Under the oral traditions of yesteryear, the things humans couldn’t explain or understand, the things for which there was little proof beyond anecdote, fell under myths and legends. Now, however, in the digital age, when it’s so easy for anyone to share information via the internet, myths and legends turn toward creepypasta, where user-generated horror stories co-mingle with reality until uncertainty propagates at the intersection. With the use of A.I. services in video and text rising, the line between what is and what could never be is further blurred, placing humanity on a collision course with a hard truth: seeing is disbelieving. This is where co-directors Peter Hall and Paul Gandersman begin with their faux true crime documentary Man Finds Tape, premiering within the Escape from Tribeca section of Tribeca 2025, a mystery thriller that straddles the realm of plausibility as it walks the line between technological paranoia and the deep dread of Lovecraftian horror.
After a series of tragedies and other unfortunate circumstances, filmmaker Lynn Page (Kelsey Pribilski) has no desire to return to Larkin, Texas, but that changes after a Zoom call with her brother Lucas (William Magnuson) instills a terrible anxiety. As the call starts, she fears that it’s another setup for his “Man Finds Tape” vlog series until he blacks out and she can’t get him to snap out of it, triggering her to come home after some time. What Lynn won’t realize is that the choice to do so will have long-lasting and unknowable ramifications.
Man Finds Tape is a first-time feature directorial debut for Hall and Gandersman. They’d previously collaborated on 2016 short Givertaker, with Gandersman directing and Hall writing, and 2019 short No Signal, which the pair wrote and directed. Both films appear to possess elements that could be seen as a dry-run for what would come next in Man Finds Tape, incorporating potentially supernatural elements with questions surrounding the legitimacy of recorded technology. For creatives with a shorter resume in directing and writing, aspects of Man Finds Tape come across more learned and experienced. For instance, to a large degree, Man Finds Tape is a nesting doll of a tale and this approach is what helps the faux-documentary maintain its momentum. The narrative is layered between the larger true crime doc story involving interviews with citizens of Larkin; archival footage of the Page family, the spiritual program “The Salvation Hour,” and events around Larkin; footage shot by Lynn and Lucas; and more. Because of this, the audience finds themselves trying to keep track of whether we’re in the moment with Lucas as he researches the strange occurrences he’s suddenly privy to around Larkin, we’re with Lynn as she joins his quest, or if we’re watching the true crime doc. With each layer, there’s a completely different feel and set of tension, a complexity that’s impressive to see for a debut feature. Additionally, exposition tricks like voice-over to establish characters and relationships can devolve into reality-breaking monotony, except Hall and Gandersman then switch to a shot of Lynn standing in a recording booth, the camera holding on Pribilski’s face so that we can observe the melancholy that we could hear in her voice. This shifts the vocal delivery from a tool of the true crime trade to a moment of character reflection, moving it beyond talking to the audience toward talking to herself, pondering the truth of what she’s discussing.
A still from MAN FINDS TAPE. Photo courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival 2025.
Moments like the ones above help create and then maintain a high level of curiosity, which is imperative for the storytelling. Just like with a regular true crime doc, there are several instances of revelation throughout Man Finds Tape, each one seemingly more outlandish than the next, perpetually raising the bar for both audience and storytellers. Where some recent faux docs have felt like reaching beyond their means, unable to stick the landing, these filmmakers not only maintain the rules of their narrative framework, they do so without breaking their own conventions. In a standard narrative, shots of characters separate from others allow the audience to see them individually, a task harder to accomplish when everything we’re meant to see is being captured in this artificial real world. In one scene, we observe Lynn driving her car, panicked, to a location, yet the camera captures her perfectly — this should be a break in the narrative until, later, we’re shown Lucas had been in the car with her, pointing a camera toward her. Questions asked; questions answered. The use of security footage, while pushing the bounds of reality, is allowed under the guise of, what we learn is, malicious security. Therefore, it makes sense that we would see inside Lucas’s girlfriend’s, Wendy Parker (Nell Kessler), apartment, albeit in fuzzy, lower-res footage. This low-res footage, and all the rest like it, enables the filmmakers to lean into the creepypasta aspects that are normal for a certain type of generational audience member while also being backed up by the sort of outdated tech that was installed around Larkin. These kinds of in-narrative explanations allow for the correlation Lynn makes between cryptid myths and the present-day horror she’s drawn into by Lucas.
With Man Finds Tape produced by Rustic Films and produced by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (among others), there’s a certain amount of the film that’s reminiscent of Something in the Dirt (2022) and Things Will Be Different (2024) in the way it utilizes the cosmic to interrogate the terrestrial. This is entirely complimentary as the questions being asked about what we believe and how we know it to be true are becoming ever more crucial today. We see things online and one presumes authenticity or, worse, that perception bias makes the actual authenticity a lie. Armchair philosophers quote Occam’s Razor in a bid to save their sense of self despite all evidence presented before them, willing to go down with the ship if it means never having to accept their role in the sinking. Hall and Gandersman put so much evidence before us with just enough doubt seeded in that we can understand those who want to protect themselves from the truth, all while asking ourselves whether or not we’d believe it, too. It’s a hard question from the filmmakers and one that’s sure to resonate with audiences who catch the wavelength.
Admittedly, there are a few questions that Man Finds Tape doesn’t answer and the lack of irritation at their absence is a compliment to the filmmakers. Some of this is aided by strong performances from the ensemble cast which frequently cause us to forget that these are characters they’re presenting. Mostly, though, one finds themselves contemplating the internal workings of what we see and how they, as filmmakers working on a fictional tale, made such gags work. We find ourselves ruminating on the possibility that cryptids of yesteryear are the out-of-the-shadows monsters of today. Oh, the unmeasurable horror, the incalculable disquiet at the thought that whatever the parallel Old God is for now would not only go unnoticed or interrogated, but would be welcomed with open arms. Not even in a dissociative, “thank goodness” way, by virtue of the ratcheting horrors growing in reality, but in the false belief that it’s salvation we’ve aided to arrive. *That’s* a thought that will keep you up at night and that’s the gift Peter Hall and Paul Gandersman offer.
But no one will believe them.
Screening during Tribeca Film Festival 2025.
In theaters and on VOD December 5th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Tribeca Film Festival Man Finds Tape webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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