"a thought provoking and chilling tale"

True Crime Thrillers are all the rage at the moment, it is fascinating to delve into the mind of a serial killer to see what motivates them to do what they do, but what about the victims or the survivors of these crimes, they have a voice too and The Man In The White Van from filmmaker Warren Skeels explores that side of the crime.

Taking place in the 1970’s, we are shown vignettes of previous kidnappings and murders leading up to the the bulk of the story taking place in Florida in 1975, where we follow Annie (Madison Wolfe), who is the middle child of a quite well off family; her dad (Sean Astin) works a lot, her mum (Ali Larter) is a socialite, her older sister – Margaret (Brec Bassinger) is a boy obsessed fashionista and her little brother – Daniel (Gavin Warren), is very protective of his family.

Annie is followed by the van and terrorised at home. The unique aspect of the film that stood out to me was the fact that the story is told from the point of view of the potential victim, and so as Annie doesn’t see the man after her, the audience doesn’t see the man either, we never see his face; either just his silhouette with a lit cigarette or legs which adds to the dread and tension of proceedings.

The Man In The White Van is based on the account of a survivor and so great care and responsibility is taken by the filmmaking team led by Skeels, he should be commended for bringing this important cautionary tale to the screen, and told so effectively with a stellar cast, led by Wolfe.

Wonderfully acted by the cast, with Madison Wolfe being a stand out as Annie, she isn’t believed at first because she is known for telling tall tales, but when she is believed, leading to an excellent showdown, the other stand out performance for me was Brec Bassinger as Margaret, she steps up when it counts.

All in all, The Man In The White Van is a thought provoking and chilling tale of what has happened in rural American, there are unfortunately more stories like this that will be told and that is largely because of the vast amount of cold cases out there, that are still unsolved.

I’d like to see more from this cast and the director, even if it isn’t True Crime, they all have voices that deserve to be heard.