Rating: NR | Runtime: 84 minutes
Release Date: December 5th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Magnet Releasing
Director(s): Peter S. Hall & Paul Gandersman
Writer(s): Peter S. Hall & Paul Gandersman

Just because some can’t seen the monster, doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.

With all that had happened since he became a viral sensation, you can’t blame Lynn Page (Kelsey Pribilski) for still not believing her brother Lucas (William Magnuson) when he tells her the tape was real. One lie generally begets more. If everything he did in that tape’s name was a hoax, why would anyone think it wasn’t too? It’s why Lynn uses Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monsters as historical comparison points. Faith versus proof. We become so stuck in the artifice that we forget most myths are born from of a kernel of truth.

It’s no surprise either that writers/directors Peter S. Hall & Paul Gandersman would center their feature debut Man Finds Tape around religion. What better way to make a point about belief than the concept of God as both a savior and destroyer of worlds. Lean into the zealotry of faith when pivoting over into the supernatural and reveal how the line separating them is almost nonexistent. That desire to give yourself to something so fully that you don’t question the motives or results. “His” will above your agency.

Their hook is fantastic: An unknown phenomenon is occurring in Larkin, Texas wherein everyone suddenly goes offline. Their heads simultaneously bow downward, their bodies motionless—those standing remain standing and those sitting remain upward despite having no control of their muscles. When whatever occurs is over, they slowly reanimate with no recollection of having lost time. So, there’s no impulse to investigate what “never” happened. And those rare times when tragedy does inevitably strike simply remain unsolved mysteries.

Enter Lucas and his internet stardom as the creator of a web series following his discovery of a microcassette in the basement of his family home. On it is footage of him as a young boy sleeping at night when a man holding the camera enters his room. While viewers debate the veracity of the footage and the resulting events Lucas experiences, Lynn knows the boy is definitely her brother. The mystery, though? The circumstances? He could have doctored it or edited it from a longer source. She presumes he’s manipulated its context.

Regardless of whether she’s right, however, Lucas’ deep-dive into its origins and his leaps of conjecture to stay relevant (like using a grainy still to connect that figure all those years ago to the town’s local Reverend, John Gholson’s Endicott Carr) do unwittingly uncover those bouts of paralyzed amnesia. A clandestine attempt to find evidence corroborating his story captures one such blackout. Only there’s a problem. Residents of Larkin who lost that time on the day also lose it upon playback. Only outsiders like Lynn can see what comes next.

Shot like a documentary directed by Lynn in the aftermath of everything that ultimately transpires, Man Finds Tape eventually reveals an enigmatic stranger (Brian Villalobos) who is either the cause of the phenomenon or at least aware of it to move within its blind spots. Her work looks to shed light on the cause and culprit(s) even if its origins and purpose remain in the dark (cosmic horror is best presented as an experience left to metaphorical interpretation than an exposition dump). After all, evidence sometimes hits a dead end too.

If it feels like Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson’s diptych of Resolution and The Endless, you won’t be shocked to learn they (and partner David Lawson Jr.) are producers under their Rustic Films banner. Hall and Gandersman are operating with a similar, highly polished lo-fi aesthetic wherein the story is built to its budget to ensure verisimilitude isn’t sacrificed for imagination. Because this thing does go to some crazy places with occult symbology and parasitic creature effects. Carr may sermonize about angels, but they unearth a stairwell to Hell.

And for those worried about the lack of answers, know that this choice is a feature rather than a bug. The one obvious question I had that risked being a plot hole is dealt with at the very end to further elucidate this fact with a “sometimes you just never know.” But those same sentiments also mean there’s ample room for more speculation. Not necessarily via a sequel, but as a train of thought for viewers to contemplate what might have still been missed by characters in a story that weaponizes memory and perception. What might we have lost?

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Kelsey Pribilski in MAN FINDS TAPE, a Magnet release. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.