‘The Man in the White Van’ is Burdoned with Gimmicks and an Incomplete Roadmap

The Man in the White Van

★ ★ ½

This is a horror-thriller that could have been a very good movie. Parts of it are done quite well and do a nice job of bringing the tension, especially in the final sequence. But there are a lot of unnecessary elements the filmmakers added that served more to remind us we’re watching a horror movie than enhance the story. I’ll get to those in a little bit, but first, a quick synopsis.

The film is loosely based on a true story about a serial killer in early 1970s Florida who snags young women and hauls them off in his white van. It is implied in the film that these women are never seen from again. Supposedly, this film is based on true crimes of serial killer Billy Mansfield Jr and is where the warning “stay away from strange men in white vans” came from.

The White Van follows Annie
© 2024 Relativity Media / Legion M

We center on a family of five: William (Sean Astin), the father; Hellen (Ali Larter), the mother; daughters Margaret (Madison Wolfe) and Annie (Brec Bassinger); and son Daniel (Gavin Warren). They live in a house on farmland that’s been in Hellen’s family for generations. It’s a remote location that’s equally perfect for a wholesome family film, or in this case, a psychopathic killer.

William is often away on business trips while Hellen handles the homefront. Margaret is the eldest, and her world centers on her boyfriend and getting a phone extension in her room. Daniel is a typical pre-teen, pre-tech boy – happy to play outside and get dirty. As the middle child, Annie tends to get herself into a little trouble here and there and is known for telling tall tales. She may have “cried wolf” too many times.

The White Van trespasses on Annie’s family property
© 2024 Relativity Media / Legion M

This becomes a problem when she notices an ominous white van stalking her throughout town over several days. Occasionally, she’ll peer outside her second story window to see the silhouette of a man smoking a cigarette. The van follows her to and from school. It will show up on the farm property when she’s isolated and alone, away from the house.

No one in her family believes her, even though the white van’s movements appear to become more threatening. Annie’s family members require a first-hand encounter with the stalker before they believe her. In fact, the movie makes such a point of being sure we know the family doesn’t believe her, it’s almost like we’re given a rubber stamp on our hand to remind us when entering the theater.

There are numerous attempts at jump-scares, which only work two to three times on an audience before becoming wise to the trick. They come early in the film, out of the blue and before anything tense has happened to Annie. These gimmicks seem hell-bent on making sure we know we’re watching a scary movie. The film becomes less scary the more it tries to jump-scare us.

Annie and Daniel defend the house
© 2024 Relativity Media / Legion M

Several times, the film will jump to another moment in time, presumably before Annie caught her stalker’s attention. We see four abductions at different parts of the film. Each time, we’re treated with a rusty, bloody title card that changes from one year to the next. The thing is, we’re not really sure where we’re at in the story to get a sense of where these other abductions are in relation. So it becomes another confusing, gimmicky attempt at adding tension.

Bassinger does a really fine job playing Annie, making her immediately likeable and very convincing in her terror as the film moves along. She’s easily the bright spot in the film.

There’s a good horror-thriller somewhere in this film, but we’d have to do a lot of stalking of our own to find it. In the end, the most horrific part of this film was the death of the story at the hands of the gimmicks.

Drama, Horror, Mystery & Thriller