It gets really meta when a struggling filmmaker named Gavin York (Seth Adam Kallick) discovers Sophia’s tapes a decade later. Sophia has since vanished, and Gavin begins piecing together the mystery of her disappearance, as well as her cameraman (Reed DeLisle) for his own film project.
“Butterfly Kisses” switches from multiple perspectives. The viewer follows Gavin, Sophia, and the crew filming Gavin for yet another documentary. The filmmaker heading the documentary is none other than Erik Kristopher Myers.
It’s not bad.
I love the unique feel to the story. Documentary combined with found footage is an interesting way to go. It’s not really scary, and the acting is at times distractingly bad. Characters sound scripted which doesn’t work for found footage at all.
It’s also a bit tough to think college aged kids would believe in a legend like Peeping Tom, but okay. The gist of the flick is Gavin going berserk trying to solve the mystery which is fine but we don’t get enough of that to really become invested. His marriage to the beautiful Eileen del Valle is on the rocks. He’s sunk all of their money into this project. But it still seems to be glossed over too much to really care.
“Butterfly Kisses” is fine. It’s fun. It’s not great but you could do a lot worse when searching for something scary to watch.
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