1
[mystery music]
[video tape charging]
My name is Sophia Crane.
It's March 3rd, 2004.
I'm a film student
and this is my senior thesis.
I don't know how much longer
I'm going to be alive,
so I ask whoever find this,
please apply the first
and second halves
of this final interview to the
beginning and end of my film.
I don't know where to
make the cut.
This is the story of Peeping Tom
and how I went looking for him.
Please show this to my parents.
I don't know how much longer
I can go without blinking.
[TV signal tone]
Morning, fellas. Come on in.
So, this is the house
I was telling you about.
This is my in-laws' house.
The information that we have on it, it
seems to have been built around 1970-75,
I can't really find
any information other than that,
but down here in the basement
is where Bart found it.
I'll turn the light on.
Now, I have repositioned it
for presentation purposes so,
if you'll bear with me...
Here, just going to go
and dig it out.
Right now if you can see me,
it was right under here.
It was this... box. Come over
here, I'll show it to you.
Don't watch, huh.
Pretty eerie, but isn't that how
all good horror movies start?
A little mystery,
a little riddle.
[Eve] Well, my husband recently
retired,
we find this beautiful
house that we both loved
and I guess it was
just before Thanksgiving.
My husband went down in the basement,
did what guys do, you know,
check the boiler, check the air conditioning,
play with the filters, things like that.
He found this box full of tapes.
She thought that Gavin could use
them for work,
because he does
wedding videos and
she thought maybe he can tape over them,
or something, like to save money,
but there are mini DVs so we
don't really use them anymore.
You know, I thought maybe Gavin can take
a look at them, see what's on them,
something as like a little project to keep
him interested and excited about film.
And the very first one that I
picked up says:
Final Solution.
Alright,
that's the first one I watched,
I mean, how could you not watch
anything like that, right?
[Erik] So what happened on the tape
Final Solution, what did you see?
A young lady identifies herself
as Sophia Crane, a film student.
Total coincidence, as a film
major, film major,
so already we're simpatico,
which is great.
She's upset about the school project,
she's stressed out a little bit,
and then it got a little upsetting
after that and a little bit weird.
Some violence, some things that I
don't really wanna say right now,
we don't what to give it
all away.
But let's just say
that I had to watch
about the next 40 tapes
immediately after that.
First thing I did was, of course, call the
previous owner that we bought the house from,
left voicemail messages saying
that I found a box,
found something that probably
belongs to them.
I never heard back from them,
and then eventually the phone
number was just unlisted.
[Erik] But the footage never actually
takes place in your in-laws' house.
No, it doesn't, and that's another kind of
fun, clinky dink about this whole thing.
[Erik] What are you doing in
regards to the home?
Selling it.
After the first tape,
the next tape that I saw there
was called Rough Edit.
Everything looks really good, there
is interviews on the street,
really nice flow, and then after about
ten minutes it gets really choppy.
And it's about 40 or so tapes
in here,
so it's like they got too busy to
cut it together and they just kept
filming and filming and filming and
they didn't really know when to stop.
- [Erik] So what did you do?
- Well, being a good filmmaker
as I am, I took their film
and I finished it.
I edited it together myself,
I took their film
and made it my film,
so now it's finished,
now it's completed the way that
it should have been.
[Erik] And what did you think
when you saw it all in sequence?
[sighs]
Well, I didn't really sleep
for a couple of days after that.
[crescendo]
[noise]
Behind me stands the Ilchester tunnel,
home to the B&O... Shit, again.
Are we rolling?
[inaudible directions]
Well, I mean, to me it
looks it...
[noise interfering]
Behind me stands the Ilchester tunnel, a thruway
for the B&O Railroad for over a century.
But for the past 80 years, for local residents,
it has become something far more sinister.
It's become home to...
- Peeping Tom.
- Peeping Tom.
- The Blink Man.
- Mr. Blink.
- Peeping Tom.
- Peeping Tom.
- The Blink Man.
- The Ilchester The Molester.
The Tunnel Guy?
- Peeping Tom.
- Old Blinky.
[Sophia] Alright, so you guys
have ever seen him before?
Unless I'm a ghost right now,
then no!
If I saw him, I'd be dead.
Yes, I did know this one fellow
around my age,
this is back around 64-65 or so,
he saw The Blink Man.
- [Sophia] What happened to him?
- Well, he died.
[Matt] Peeping Tom is the kind of
creature that you can summon up,
so there is a ritual, those teen pilgrimages,
you know, the midnight road trip,
you show up at the trestle end
of the tunnel at midnight
and you have to stare down this tunnel,
looking at the end for a full hour.
And if you can do this
without blinking,
Peeping Tom comes out of the shadows
and materializes in front of you.
Now he's the class of supernatural
creature called a Flimmern-Geist.
German alchemists came up
with this term in the 1500s
for that thing, that you see in
the corner of your eyes
and when you look around to see
it, there's nothing there.
[Matt] Peeping Tom is
a Flimmern-Geist
that you can actually
bring into view.
- Well, he's tall, dark coat.
- Skinny.
- Top hat.
- Big scary eyes.
Mostly I've heard that
he's just a shadow,
'cause he's like in your
peripheral vision.
Instantly there, then not there,
then there again.
There was this one chick,
in particular,
a few years ago, she went to the
school right down the road.
Her and her friends
went up to the tunnel rail
and they started staring down, she was the only
one who could stare for... you have to stare
- for an hour.
- For an hour.
The twist is that
once you've seen him,
you can't unsee him.
Every time you blink,
he's a little bit closer
and he comes closer and closer each time
you blink until he's right in your face.
He sounds scary,
what does he do?
- Gets you.
- Gets you.
And now you've already proved
that you can keep your eyes open
for a long time,
because that's
how you conjure him up.
When he's right up there,
the temptation is death
staring you in the face,
you do anything
you can to avoid him.
But he's got a trick up his
sleeve,
he has very long eyelashes
and you know that thing that you
do with babies,
to give them a little,
he does that,
and then you can't help it, you blink.
What do we call that...
Can I show it, like...
Butterfly...
[Matt] ...butterfly kisses.
I'm pretty sure there's only,
I don't know,
a couple of people in the world,
period,
that can stare for an hour
straight.
I think the world record, I don't even
know if the world record is an hour.
I think the record is probably
maybe 30 minutes, 40 minutes.
It's really hard to stare at
something without blinking
for even 10 or 15 minutes. It will
be really difficult for most people.
Well, of course, there's no record of it.
People too busy dying to report it.
Even if you made it out to that long, I mean
the vision will be quite blurred and, again,
you know, I can't emphasize enough,
the pain would be excruciating.
As with all the best folklore
and urban legends,
you can't really verify
any of the details in this.
It's always happened
to a friend of a friend.
My brother's friend used to tell
the story that his uncle told him.
And they got freaked out
after a while and they ran away
but she did stay there
the whole hour.
Like a month later
they found his body
floating in the Patapsco River.
She ended up trying
to look out a window,
she tried to
burn out her eyes...
[overlapping]
By looking at the sun.
Even though she couldn't
see him,
his presence was still there
so she, you know, she thought
the whole time, she gets blinks,
she ended up blinking,
but she...
[overlapping]
Can she beat Peeping Tom?
- Can't cheat, though.
- Can't cheat Peeping Tom.
You know, I think you'd be
pushing the limits, I think,
of the human anatomy and
physiology,
but maybe that's possible.
Obviously,
from he shared with me,
that would be a terrible idea,
if that's for real.
[Sophia] Absence of proof hasn't
caused absence of belief.
Ilchester tunnel is still a late
night hang out for teenagers
and a popular spot for
fraternity hazing.
It's a dare often attempted, but
apparently seldom completed. Until now.
[Matt] You show up at the trestle
end of the tunnel at midnight...
[Gavin] The metadata on the
tapes
show that it was filmed between
February 14th
and March 3rd of 2004.
OK, so I went back and I looked
at all of the local colleges,
I called, I walked into every
college in town,
showed them pictures of Sophia,
showed them pictures of Feldman.
No information. You can't get
past these people at all.
There's no record of a doctor Wolfe
who's supposedly their professor,
there's no indication that the Peeping
Tom specialist that Sophia and Feldman
go and speak to
in his home even exists,
an Asian American man, I believe he's
supposed to be an eye specialist.
There's no title cards to show
that this person even exists.
[distorted voice] I analyzed them, and I
watched them repeatedly, I looked back on
every incident reported I could
find that would have matched
any of these people, and I can't
find anything that matches up.
My hunch would say he probably
found either some student films
or just somebody making her own
horror movie or something like that.
There's no cuts, there's no retakes,
there's no calling for action,
aside from the first two
minutes of the movie,
where Sophia is obviously
directing herself,
there's absolutely no evidence to suggest
that somebody is directing them.
[Gavin] I've been staring at it for the
better part of six months right now.
I believe it's 100% genuine.
[Erik] It looks like
found footage.
- Movie.
- Alright.
[Gavin] Found footage, I mean,
what does that really mean?
Did I find the footage?
Was it handed to me and then am
I presenting it again? Yes.
That would be considered
found footage,
but as far as putting
a horror movie together,
I don't really think
that there's any...
I'm a, I'm a real filmmaker.
OK, so we're not gonna
be making horror movies.
We're gonna try
to reveal the truth of something
that's a mystery or
kind of get something out of it.
When you make a film that
is presenting itself
as roughly cut together
found footage,
you are building in your excuse for
anything that's wrong with it.
Uh, hey folks, this is the footage we
found, we're just presenting it, yeah.
The camera jiggles all over the place,
not because we didn't know how to hold
a hand-held camera steady, but because
these were kids lost in the woods
getting more and more scared
all the time.
I think what would make it more
real,
would be if it were
the first one out there
and they were not following
a certain genre.
It works on a low-budget level
and that's the primary reason
for, I think, for doing it.
[distorted voice] So my hunch is
either Mr. York was doing that himself
and trying to get some credence to
this and make it look legitimate,
or he just run somebody else's
project and they send it through.
[Erik] Just so we're all clear, the
reason that he can't find the students,
the teachers, the eye doctor...
[distorted voice]
I believe they're actors.
[Erik] You realize that the first thing
that critics will accuse you of,
after gullibility,
is faking the film yourself.
Of course, of course, and that's
why nobody would believe this.
[Erik] Because it's a pretty
big coincidence
that the person who finds the
unfinished film
just happens to be a filmmaker.
Right, sure, and the naysayers
are gonna say that
because that's what they do,
they naysay.
Hum, I don't know if it's real or
not, but it doesn't really matter,
because he's excited about it
being real, so...
We're gonna take this footage to every
professional in town that we can find,
ghosthunters, mythbusters, we're
going to go to the radio stations,
we're going to the TV stations, we're going
to show the footage and we're gonna saturate
the market with this
information.
[Erik] If your plan is to try to
present this as being 100% authentic,
why are you not simply taking the footage forward
and calling a press conference right now?
Why are you planning to have the video cleaned
up, why are you looking to have the sound done?
Well, I mean, you know, we need to present the
best possible version of this thing as we can,
then we're gonna prove to the
world that Peeping Tom exists.
The camera doesn't lie.
Mel Sumner, 19, PolySci major
and staring contest champion.
Alright, dude, so right down
there is Ilchester tunnel
and we're gonna have you
standing right over there
on the other of the trestle,
starting at 12 for an hour.
Well, how the hell am I supposed
to see at the end of that?
[Feldman] Y'all,
just don't worry about it.
- [Sophia] You ready?
- [Mel] Yes, let's stare at it.
Alright, ten seconds
to midnight starting... now.
- [Feldman] What's it feels like?
- It's so hypnotic!
You literally, you can't
really see anything down there.
I can see.
That's so creepy, it's like the
tunnel's like staring right back at me.
This is kind of like the ultimate
staring contest, you know, like...
even if I win, I can never
really blink again.
How much,
how much time we're at?
- [Sophia] Come on, dude!
- [Feldman] You got it, man!
Please stop talking to me.
- [Feldman] Sophia, shut up.
- Stop talking.
[Sophia] You're alright?
Fuck! Oh, God!
Why do you want Handycam?
[Sophia] We're using our good
camera to document this,
I wanna be able
to document that, OK?
You realize the footage will come
nowhere close to matching up, right?
[Sophia] It's documentary,
dude, it doesn't have to match.
I'm gonna ignore that
you just said that.
So, what we're doing now
is we set up this camera,
I'm gonna
shoot it down the tunnel
starting right at midnight, it's
gonna go all the way to 1:00 a.m.
- [Sophia] Yeah.
- Now this will take the place
of a human eye
and it will not blink,
it will constantly run and
hopefully right at 1:00 a.m.,
as the legend says,
Peeping Tom will show up
and butterfly kiss my camera.
[Sophia] Look, as much as
I hate to say this
I think this actually has a
really good shot of working
before you let this go
to your head
simply because a lens is
like an eye, OK?
- The shutter, we're good, OK?
- The shutter?
[Sophia] Yes, I think the
shutter. Well, technically...
That's the only part
of the camera...
[Sophia] Technically, that would
be blinking. The what?
[traffic noise]
[Sophia] Alright, man,
we're coming up on it.
- What's the time?
- You ready?
What's the time?
We've got ten more seconds
starting now.
Ten, nine...
Come on, Mr. Blink,
See anything?
- No, nothing.
- Come on!
And, now!
See anything?
Don't kill it!
You see anything?
Do you see anything?
Feldman, answer my question,
do you see anything?
Do not kill the camera,
just give him a second to...
[under the breath] Fuck!
...that you live in, but if I'm gonna be here
to yada yada, clean this up a little bit,
I mean, as far as the tapes go, can
I make like a box, like the...
- [Sophia] OK.
- You got a shoe box [indistinct], or...
[Sophia] We'll just work on this
another day.
Do we have a backup plan here?
[Sophia] Dude, dude, dude, dude!
Are you seeing that?
Am I seeing what?
Feldman, look right there!
Feldman, look right there!
- Yeah! I know.
- Do you see that?
[Feldman] What?
Was that there or...
Do you see that?
What the fuck is that?
- I didn't add it!
- Are you serious?
- [Sophia] Oh, my gosh, I think...
- [Feldman] Holy shit!
Is there any way that you can
brighten this, like whatsoever.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's gonna look
like hell, but no, I can do it.
OK, do you want me to take
the camera right now?
[Feldman] So, I'm bringing up
the light.
[Sophia] Cool, cool, do it!
- [Sophia] Gosh, dude!
- [Feldman] Bang!
[Feldman] Right fucking there!
[Sophia] That was right
on the hour mark.
Zoom in, zoom in.
Alright, this is the closest
I can get with that,
and like still be able to see
shit, so you ready?
Alright, alright, go, go!
- [Feldman] Holy shit!
- [Sophia] Oh, my gosh!
[Feldman] Look at that
motherfucker!
[Sophia] You're kidding me!
Like five minutes ago,
this is all over,
but we have Peeping Tom here!
- We fucking got him, man!
- Oh my gosh!
[Andy] I don't see any signs that it was
faked, in the sense that like it was...
like someone went in with a
computer and added something,
like there's nothing in there that I
can definitively point to and say:
"OK, this is a fake."
So, I would go with that,
at the same time, you know,
it's a small little video,
there's not a lot of detail,
so I'm hesitant
to commit either way,
but I, if it was...
if something were there, it
would probably look like that.
You were convinced that that
would just
be natural lighting, no manipulation as
far as that particular shot is concerned.
Well, I'm not convinced of anything,
it's certainly plausible.
Right, but you're not
ruling it out.
I can't point to
anything and say:
"This makes is a fake."
It could be a guy, dressed up,
standing up in the back maybe,
like, you know, it could be
a practical kind of hoax,
like someone could have taken
this and in a computer,
it's gone and manipulated it.
The idea of the technological
equivalent of the actual eye,
which is actually
a part of the human organism,
and the human mind, the idea of using a
camera as a real equivalent of that,
metaphysical equivalent, strikes me as...
I have a hard time with that.
I don't know, man, you, I mean we're sitting
here trying to explain spirits, so...
If you want to have a rational
conversation about ghosts
and goblins versus camera
technology, I'm not really sure.
[Erik] So, where are we?
What are we doing?
We are at the VFW
in Glen Burnie, Maryland,
and I'm gonna go and present some of
the footage to an assembled group
of paranormal investigators,
ghosthunters and get some allies here.
[Erik] What's the end game
here tonight?
Well, the end game is that when
we do the press conference,
I can have a handful of these
people standing beside me saying:
"Footage is real,
we're behind you, Gavin,
we believe you!"
And then they... I think they reach
some 10,000 people or something, so...
Our Facebook page
has over 8,000 likes
and most of those people
are into the paranormal or they
want to be on our Facebook page.
So, yes, I could put it out
there for others to see.
[Gavin] We're just gonna show the image
of Peeping Tom coming up to the tunnel.
[Erik] Why are you only showing the
ghost and apparently the ghost proofs?
Just that one shot.
I don't think they need any
of the other information,
I think right now we're just
trying to determine whether
or not Peeping Tom is a real
entity and the story about
Sophia and the big guns and on the actual
what happened. I think you want to see that.
[Gavin] The only plausible explanation
that you folks could think
and myself and the first thing
I thought of
was this has got to be a guy
in a suit,
this is somebody standing there
at the end of the tunnel,
they're playing
a practical joke, OK?
The thing that this bunks that theory
however is the fact that the metadata
on both cameras say that there
was no one else there.
One camera films the other camera,
we've got proof of both of that
it turned on, this is what happens
when they played it back.
Right now you just want to pick everybody's
interest, we're gonna get them to talk,
"Who's Peeping Tom, the tunnel?"
Right here in your mind. Just phew!
[Erik] Gonna get it
so he showed you.
Until he shows us more,
we just don't know.
- [Erik] Right!
- We believe there's a possibility,
but we need more evidence.
Saying everything else for, you know, that
next big steps will be wolf's surprise.
It'll probably work out
a lot better too.
So you know, you can see
what I saw.
I mean the journey that
we've already been on.
You can't tell that this isn't
gonna be the shot,
this is Gavin's chance, this is
my second chance to make it.
[man] Fortune and glory!
[Erik] Let's go back a little
bit,
let's talk about you
as a filmmaker.
You went to school for
filmmaking?
Yeah, my non-degree, that's what
I like to tell everybody it was.
He does a lot of weddings, so,
you know, there's wedding season
and then in the off season it's
kind of a little bit more spotty.
And then as the years went by,
it became a way to pay the bills and to
still convince myself that I'm a filmmaker.
Now, it's just a way
to pay the bills.
[Erik] Isn't this wedding
season right now?
Yeah, it's July.
I'm sorry, I don't want to
embarrass anybody, but it...
She's always hectic, she's always
happened to come and borrow money and,
and that doesn't bother me, that's
what we're here for, right,
to make sure that
everything's...
We can help out.
Everything's OK.
[Erik] Does Gavin know that
you're getting help?
I mean it's not so much help
that it needs to be discussed
or whatever.
[Erik] So, let me ask you a
question, you're taking their film
and you're trying to show
it to the world,
but why aren't you making this
movie that I'm making right now?
Why aren't you doing a film of your
own essentially rather than just,
you know, taking somebody
else's and finishing it?
Nobody would believe this
if I did it, OK?
Nobody's gonna believe a documentary
about me finding footage
and putting it together
and running around.
That's why we need you, that's why
you're here to tell the story.
Because if the audience doesn't believe the
footage, then you're in the same exact place.
- [door knocking]
- Come in!
Fellas!
- [Jamie] Gavin, how are you doing?
- How are you? Gavin York.
[Gavin] I want to make sure
that this is well thought out,
put together with a lot of care.
We're in this business because
we like to entertain,
but we're in this business because
we want to make money, OK?
It's found footage, I understand,
it's a found footage style.
Well, it's real. As in "It's found
footage, because I found the footage."
- OK.
- I actually found it.
- Right.
- OK.
[Erik] But you understand
why it looks suspicious
that rather than just putting
the footage out there,
you are having it cleaned up
and mixed
for theatrical release.
But who is gonna know that?
You're treating it right now
like a movie.
But why can't you treat it both?
Cleaning it up kind of
defeats the purpose
of it being this gritty found
footage found in a basement.
I guess, I mean I'm not really
trying
to walk around and say,
"Hey, look how gritty it is!"
It's your project.
It all comes down to
how to approach it
and when we figure out how
we're gonna approach it,
then we can help you
budget for it.
- [Gavin] Sure.
- I understand that
that's a concern. I understand
that it isn't so fun.
- Yeah, yeah, but about that...
- In the project...
[Erik] Realistically,
how much can you afford?
Realistically,
I can't afford anything.
This is an opportunity for us to
get in like on the ground floor.
This is a game changer. When
you watch it, you will know.
[Erik] You're trying to get
them to do this...
For free, for zero,
for a piece of the pie.
We all know these conversations happen all
the time and in the reality of it is that,
as a business,
there's got to be some kind of
process that works for us
that keeps our lights on
- so to speak.
- Oh, sure, sure.
If I have to pay,
I'm willing to go maybe $1,500.
We could probably do about
$2,000, but then it's gonna be
a lot of ramen noodles.
Most features that get full packages, even on
an indie rate are anywhere from like 10 to 20.
I can't leave here without
them agreeing to do this.
Alright, Feldman, just let me
do the talking, OK?
- [Feldman] Sure!
- Cool! Thank you!
[knocking]
- Hey, Dr. Wolfe?
- Miss Crane.
Hey, I know it's first thing early
in the morning and everything,
but we have something
really awesome
to show you for the documentary
and it would be great...
Wow, wow. Mr. Feldman, what's
with the camera?
[Sophia] I got this, Feldman.
It's actually for
the documentary.
There's actually something that
we need to show you.
Hey, Feldman, are you rolling?
Yeah.
All this will become
very clear in five seconds,
but we are documenting
this entire process.
[Feldman] So, right at 1 a.m.
this is what happened.
- [Dr. Wolfe] Hmm.
- So?
- Nicely done!
- What do you think?
An excellent effect!
You guys have done a good job!
No, Dr. Wolfe, this is not an
effect, this is for real!
This is not the project
we talked about,
but you've got
a nice premise here,
you've got something
you can work with,
you can turn this into
a very sweet horror film.
- We...
- Just one second, OK?
My camera it's about run out
of batteries.
OK, get the camera, please. OK,
this is grey data, Dr. Wolfe.
We need your
advising right now, OK? This...
...psychodrama you're trying
to do here
and I respect, you're trying
to be creative and all,
but I'm very uncomfortable
with you filming me.
There would not have been
enough time to put all these
enhancements in it
and everything else.
This guy doesn't know
what the hell he's doing.
Take five, Feldman.
Look, I would not
put my good name on the line.
Did you have that tape
in your hands
24/7 from the moment that you
walked away from that tunnel?
Feldman is a slacker, he's in the
seventh year of his six-year plan
to get through school and, you
know what? He's a genius.
He's a genius when it comes
to the camera
and doing things with it.
[Sophia] Well, I called
Mr. Folklore
and left a message
on his machine,
so I guess we should
have talked to him first.
[Feldman] Well, why don't we
just go talk to him now?
My big thing is how did anybody
look at that footage
and say that it's not real?
That's what I'm saying.
Obviously, we're still learning.
Like, you just can't fake that.
- Come on!
- [Feldman] Anything?
- No!
- Awesome!
I'm gonna check the side.
Honestly, I feel a little weird about
creeping in his window, but...
[Feldman] This is a folklore guy, I'm sure
this is the least creepy thing about it.
Yeah.
- [Feldman] Anything?
- No!
Shit! Now what?
1527?
Oh, this is it, this is it,
right here.
You guys, this is the house.
Oh, my God.
Just like being in a dream, I can't
believe we're actually here.
[Matt] It was undoubtedly through the Weird
books that I have worked on for a good...
It was about 7-8 years I was working
on this series of Weird books
and certainly in
Pennsylvania and Maryland,
this is what
I'm best known for.
[door knocking]
- Mr. Lake!
- Mr. York!
- Call me, Gavin, please!
- Gavin.
This is the camera crew
and everybody!
Hi! Come on...
Just don't pay them any mind,
they're just gonna do
their thing.
- OK.
- This place is great!
I have to tell you, this is
an absolute thrill,
it's been about six months
I've been studying this place.
Wow, that's kind of unusual!
Right here, this is it!
This is it, this is the spot
where you gave your interview.
- I vaguely remember it.
- Ten years ago!
Yeah! I don't often have
crews in my house.
Yeah, Gavin sent me
a message on Facebook
and he told me that he found
small footage of me,
so I'm kind of interested
to see the footage.
[Matt on TV]
Keep your eyes open
for a long time because that's
how you conjure him up.
When he's right up there,
the temptation is dead staring
you in the face,
you do anything
you can to avoid him.
[Sophia] Nice doorbell, Feldman.
[rock music coming from inside]
[loud rock music]
[Sophia] OK, wait a minute.
Why are we doing it here
and not at my house with
the rest of the footage?
Because I don't want to
unplug the camera from the TV
and I don't want to unplug
anything, I can't lose,
I don't want to go away. The last
time we did it on your computer,
we had the tapes in my camera,
now it's in this,
just let me do my thing
right now, OK?
I got the time codes
written down.
OK, but what are you doing?
I just gotta show you.
I gotta say this is
a real treat for me.
You don't have any idea
how much you validate
what I'm working on right now,
which is really great.
Just feed this up through
your chain.
So tell me about your role
in the documentary.
Oh, it was, it was minimal.
The two people came, they got in
touch with me, they came around
and, yeah, we were here for an hour or
so and then they, then they moved on.
That was the last I saw
them, just once.
Sophia, Feldman. How did they
get in touch with you?
Email, was it phone, did they call
you, did somebody, friend of a friend?
I'm gonna tell you the truth,
I don't remember.
It was a decade ago.
When you got in touch with me,
I was...
I searched my email archives and
didn't find anything there,
if it was the phone, then, you
know, I don't keep phone records.
So, is there a reason why Peeping Tom
was excluded from Weird Maryland,
obviously the Ilchester tunnel is in
Maryland, any reason not to include it?
It just wasn't as strong a story, I had that
kind of a vibe about it that felt more like
what we call fakelore rather
than folklore.
- OK.
- I have a lot more stories
than I have pages to...
Alright, let's talk about
the footage.
I wasn't a part of it, you know,
I just watched it for a few...
Sure, but as an expert,
let's get an authoritative kind of
dissertation on that, if you will.
That thing at the end
of the tunnel with the...
- Peeping Tom.
- Peeping Tom coming in,
it was a very striking image,
it was iconic,
it was an iconic image.
Pretty scary.
What about what happened next?
[Feldman] Are you rolling
on this, right?
- Yeah.
- Alright.
[Sophia] What are you trying
to show me?
- [Feldman] Just watch.
- OK.
[Feldman] There, did you see it?
OK, no.
What am I looking for?
- I'm gonna rewind.
- OK.
[Feldman] Alright. Look in the back
on top of the building on the left.
There, there!
[Sophia] OK, so it's like
a giant bird, right?
No, it's not a giant bird.
OK, what is it?
What do you think it is?
When I go to change the battery
and I turn out and there!
- [Sophia] Where am I looking?
- There!
Right there,
next to the air duct.
[Sophia] Wait a minute.
[Feldman] But remember the spot.
I'm gonna go forward.
I remember,
we turned it off and...
[Sophia] OK, wait a minute,
dude...
[Feldman] This is as far
as I've got.
[Sophia] OK, come on,
show me the other footage.
- Alright, well...
- You got me a little excited.
Oh, I'm running, run, run.
- Did you see that?
- No!
OK, OK, wait, wait!
Play, play, alright.
Get ready, ready, right there!
- Oh, shit!
- Oh, shit!
[Feldman] Rewind, rewind!
Ready, don't blink!
- Here! There, see that?
- That's right.
- [Sophia] Got it!
- Press pause!
- [Sophia] Pause.
- [Feldman] Bingo!
[Sophia] Oh, right there.
Oh, my gosh, dude,
it's fucking Blinkman!
Yeah, the thing is
we're not the ones blinking,
it's the camera that's blinking,
so every time I'm making
a new clip, he's there.
Yeah, wait a minute!
Every single time we turn the
camera on and off and it blinks,
he's almost,
he's getting closer.
[Matt] Well, I had no idea I was
being involved with a film
of that kind, it was kind of
scary, it was well constructed.
So that was, so what we just watched,
your opinion is that it's fake.
That there's no Peeping Tom, there's no,
they didn't find anything in that tunnel.
- Yeah.
- This is all?
- It looked like...
- All non-weird.
- It's...
- It didn't make your book.
What I'm just trying
to figure out is...
Two human beings, alright,
these are two people,
you are the only link
to them even existing and I called you, I
explained to you how important you were.
It just seems to me that you're not taking
it as seriously as I thought you would.
As an esteemed author would.
You're kind of brushing
it off a little bit,
you live all the way out here,
far away from anybody
to be able to track you down.
You don't have emails
conveniently right after,
right after they came and talked to you.
"I don't remember who it was.
I had a phone line that've been
bouncing my service back and forth."
Who does that? Nobody bounces
their service back and forth.
It just sounds to me like
a lot of conjecture, sir.
You wouldn't be involved in
their disappearance, well then?
- That's ridiculous!
- Is it so ridiculous?
Because it's, it's... I don't
know, that was a documentary!
It was a documentary.
Were you gonna say stupid?
No, I'm not gonna say stupid!
I can find stuff
that's pretty stupid.
I mean, I know it's all
that year, but...
But it's well put together.
Look, can we cut this please?
I'm done, I'm done! Sorry!
- Would you like to leave, please?
- No!
Miller's castle, I just don't
understand why you're not...
I just want you to answer
whether or not these people
exist or not. I can get out of here,
I can validate this whole thing.
- I'm done, I'm done!
- Just seem awfully enough
- weird to me!
- Turn this thing off, please!
So all he ought to fucking do...
was to answer
two goddamn questions.
"Did he know who Sophie and
Feldman were?" And:
"Were they coming to make
a fake horror movie
or were they're legitimate
documentarian filmmakers,
looking to prove or
disprove...?"
[honking] Fuck!
Hi buddy, how are you doing?
You want to give your dad a hug?
I missed you!
Did you stay inside,
did you see the rain?
Can I get a hug, please?
[Carter] [unintelligible]
[sighs]
[Mel] How did it go?
It didn't go well,
that's for sure.
Why're you using my computer?
Why is it your computer?
It's got all my work on it!
I've started the computer
to do our finances.
[Gavin] OK!
- [Gavin] Alright!
- Talk?
We're talking right now.
You know these guys are following me around,
Mel, sometimes the story comes out.
Let's go in here.
Come on, we'll talk. Come on!
[Mel] We had another letter.
- [Mel] From the bank.
- OK.
- [Mel] About our house.
- Well, just take
- the money out of savings.
- We don't have savings!
[Gavin] What about the budget that
we talked about on Thanksgiving?
Yeah, and then
your movie happened.
My movie. Listen, it's all gonna
be worth it in the end,
as soon as this hits,
no more wedding jobs!
[Gavin] This is it,
this is what it takes, OK?
There's always gonna be
a tough time, alright?
Isn't it gonna be great if we can sit back
and we can say, "Carter, what happened?"
[Mel] Carter!
Carter needs shoes.
These guys in here right now, I don't
want to get into this anymore.
- Alright? We're done!
- Yeah! We're done.
[Gavin] Done!
[Feldman] OK, so the camera was
a test subject
and stared without blinking for
the entire hour,
then according to the legend
now sees Peeping Tom
and every time it blinks,
he gets closer.
So, in other words,
every time we turn it off
and then on, or make a new clip.
Yeah. There's our thesis,
he's in our camera.
[Feldman] My camera, and yeah, you
know, first he's there in the tunnel,
and he was there
again when we met our adviser,
and again when we went
to see the author,
and in each case,
he got incrementally closer.
But he's still hiding in the frame, he's making
this a game, because no one will believe us,
so we have to draw him
out in the open.
Why I feel you're not
as excited about this as I am?
Feldman, assuming this all
really happening...
It's really happening!
Do you realize what this means?
Yeah, it means
we're filming him right now.
OK, hey, turn it off,
turn it off.
[Feldman] Oh, what's your
problem?
My problem is that
I'm still directing this
and I don't want this
camera on until we figure out
what we're gonna do, OK?
Turn it off!
OK, so the camera's... what was
that? Did you hear it?
Yeah.
[digital noise]
It sounds like it's at the
beginning of each new clip.
It's a digital...
Something to do with
the camera, man,
I mean it might be
a messed up camera...
Something to do with the camera.
Alright, Feldman,
just let me do the talking, OK?
It's on every clip after
the bridge
section, so that's gonna be a lot
of us going through every piece.
Wait a second,
every one after the bridge?
So, as soon as
Peeping Tom shows up,
this sound shows up at the same
time, is what you're saying.
[digital noise]
This is a little crazy, but it,
it kind of,
kind of looks like Morse code.
Like, why would it only show up
after the Peeping Tom?
I don't know, you're the one
that's got it documented.
I'm just asking you,
as a better person.
- Documentary crew...
- What do you think
as a human being?
Why would that show up like...
I don't know, it's something
that you want us to see.
I do think, it's not you, man, maybe
it's not even that you put it in there,
maybe it's that these guys did
when they shot this footage.
This is a little crazy, though.
What the fuck, shut the fuck up!
- What?
- [Morse code]
What does it translate to? Say
it out, say it out loud, please!
- It says Blink.
- Alright, can you guys do me
a favor?
Can you look at the camera?
I believe that you've done
a good job of...
Can you look at the camera?
I need you to authenticate this.
- I need your help.
- Authenticate it?
Just stare in the camera and
say what you
just found for them.
I think it's completely faked.
[laughs]
Whoever shot the footage,
these people that supposedly
aren't around anymore,
they clearly put
this sound in there.
OK, so maybe they did it,
to so whoever...
So if the guy gives the tape...
whoever finds the footage
and then uncovers
this Morse code
or this specific sound that
happens every time.
That's a lot of work, they would
have had to shot the footage,
offload it, edit it and put it
back on DV tapes.
Yeah, OK, well...
- And then, and then...
- He could have done that too.
We don't know, man, we don't know where
these tapes were before they came here.
He's coming here
and he tells us a story,
then we either believe
or we don't believe.
[mystery noise]
Blink test, take one.
Blink test, take two.
Blink test, take three.
Blink test, take seven.
Blink test, take 13.
Blink test, take 19.
Blink test, take 25.
Blink test, take 32.
Blink test, take 40.
[digital noise]
I do not believe
that this video is authentic.
One thing that's really suspicious
to me is that it always appears
and disappears, like either
off-screen or behind something.
The one where the car goes past
like that's just like another
really common trick
to use to make a ghost disappear
if you're hoaxing a video.
I guess here's two points about
the blink test
that seemed very suspicious.
One is that
Feldman steps in front
of the camera
every time he turned it on.
The record button's
on the back of the camera
and it just seems
like a convenient way
to reveal the figure.
Like they...
I know making it black and white
is a film student's
stylistic choice,
but it certainly makes it easier
to hide effects
and hide manipulation.
- [Gavin] Let's talk about metadata.
- OK.
Alright, the metadata. There are timestamps
that show the progression of events.
You can fake that.
You're accusing me of faking
this whole thing.
Look, I don't know you,
I'm not gonna say that...
No, but you'll take my money,
you'll take my money, though.
For my opinion,
which I'm giving you.
[Gavin] But we got the
ghost group which isn't too bad,
[Erik] It seems like they
were sort of your last resort.
[sighs]
They were,
but they have a lot of reach
and if they believe in orbs...
I mean, this is certainly a lot
bigger, more real than orbs.
And there you have it, folks,
the footage, the found footage
I've assembled for you today.
With your help, we can figure
out the mystery, together,
and that's why it's very,
very crucial
you know, that you follow me
on this quest.
Any questions?
No questions! Can I count on
your support? Yes, ma'am.
You don't know that they didn't
have somebody to do this,
you don't know if any of this is
real, you don't know what they do...
You're right, ma'am, and that's
why we're here this evening,
because if I knew
if it was real,
then I wouldn't need you, folks.
If he's at the end of the tunnel
and those are railroad ties,
he'd have to be about
six feet wide.
Six feet wide.
There's nobody in that video
that you could find in public
records to speak with?
I did find this Matt Lake,
he's an author of a book
called Weird Maryland,
which you can pick up if you want
to, I mean I don't recommend it.
I find it very hard to believe that
people who come up in front of your group
constantly get grilled
like this,
it seems to me that everybody
be in, everybody be into it.
I'd say this would be
enough to warrant
an investigation and a
recreation of the experiment.
Paranormal groups need more than
just a piece of visual evidence
to be able to methodologically
quantify and qualify an event.
We would need audio,
we would need...
Sir, sir, all the fancy words
aside, I get what you're saying.
All I'm asking you to do, is
either believe it or you don't
and you want to go investigate
it or you don't.
I'd like to know what kind of
medications that you take?
I, ma'am, I think that
that's extremely rude
and I don't think
that has any bearing on that.
I'd like to ask you what medications
you're on to ask such questions?
When you get a film
on Bloody Mary,
maybe we'll think about it,
but this is a crock and we want
nothing to do with it.
And that's inspired ghost tracking. Now,
we're not going out to investigate with you.
I'm pretty sure that inspired
ghost tracking...
This is not gonna be the last
time that you hear about me.
Is this the exit door?
No orbs out there, but thank
you very much, I appreciate it.
I'm sure that you'll be hearing
from me in the future and yeah...
[ironic applause]
Turn off the camera, please!
I don't want to deal
with it right now.
And there he fucking is.
Now, our problem is that any
time that we moved the camera,
whether we were just moving the camera
or we were in a car or walking,
he was able to flip in
and out of the screen, so,
we couldn't keep track of him,
but if I leave
the camera where it is,
then he's stuck and I got it
where I fucking want him!
Now, what we really need to get right
now, is we need to get the ending.
Now, the most logical thing
for me to think of is, you know,
it's the closeups
as a grand reveal.
Why are you filming me with
the Handycam?
You're afraid of my camera.
Well, that figures, I mean directors, you
always had this vision and you think
what you want to do with it, but behind
the camera, you have no fucking idea!
He keeps on getting closer and
that's where he needs to stay.
He's on my camera!
[pager ringtone]
Oh, shit!
Oh, shit!
Hey, well, look...
[Sophia] What are you up to
with all these journals here?
Wait a minute.
[whispering] That's some
kind of [inaudible]
[electronic noise in the
background]
OK, Butterfly Kisses,
video diary, whatever, right.
So, I don't really want to
accuse Feldman of doing anything
and I'm not even saying
that he's lying, OK?
I really do respect him.
But after reading his diary
a little while ago,
and him having
the diagrams of everything,
I just want to record this
for posterity and just
make sure that everyone knows that I have
my doubts about this entire project, OK?
Right now,
I have doubts about everything.
Honestly, what could be worse?
Knowing that Peeping Tom could
come and get me at any moment
or just being humiliated
by the entire thing,
knowing that Feldman can show
this at the student film festival
and I look like a fucking ass!
I'm just gonna have to roll with it and
hope the fella isn't fucking with me,
like I'm really,
really starting to believe.
[music intensifies]
[mystery music]
[Erik] First off, you gave us
the footage and we wanted to see
all of those things that
you cut out.
Can you please tell us, can you tell
us what Portraits of Dead Friends was?
We actually ended up winning our student
film festival, Best Feature Award for it.
[David] The same two filmmakers,
Sophia and Feldman, made a movie
called Portraits of Dead Friends
in which they wanted to make
a film about people
who were deceased,
but they didn't want to do the
usual kind of, you know:
"He was a wonderful person and he
was born in such and such place."
So instead, they went to the photograph
that appeared with the person's obituary.
Well, A. That has nothing to
do with Peeping Tom.
[Erik] It has everything
to do with Peeping Tom!
[laughing] I didn't want you to
bring that on, oh my gosh!
[Feldman] I'm glad you
laughed at it.
- I mean, I'm not good about it.
- You seem pretty OK with it.
Ok, look, the girl's sister
didn't want to talk about her.
It was a really good story, so we got
a freaking actor in there, big deal.
[Erik] As documentary
filmmakers,
they were willing
to have an actor
play a person
and accept award for it.
Sure.
Do you think Portraits
was enough...
- without that story?
- [Sophia] What do you mean "Do you think
Portraits was
enough without that story"?
There's five stories,
what story?
You know what story
I'm talking about.
Diana's?
The one that we, you know...
[Steve] I'm not sure about Feldman,
he's got a bit of an attitude,
because he wants to be the director,
he wants to be the top dog.
Maybe there was some resentment
going on there.
[Erik] I found a clip
where Feldman
is saying that he did not win an
award, that it was just Sophia.
[Sophia] What did you do
with your award?
[Feldman] I didn't get one.
Wait, what do you mean,
you didn't get one?
I mean, Dr. Wolfe only gave it to
you, and it only has your name on it!
Are you serious?
Feldman turns out to have his
own mildly unscrupulous streak,
because he starts to suggest,
there are things we could do
if we don't get the image that
we're hoping to get.
There's other things.
[Sophia] Like what, like visual
effects, kind of thing?
Something like that.
So we have then at least three
possibilities here.
We have the possibility that
this whole thing is real,
that they caught the image
of Peeping Tom.
We have the possibility of two
of them got together,
to put together this largely
plausible hoax
and we have the possibility that one of
them put together a hoax on the other one.
At least those
three possibilities.
I need to say...
I guess my initial prejudice was the slacker
who was kind of quiet in the background,
was the X-factor, yeah, he was
the instigator of the fiction
Butterfly Kisses,
video diary one.
On reflection, it seems much more to me as
though Sophia, she maybe crossed the line.
You know, when you've invested a lot of time
in a story and the deadline's coming up,
the temptation is, yeah,
how do I make this a good story?
Unfortunately I can't prove that Peeping Tom
wasn't anything more than just an actor and a hat.
Which is kind of sucks, because I don't
know what I'm gonna do from here.
I guess, I'm just gonna need
a new angle.
[Matt] And then, everything
from that that point onwards
was a collaboration
in this fiction.
It wasn't relevant to the story.
[Erik] What about the scene where they're
standing in the old Ilchester Tunnel,
and Feldman is saying if this doesn't work
with the camera looking through the tunnel,
we could do a special effect.
I mean that's, I think that's
desperate times and spitballing,
you know, it's just talk,
it's all loose talk.
When someone wants,
you know,
just to speak their truth
and to bring it out
to other people and to kind of
have that position
of leadership and fame and
everything else,
they will cherry-pick certain things
that support what they're doing.
Your brain is not consciously
cherry-picking,
it is more of an
unconscious thing.
So, it's very easy for someone,
as they're starting to get in
to, you know, kind of an obsessive behavior
or a delusion is starting to be created
where the look at a piece of evidence
and the things that highlight for them,
they zoom and sink into the brain
immediately and then the things that don't,
the brain automatically
kind of just
sections them off like they
don't even exist.
Gavin York's decision to take
that material out
suggests a manipulative,
a very strong manipulative
intent on his part.
If you're working with
all these elements, you can,
journalistically speaking,
you can construct the...
You run the story out of whatever
footage you choose to put in there.
[Steve]
If he took these scenes out,
then he had a particular
reason for doing it.
Why he's allowing you to put
them back in
or to utilize them in some way,
It's interesting.
I mean, there's, there's...
Pardon?
- [Erik] He signed a release.
- Yeah.
He authorized the use
of the footage
in this documentary.
[Erik] There, there are
people who suggested that
perhaps Gavin shot this himself.
Do you feel that's...
I don't think that's true.
Simply because,
when would he have done it?
I mean, my mom found the tapes
in the basement, so...
[Erik] Why do you own
a Panasonic DVX100?
- That's the camera that Feldman filmed the documentary on.
- OK.
They say he goes away
on a lot of trips.
Yeah, he goes
where the weddings are.
Does the money all match up?
Usually!
[digital noise]
Stop!
[noise intensifies and
interferes with his words]
I want the tapes!
[digital noise in the
background]
What happened to your face?
- It itched.
- Are you on something?
No, I thought the lashes
would tick over the itch.
And the camera,
I locked it in the basement.
I threw away the battery!
And when I woke up from
sleeping, it was back.
It was taping me,
he was taping me.
Do you think it was me that
pressed record for this?
No, he knew you were coming,
that's how I knew you were coming.
I'm gonna get the ending that
he aimed for before he does,
but then it's all on you,
you got the tapes.
But I'm gonna get all the footage, you
finish this movie like you said you would!
Remember?
And then he's coming after you.
You're next.
[footsteps moving away]
But you'll win another award!
[violent noise]
This is my new delivery system
- [over the phone] Hello!
- Hi there, I'm looking for Miss Joanne Tillman?
She's not available right now,
may I take a message?
Yeah, this is Gavin York
calling,
this is actually the seventh time that
I've called in the past three days.
On Friday,
when the timer runs down,
from midnight to 1 a.m.,
viewers around the world will be
able to watch footage,
the found footage,
and be able to make their own
assessment of it.
We're gonna get it out
on the world, so...
[Erik] What's gonna
happen after the 24 hours?
The website's gonna be shut down, you're
not gonna be able to see it anymore.
[Erik] What do you expect
to happen then?
The phone does never stop
ringing after that.
[Erik] So you'll sell it
to the highest bidder?
Or one, just, you know,
moderate. One, so yeah, yeah.
I'm not trying to be a jerk,
I just want to find out
how I can speak with
Miss Tillman and
give her some information about
a local community event that
I've got going on on Friday.
[beat music in the background]
Hello...
Hello!
[Erik] How many,
how many newspapers in...
All of them.
- [Erik] Already all?
- All of them.
And you see how it is?
You heard it for yourself,
they don't give a shit!
Hang up, hang up!
I mean, unless you...
Do you know somebody?
[Erik] You know, we can't
get involved.
We have to stay
on this side of the camera.
Stay on that side of the camera
if you want to, man.
I mean, I don't know why you guys want to
sit here and film me, and not get involved,
because you're just wasting
your time too.
There's no ending to
this movie whatsoever.
You get an awesome ending
for your movie,
I get an awesome
ending for my movie.
Nobody's lying, nobody's saying
anything fake, alright?
All I'm asking for is one
telephone number and a name.
And that we can go, and we can speak to that
person and we can put this whole story out there.
I don't think...
it's cheating
if it's for the great reward.
[Mike] It's DC 101,
I'm Mike Jones and
in studio today I've been
talking about
this found footage all
week, Butterfly Kisses.
Gavin York, the guy that
discovered this footage,
and you could see it for
yourself, if you haven't yet,
until midnight tonight at
butterflykissesmovie.com.
Gavin York,
how you doing, brother?
I'm doing great, thanks for...
I just don't understand the deal
with this guy, man,
why are you filming him,
what's in it for you with this?
[Erik] It's supposed to be
a really fantastic, fascinated
character study. And then it is!
Nobody wants to come to...
Because this has been done
a thousand times before.
And we think it's a scam.
I'm not the only one,
it's everyone!
[Erik] I know, but that's the
problem that I've got right now,
I've got hours and hours of
footage that we've shot,
but we don't have an ending to
this documentary.
[whispering]
And you give me this
opportunity to...
- This is the...
- This is amazing!
[distant chatter]
It's alright, I got your back.
- Just don't [inaudible]...
- Alright.
[Mike on speaker] Alright, well, we'll see what
the people have to say, it's 8669 1 DC 101.
Hi, DC 101!
[caller] Yeah, you actually
think there's
anyone stupid enough
to fall for that?
[caller] The video quality
sucks, it's all fake.
Gavin, do you have anything
to say?
Well, I mean, this would be something
in 2004 to address with them!
[caller chuckles] No man, you totally didn't
do this in 2004, you did this just now.
I didn't do anything in 2004,
I just assembled it now.
I'm not trying to profit
off anything.
[Mike]
Have you looked for them?
[caller] Take it
to the police...
[voices overlapping]
[caller] ...just check it out,
that's bogus.
Gavin, skepticism is just
everywhere.
- Yes, a lot of hatred out there.
- A little bit, a little bit.
[caller] Hang it up and find something
else that you might be good at.
[caller] Change yourself, because you're
trying to profit off of somebody's death.
[caller] You think that people are
gonna fall for this [inaudible].
[caller] Showing a hoax it's...
[caller] The second I spent
watching that piece of...
[caller] You seem like a
stoner...
[caller] ...whichever project...
[caller] ...wrong about this,
cursed...
[caller] ...not real.
[voices overlapping]
Hello, DC 101, who's this?
[caller] Stanley.
Stan, what you gotta say
to Gavin?
- [imitates voice]
- [Mike laughs]
Alright, I'll tell you what.
I'll give him five minutes
and I think I've got a guy,
we can get my producer to call.
It'll be good. See what happens.
[Erik] Good for him or?
It'll be good for us.
[Mike] Gavin, listen, I know
people have been blasting you.
I want to...
This is the call that
we've been waiting for,
let me bring him on here.
- Hello, caller!
- [caller] Yes.
Hi, let me introduce you.
Gavin, this is Ed Sanchez,
the king of the found footage,
the director
of the Blair Witch Project
who is calling to talk about
your movie Butterfly Kisses!
Ed, how you doing, brother?
[Ed] I'm doing well, man
how's it going?
- Good.
- Good afternoon! Big, big fan!
[Ed] I've seen the footage.
You know, it doesn't look
completely genuine to me.
You know, I think there's some acting
involved, there's some effects involved,
and I think that it's kind of
disturbing that he feels that
the only way to market this
footage is to pretend it's real.
So, you know, I just kind of had
to speak out about it, you know?
[Ed on radio] I understand
where Gavin's coming from,
but, you know, he's trying to,
you know,
get in the business,
he's trying to make this film,
but it's just
been done before, it's a...
Did you do this to start your
career in Hollywood?
Is this your way of maybe
kicking that door open?
I've been a filmmaker since
I was about 12 years old.
Right, that's why
everyone's saying
that this is not footage
that is legitimate,
that you created this
on your computer.
I completely understand that.
And you've made this
your film.
You're a professional.
Could you have made this
on a computer at home
with just a few projects?
At least for me, as a filmmaker,
you can tell that there's
some stuff
that is obviously,
you know, manipulated.
There's like these moments of...
Where just the camera happens
to be on, to capture a moment.
That's like a big thing
of found footage is like.
The camera happens to be on while
something crazy's happening,
you know, you just don't have that
kind of luck in life, you know.
The whole legend is that the
footage is found in a shoebox
and the footage carefully shows
like oh, here's this shoebox
that we found it in here, I'll
show it in front of the camera,
which is like something that they're
setting up the shoebox, you know.
To me those are kind of,
you know,
signs that you're setting
something up dramatically.
In a movie you do that,
you know.
[Ed on radio] You know, after
the initial buzz of our movie,
we never pretended that it was
real.
I just have a problem with
him thinking that it's for real.
You know, maybe I think
he has a problem.
[Mike] Ed, what are gonna be the
consequences if this does come out
and it's found out that
Gavin made this up?
[Ed on radio] You're just kind
of really
destroying your reputation
with this,
because eventually
somebody's going to come out,
some proof is gonna come out
that this is not real,
and, you know, people are gonna
ask what were you thinking?
And I'm kind of asking that
right now, what is he thinking?
You know, just fess up,
you know what I mean or...
I'm being about as honest
as I can be about this.
Alright, well, you say so.
Well, Gavin York, check out the
movie butterflykissesmovie.com,
it's on until midnight
tonight, thank you!
DC 101!
[radio music]
Mel?
Hey!
[Gavin crying]
It's alright!
Her mom set up an account.
For Carter and
they were putting money into it.
[clock ticking]
And I took all the money
and I spent it on the movie.
[Erik] How did she find out?
She wanted to go
and take out a sum.
[violent intro sound]
Authorities report that
the strange death
of a local man
leaves more questions
than answers this morning.
Friends say that Feldman,
a film student,
had been acting strangely.
Yeah, he's been making this
movie with this...
[digital noise mixed with
reporting]
[reporter] The body was lying
on floor, smashed to pieces.
Feldman's body had been found in the
cabinet, under the kitchen sink.
- This creature is coming and...
- [electronic noise]
At this time, authorities await
results of an autopsy.
[TV news generic]
[crying]
[car blinkers and traffic noise]
[Erik] Hopefully we have a record
with him this evening and, you know,
figure out where he's been, if he's
giving us a call, obviously we're,
you know, we're showing up there to shoot,
we're just filming this for posterity
- at this point.
- Yeah.
I don't really think we're gonna
use much about this, to be honest.
Sure, I agree!
[car passing]
[crew member] You want me to keep
rolling on this so that we have...
[Erik] Just whatever you do.
[crew member] I don't have
a lot of battery left.
If you're right about it.
Alright!
[Erik] Gavin!
Hey, Gavin!
Gavin!
[crew member] I'm gonna stop
recording for a second.
[Erik] No, no,
just keep it rolling.
[crew member] No, what are we
recording here?
We're not doing
anything, I don't...
Go talk to him or something,
man, this is getting...
[Erik] I don't even know
what to say to him!
[crew member] I don't know,
Erik, you're the director!
[Erik] Gavin!
Look, buddy, we can't help you
if you don't talk to us.
[Gavin] It's not...
Just when he gets
closer to you...
It's when you get
closer to him...
[Erik] Wait, what are you
talking about?
[Gavin] Butterfly kisses!
[dramatic music]
[crew member] We need to help
this guy, seriously.
We call, we call his wife!
We don't have her number. She changed her
number. I don't know what her new number is.
What about his, what about his mom-in-law?
Whatever her name was.
I never had her number.
It worked through Amelia,
and the house is sold,
so I don't even know
how to find her.
I don't know, I mean, I'm not...
We're supposed to make it
a movie about him,
and I don't know how much, if this is our
responsibility, we're not, not his family.
It is our responsibility now,
we've...
We've taken him this far,
we've kind of screwed him over
on a couple things!
We haven't screwed him over,
Kenny!
But, DC 101 was total set up.
DC 101 who's not a total set up,
he agreed to it.
He didn't know you were gonna have
Ed Sanchez call him. Come on!
I did not put him
on the air to fail,
we gave him that option.
Look, it was mutually exclusive,
mutually beneficial. We, we...
We needed an end to the movie, and he needed
a public forum through which to speak.
We agreed on this.
How is that,
how is that my fault?
- You guys, all said...
- You ruin his life for your movie,
how about that?
At what point did this
become my movie
and this became
I ruin somebody's life?
Man, you just keep pushing him.
You keep...
Why do you guys, why do you
guys keep showing up
with the gear and shooting,
what we're doing then?
If you're so, if you have such
moral issues with it,
why are you fucking here?
- Who's that?
- What?
[metal sounds]
Somebody's running
across the tracks.
- Come on, guys.
- Shit!
[footsteps]
Where is the camera?
Did he take the camera?
[running footsteps]
Guys, slow down.
- Did he seriously go in there?
- I'm not going in there.
Guys! The camera battery
is getting low!
We have to make a decision here.
Gavin!
The camera is about to die,
Erik!
What are we doing?
- What is that?
- What?
- Who the fuck is that?
- Gavin!
- Did you see?
- It's right there.
- Did you see anything?
- I don't see anything!
It's right in fucking the end of
the tunnel! What the fuck is...?
[TV signal tone]
[Sophia] Feldman sent this
the night that he died.
As you can see, he details out
what he called the final plan.
At the end, he only had three blinks
left, so he set the camera up
into a mirror, so he covered both sides,
the front and the back of himself.
He crouched down
in front of the mirror
and had this hammer ready,
so that on his final blink
he could stop, he could stop him
from getting him, so he thought...
Feldman's parents let me go over
and go through everything when
Feldman had passed, because we were
working on the project together.
I was able to get this tape which was
in the camera, up until the end.
As you can see, it's all cracked
up and the tape was unspooled,
but I was actually able to put
it back together.
It took a few days,
but I did it.
The only thing that would
play, was the last clip,
and that's OK,
because Feldman was smart.
He also had this.
[digital noise]
[noise intensifies]
[loud dramatic music]
Ah!
[electronic noise]
[heavy breathing]
[violent horror noise]
[TV signal tone]
Alright, so Andy, for the benefit
of the camera, can you please,
can you please tell me what you
sent me in the email?
Well, what I found was,
if you look when Peeping Tom
is jumping up,
like jumping up
to grab Feldman...
If you look in his eye, there's
actually an image in his eye.
At first, I thought it was the shot
of the, like the Ilchester tunnel,
like I thought it was like
a frame grab from the video
where he appeared, but
I actually think it's the other
way around,
like it's what Peeping Tom saw
when Peeping Tom appeared
so he's looking through the
tunnel
and... you see the lights from
that camera
and beyond that is like
the train bridge.
[Erik] OK, so this,
this is his POV
of Crane and Feldman filming
him the night...
[Mike] It's Peeping Tom's
point of view, yeah.
Wow, ah...
[Matt Davies] So this is what
it sounds like by itself.
[digital noise]
You wouldn't necessarily
be able to tell
that that's Morse code,
but you can see that it looks
a hell of a lot like it.
So, we, last time we were
working with Gavin,
there was kind of some debate
over the sound
that we found
at the beginning of...
seems like each clip after
the bridge footage.
Using this synthesizer sampler
from iZotope, called Iris,
you can basically feed it the sound
and it'll map out the frequencies
and amplitude of the sound
visually.
[digital noise]
So, when I called you
guys in here, I was actually
thinking that Gavin would be
in here, as well.
He's the director and yeah, I would
have thought he would want to see this,
it's pretty crazy,
kind of validates him, but...
[Erik] Gavin have been missing
for nine days.
Huh!
Alright, so, OK.
Are you rolling?
- Yeah!
- OK, so, on the way over here,
before I left this arrived in
the mail, this is from Gavin.
I have not opened it up because
I wanted to wait until
we do this on camera. Ready?
- Yeah.
- OK. Alright.
DVCAM.
- What is that?
- Holy shit!
This is, this is...
Sophia Crane, this is from
the found footage.
This is the package that
Feldman sent her.
No kidding!
This is...
OK, alright, look,
either this is a prop or...
Oh, fuck, how did he get this?
Because that was the... and then the stuff
that Sophia found with the, you know,
she was like storyboard,
storyboard, concept art.
- This is gotta be fake.
- Where is it coming from?
- I don't know.
- I thought it was Gavin.
Gingo Corp's not even showing up
on the map,
anywhere in Maryland,
there's a Gringo Court!
Coincidentally.
Of course,
it's the Ginkgo Court.
What the fuck is Gringo?
Because...
Hey, look, I mean, sometimes they change
communities, they change the street names...
- Is anything else in there?
- Yeah.
See, here's his journal, so maybe it tells
what he's been doing for the past two weeks.
I don't know.
This is a motel key card.
- Are you rolling?
- Yeah.
[knocking on door]
A lot of survey by...
Fucking, what's going on?
Gavin!
Is the management guys still...
Good, let's go in! I don't think
we should record in here.
We're not breaking in,
are we?
Yeah, right.
Oh, shit!
Gavin!
Jesus, it's not good!
The hell is this?
- Kenny, Kenny!
- What?
- The GoPro's on.
- Jesus!
What you think he's doing?
What the fuck is this?
Recording it.
Here's his camera,
there's no card inside it.
Does anybody see the Panasonic,
the DVX?
The tapes?
Everything OK?
OK, cool. Put this in the car,
we'll take these with us.
- Shit!
- OK.
Fuck, dude! Let's get
out of here! Let's go, let's go!
What's wrong?
I don't know, seriously!
Oh, fuck, dude!
What is it, man,
what's in there?
[officer] I suggest to start from
the beginning with what happened.
[Erik] OK, so, we're making
a documentary.
[officer] Is that on?
Are you recording it?
- Yes.
- OK.
[officer] Go ahead.
[Erik] We're making
a documentary about
the deceased.
[violent music]
[Erik] Carl, where's the
footage?
Where are the tapes?
In my car.
[crewmember] Do you think,
should we show the police
the footage on the camera and
everything?
- No, no.
- Why not?
They might take it away.
They'll take the tapes,
they want the tapes,
they need the tapes.
The tapes, look, the tapes
in the shoebox
have absolutely nothing to do
with what happened here.
Nothing to do with it, and we already have
a real scene, we can use the footage.
I'm talking about the footage
on my camera that we just shot,
shouldn't we show that
to the police?
Yeah, but, if we show that
to the police
it'll show that Carl found the
tapes
and then they'll take the tapes.
What do you think he was doing, all the GoPros
and all the camera stuff, like, what...
I don't know, I think the more important
question is who took the cards?
Who? They're not
in the cameras...
- So we'll find out in ten years!
- What?
That's when the footage
will be found!
I went to bed early last night.
I was so tired, kind of like you are
right before you're getting sick.
I dreamt I went to the tunnel
and I was staring down,
right at midnight.
Everyone says it's so hard,
but I thought it was so easy.
And when I stared for an hour,
he appeared
and then I woke up and
I realized it wasn't a dream!
It's ten miles from my house
and I don't know
how I got there!
Alright, I'll tell you about
this tunnel...
Oh, fuck!
Let's be honest here, this is not
what we thought this was going to be,
and now we're trying to make
something out of it.
Listen, not all documentaries,
not all projects come together.
This is one of those examples, it
just didn't, it didn't pan out.
So you're saying we don't have a compelling
story to cut together here, we don't have...
There's, there's no end to this story other
than us standing here on the tracks.
There's no end of this story because
it's all, this is the beginning.
- You understand?
- What?
We have the tapes, right?
Then there's what
Studio Unknown found, OK?
They found that sound anomaly.
We didn't put that there,
Gavin didn't put that there.
With what Wardlaw found, OK,
with the reflection in the eye,
and I don't know we put this
documentary out there
and other people can take it
to the next step!
- This is just the beginning.
- You're contradicting yourself!
- I'm not contradicting myself!
- You just said we're not trying
to present us like a real story, and now
you are trying to present it like this.
I am trying to present this like the real
story of what happened to Gavin York.
And because we're trying to tell
Gavin's story,
these component factors that are
included in there are part of his story,
part of what happened to him.
I'm not saying it's real,
I'm just saying that
what kind of a fucking idiot
just drops it!
[crewmember] Erik, do you believe
that the Blinkman is real?
[dramatic music]
[video tape charging]
My name is Sophia Crane.
It's March 3rd, 2004.
I'm a film student
and this is my senior thesis.
I don't know how much longer
I'm going to be alive,
so I ask whoever find this,
please apply the first and
second halves
of this final interview
to the beginning and
end of my film.
I don't know where
to make the cut.
This is the story of Peeping Tom
and how I went looking for him.
Please show this to my parents.
I don't know how much longer
I can go without blinking,
but I think I found a way
to beat him.
The girl who stared into the sun
she only lost her sight,
she still had to blink.
Everyone blinks.
It's right here, taunting me,
try one last thing.
[heavy breathing]
[glass breaking]
[noise]
They say you can't cheat
Peeping Tom.
But I think I found the way to
beat him at his own game!
[crying doubled by noise]
[crying]
[screaming]
[TV signal tone]