Butterfly Kisses review

This is an extremely interesting film. Butterfly Kisses is a found-footage film of a found-footage film that functions as an assessment of the genre. The film starts with a premise that we’ve seen umpteen times before. There’s a local legend called Peeping Tom (?) who if you summon, will inch closer to you every time that you blink until he’s right in front of you. At that point Peeping Tom will literally scare you to death by giving a butterfly kiss, hence the title.

Two college students, Sophia Crane (Rachel Armiger) and Feldman, (Reed DeLisle) invoke Peeping Tom and document their journey before, during, after their encounters with the malevolent being. This is where things get interesting – this segment is a film within a film. The plot of the story focuses on a struggling filmmaker, Gavin York (Seth Adam Killick) who comes across the tapes and is trying to prove their legitimacy. Unfortunately for Gavin, he’s rebuffed by anyone who will hear him out.

The film takes a very realistic approach to the found-footage genre. If the footage from Paranormal Activity were released to YouTube, would anyone actually believe it were real? Butterfly Kisses says: “Hell no”. There are discrepancies within the original film by Crane and Feldman that convince everyone who sees it that it’s staged.

Making a bad scenario worse, Gavin is also accused of doctoring the film. His film is believed to be a hoax, that he is shamelessly purporting as authentic. The running theme of the film is that he is regarded as a hack who is using disingenuous methods to achieve his big break. What makes the film successful is that there is credence to these claims.

The film is a literary assessment of the genre and in people’s real-life reluctance to believe in the unexplainable. Nearly everyone in the film is dismissive of the footage without really giving it a chance to prove itself. The argument that the film is making is that none of these found-footage films would be believed in real life in the court of public opinion.

Butterfly Kisses is less about Peeping Tom and more about the general population’s skepticism towards the authenticity of supernatural occurrences. Also along for this ride is the characterization of Gavin York. His passion, and it may be obsession, is his only redeeming quality. Dude is a prick and is about as unlikable as it gets.

Having an unlikable lead was a smart choice because it makes it easy for the viewer to root against him in his quest to prove the veracity of Sophia Crane and Feldman’s footage. Because Gavin is such a jerk, I found myself chomping at the bit anytime there was evidence against his claims of the tapes being real. This was intentional and it was a great decision to add uncertainty to the film. Also, every protagonist doesn’t necessarily need to be “good”. This made the film more complex and engaging.

The biggest criticism is the end. Like many found-footage films, it felt incomplete. I’m not sure why found-footage writers stop running before the cinematic finish line but this is a common occurrence that’s frustrating. There wasn’t true closure to the film crew that is documenting Gavin’s journey. For whatever reason their story is left unfinished. Fortunately, it’s not paramount to the overall story being told but it’s a letdown that we didn’t get full onscreen closure.

This film is solid not great, but its true value is on the commentary of people’s skepticism. We have been inundated with found-footage films, so it’s a necessary change-of-pace to to the genre. The filmmakers question if in real life people would accept and believe a found-footage recording. The film makes note of the average person’s tendency to dismiss the supernatural. The film also gives insight into the treatment that a real-life Gavin would likely receive.

This film is a breath of fresh air for found-footage films. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys found-footage films but who has become exhausted with the sheer quantity. I would also recommend this film to those who are intrigued by sociology and the human psyche. The film is a mass character analysis of the general public’s immediate reluctance to accept otherworldly phenomena.

------6.3/10