The camera doesn't lie, but people sure do.
Butterfly Kisses is a 2018 found-footage Mockumentary written and directed by Erik Kristopher Myers. The film stars Seth Adam Kallick as Gavin York, a struggling wedding videographer whose family discovers a series of video tapes containing the final project of two film students: Sophia Crane, and a cameraman known only as Feldman. The story then switches between the student film, a documentary on the urban legend of Peeping Tom, and York's attempts to establish the authenticity of the footage.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Apocalyptic Log: The student film plays out like this, with Feldman and then Sophia chronicling their experiences trying to evade Peeping Tom as he slowly closes in on them. Feldman captures his last moments of life, and while Sophia survives, she is arguably forced to endure a Fate Worse than Death.
- As Himself: Eduardo Sánchez, one of the creators of The Blair Witch Project, calls in to a radio show to tell Gavin to stop trying to pass off Peeping Tom as real.
- Asshole Victim: Gavin is a total dick most of the time (see Jerkass below), but it's hard to argue that he deserves his eventual fate.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Peeping Tom manages to claim the lives of both Feldman and Gavin, and drives Sophia to insanity. Not only that, but the documentary crew have potentially sent many more victims his way.
- By the Eyes of the Blind: You can only see Peeping Tom if you conduct the ritual to summon him. Feldman and Sophia initially summon him by pointing a camera down the tunnel, and thus only their camera picks him up. Both Gavin and Sophia physically stare down the tunnel, and thus, both can see him with their own eyes.
- Genre Deconstruction: Of found footage. The film explores what would happen if something paranormal was actually captured on tape, how people would react to finding it, and the amount of work that would have to be done to verify it.
- Glowing Eyelights of Undeath: Peeping Tom has mostly Black Eyes of Evil with glowing pinpoints in the centre. It's later revealed that his eyes reflect his point-of-view looking back up the Ilchester Tunnel.
- Haunted Technology: Peeping Tom becomes attached to Feldman's camera, after he and Sophia use it to conduct the ritual to summon him.
- Jerkass: Gavin York. He immediately attacks and belittles anyone who doesn't share his belief that the student film is authentic, manipulates the documentary team, and spends his son's education fund on making the documentary, which causes his wife to leave him.
- Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: Both Feldman and Gavin carry journals, in which they create some impressively unsettling art of Peeping Tom.
- Room Full of Crazy: Sophia's room in the opening and penultimate scenes. There are drawings of Peeping Tom all over the walls, in what looks like charcoal.
- Summoning Ritual: You can summon Peeping Tom by going to the Ilchester Tunnel at midnight, and staring down it for an hour, without blinking. Pointing a camera down the tunnel also works.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Pretty much nobody believes in the authenticity of the Peeping Tom footage upon first viewing, chalking the paranormal events up to camera tricks and special effects. Even the documentary team are reticent to believe that Peeping Tom is real, though out of the whole cast, they've seen the most evidence pointing to his existence. The best they can do is put the information they have out into the world, and hope someone else can figure out the truth.
- Gavin constantly lashes out at anyone who doubts the student film is real, and has a lot of trouble getting anyone to help him investigate further as a result.
- The paranormal society reject Gavin's request for help investigating Peeping Tom out of hand, stating that they need more than one piece of footage that could easily have been faked.
