The Man in the White Van
Late summer is turning to fall in Hernando County, Florida, and fifteen year-old Annie Williams is back at school, making friends with the hot new boy, Mark from Memphis, hanging with her bestie Patty and spending as much time as she can with her horse Rebel, her perfectionist mother Helen and her snotty older sister Margaret disapproving of everything she does while younger brother Daniel wants to learn how to shoot a gun and tolerant father Richard tries to keep the peace.
The run-up to Hallowe’en, something new is in the air beyond the smell of falling leaves burning in piles, the gasoline and corrosion of a white van seen on the streets, Annie at first peripherally aware of it parked beyond the school playing field, showing up outside Rebel’s barn late at night and then following her and Patty as they walk back from school; Margaret denouncing her as an attention seeking liar to distract from her own transgressions, who will believe her?
Very loosely based on the murders of serial killer Billy Mansfield, currently serving an extended sentence for five confirmed murders, and set in 1975 with brief interludes depicting the annual hunt of the unnamed killer of the previous years of the decade, waitresses on late shifts, the girl spotted by the pool, another anonymous blonde pulled inside screaming as he speeds away, The Man in the White Van is directed by Warren Skeels from a script co-written with Sharon Y Cobb.
Strong on period detail in Tiger Curran’s costumes and the big hair and makeup of Dominique Brock and Jared Bowen, in a time before cellphones and ubiquitous CCTV monitoring hard evidence might be hard to come by of the stalking before such a term existed but with two witnesses at two different encounters had the otherwise capable Annie (The Conjuring 2’s Madison Wolfe) mounted a coherent case even the obstinate Helen (Heroes’ Ali Larter), so convinced that God will protect her family they don’t wear seatbelts, might have listened.
A film which strives to create tension in the dumbest ways possible, Patty (Skai Jackson) unable to alert Annie’s family she has been kidnapped because the line is persistently engaged, never thinking to just call the police directly, the procession of victims are as anonymous as the killer himself, Skeels treating them with disposable indifference, the titular white van perhaps intended to parallel the menace of Jaws released that same summer, lurking at the kerbside, in plain sight but unnoticed, but with more focus on boys, parties and kissing the atmosphere is tenuous.
The Man in the White Van feeling like a movie for teenage girls with incongruous stabbings and a disinclination to adequately light the night scenes of which there are many, it works as neither drama nor horror, any episode of Criminal Minds providing more character and insight, and ultimately the ensemble which includes Stranger Things’ Sean Astin, Final Destination’s Brec Bessinger, First Man’s Daniel Williams and, very briefly, True Blood’s Deborah Ann Woll are better than the uninspiring material they have been given.
The Man in the White Van will be available on DVD and digital download from Monday 1st September
