Studio:   Relativity Media
Director: Warren Skeels
Writer:   Warren Skeels, Sharon Y. Cobb
Producer: Terri Lubaroff, Anne Marie Gillen, Warren Skeels, Michael W. Nole, Paul Scanlan
Stars:    Madison Wolfe, Brec Bassinger, Skai Jackson, Gavin Warren, Addison Riecke, Noah Lomax, Ryan Whitney, Brooke Hyland, Julianne Arrieta, Deborah Ann Woll, Ali Larter, Sean Astin

Review Score:

Summary:

A teenage girl becomes the latest target of a mysterious stalker who uses a white van to abduct young women throughout the early 1970s.

Synopsis:

In 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973, an unidentified man driving a white van stalks, abducts, and kills various young women. In 1974, the man hands over a captive girl to his proud father.

In 1975, 15-year-old tomboy Annie Williams spends the afternoon riding her horse Rebel on her family’s remote ranch. During dinner with her debutante sister Margaret, her younger brother Daniel, her parents Richard and Helen, and her father’s friend Jim, Annie tells everyone how she encountered a snake while riding. Believing she made up the snake story for attention, Helen later admonishes Annie for supposedly lying.

After a church service, the Williams family stops at a gas station. The man in the white van spots Annie and secretly follows the family home.

On another day, Annie sees the van outside her house. Annie tries telling her mother about the apparent stalker, but Helen and Margaret both accuse Annie of having a wild imagination.

Annie next sees the van parked outside her high school. That same day, Annie begins crushing on new student Mark Newsome, who takes a mutual interest in Annie over their same taste in music.

The van follows Annie as she walks home from school with her best friend Patty Tolliver. Annie becomes further alarmed when she comes home to a white van outside her house, but that van turns out to belong to a telephone installer. Annie continues having repeated encounters with the suspicious van while her disbelieving parents continue dismissing her claims.

Margaret takes Annie and Patty to a drive-in movie, but she leaves the two friends alone while she sneaks away to be with her boyfriend Kyle. Annie and Patty run into Mark and other classmates during a trip to the concession stand. Annie becomes jealous when she sees Mark’s group includes popular girl Joanna, although Joanna ends up inviting Annie and Patty to her upcoming Halloween party.

Annie and Patty attend Joanna’s party. Annie becomes excited when she has her first kiss with Mark.

Annie and Patty ride home on horses. The white van suddenly chases the two girls, causing them to separate. The man’s protracted pursuit of Annie eventually leads back to Annie’s house, where the man momentarily captures her. Annie ultimately manages to escape inside to Margaret.

The man breaks down the front door to get inside the house. Annie and her sister escape outside through an upstairs window.

Annie and Margaret commandeer the man’s white van. The man resumes his attempt to capture the sisters until Annie rams him with the van, knocking him to the ground.

Having been called by Patty, a police officer arrives at the house. However, the man is nowhere to be found.

One month later, Annie’s family hosts a dinner for Mark as well as Margaret’s boyfriend Kyle. Meanwhile, the man purchases another van from a used car lot and resumes his crime spree.

Review:

It may be titled “The Man in the White Van,” but the film focuses on 15-year-old Annie’s everyday life as an ordinary tomboy much more than it follows the titular serial killer. Expect hearty doses of Annie’s sibling rivalry with her fashionista sister Margaret, crushing on new classmate Mark, riding a horse around her family’s remote ranch, learning how to shave her legs, attending church, and fretting about what to wear to a party. In fact, should you happen to be out of the room at the wrong moments and miss occasional flashbacks to her unseen stalker’s previous abductions, you might think you’ve mistakenly stumbled into a cable TV coming-of-age drama.

“The Man in the White Van” draws inspiration from the true crime case of Billy Mansfield Jr. Between 1975 and 1980, Mansfield murdered five women and girls, four of whom were later found buried on his family’s Florida property. Unlike The Zodiac Killer or Jack the Ripper, there aren’t many distinctive details to Mansfield’s crime spree. He didn’t have a gimmick. He didn’t create cryptic cyphers. He didn’t dress as a clown or keep human heads in his freezer. Mansfield was merely a run-of-the-mill loser who terrorized at least one would-be victim by pursuing her in a van.

Possibly because there isn’t all that much to Mansfield’s sordid story, not enough substance to fuel a unique feature anyway, there isn’t all that much to “The Man in the White Van,” either. After the eponymous entity begins repeatedly appearing outside Annie’s home and high school, much of the movie consists of unrewarded buildup where Annie anxiously anticipates a frightening faceoff only to encounter someone innocuous instead.

Upon coming home to a white van parked in front of her porch, Annie expects the worst, except the vehicle turns out to belong to a telephone installer. Annie also worries about someone on the other side of a door, but that ends up being her father coming home early from work. A similar circumstance results in the reveal of Annie’s sister. Then it’s her father again. Another time, Annie alerts her father, who goes outside to investigate. A loud gunshot is heard as the family’s concerned jaws fall. Then dad comes back inside to announce he shot a pesky possum that got into the trash.

“The Man in the White Van,” the movie as well as the character, doesn’t make a real move until well over an hour into the runtime. After leaving a Halloween party with her friend Patty, the white van finally chases Annie with the definitive intention of forcing her inside. This begins a protracted cat-and-mouse confrontation between Annie and her faceless attacker that lasts almost until end credits roll.

For four full minutes, Annie runs and hides. Annie eventually makes it back home, where she and the shape wrestle around for a few more minutes. Once Annie escapes inside the house, sister Margaret joins her for another four minutes of fleeing from the intruder breaking down their door. Then they commandeer the man’s van as the struggle spills back outside to extend events further. From the time Annie’s climactic ordeal begins to the time her assault ends, it’s a 20-minute sequence that basically constitutes the entire third act.

Compensating for the noticeable lack in action, “The Man in the White Van” randomly slips in scenes showing the mystery man’s other evil acts from 1970 through 1974, one for each year, and each with varying degrees of oddness for their inclusion. The first features Deborah Ann Woll, whom I didn’t even recognize until I saw her name in the credits. It’s bizarre because this is someone who has had starring roles on big TV series such as “True Blood” and “Daredevil,” yet she only appears here as a nameless victim during the brief prologue, and doesn’t even speak a single line. The last flashback is weird for showing the killer delivering a captive girl to his appreciative father, who tells his son, “You did good” for no discernable reason, then never shows up again.

Structured strangely, and centered too squarely on the more mundane moments of a young girl’s life, “The Man in the White Van” misses more than one mark as a serial killer thriller. Designed to be seen from Annie’s eyes, the movie works better as an examination of one victim’s POV where the murderer plays a secondary role, although even that aspect has issues. There’s a running theme about Annie’s parents not believing her claims about a vehicle following her, but the script doesn’t use this element for a proper payoff. Annie’s final fight with the man should be a direct result of her parents not paying appropriate attention, yet that’s not quite the case. “The Man in the White Van” sets out as a well-intentioned movie, but it’s light on real revelations about stalking situations and even lighter on lasting entertainment value.

NOTE: There is a mid-credits scene.

Review Score: 50

Jan 9, 2025

THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN (2023)

Structured strangely, and centered too squarely on the more mundane moments of a young girl’s life, “The Man in the White Van” misses more than one mark as a serial killer thriller.