The Man in the White Van (2024) by Warren Skeels


Director: Warren Skeels
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Plot:
Living with her family, a young woman tries to deal with the family's expectations on her to join the rest of the family in going through the usual family cliches known of her which are soon disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious killer using a white van to stalk her and her friends.

Review:

This was a fairly fun and likable lighter genre effort. Among the better elements here is the generally solid work done to emphasize the appearance of the killer and the truck following her throughout her life. As we get to see her in a normal everyday setting with her family trying to go about getting her schooling in order or the different interactions with her friends that paint a picture of who she is, the constant nature of the van appearing to follow her around gives everything a fine suspenseful touch. That carries on with the flashbacks to see what the killer’s capable of with the torture of his victims so that the sequences showing the van getting closer to her while no one else believes her sets up the kind of fun finale where the stalking finally comes to fruition and makes everything feel far more tense than expected.

Other than that, though, there’s little to this one that works. The main issue is a distractingly obvious low-key nature where all the graphic and gruesome content is completely missing. There’s no real blood and gore in here so none of the kills keep this one going for any kind of intense moments so its lighter tone makes for a disjointed experience with nothing happening. As well, the whole thing about the parents not believing anything she says simply so that the film can continue on with finding new ways to get her in danger from the killer as the series of confrontations are more than enough to signal something’s wrong which is immensely tiring to see play out. Far too many instances would’ve been enough to signal something is wrong that’s dismissed out of hand so that the encounters can continue, and it doesn’t feel natural, which is the main issue that brings it down.


Overview: **.5/5
An enjoyable enough lighter thriller for what it is, there’s a lot to like here which is somewhat hampered by its stylistic approach which renders it a watchable if uninspired affair. Give it a shot if you’re interested in this approach to the genre or are fans of the creative crew but more hardened fans or those turned off by its negatives should heed caution.

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