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Gavin gives a forced performance. The entire movie is boring. The idea of this entity is really cool however it lacks any real structure. It seems like everything was filmed on a whim with no script. Non of it is believable.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

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I was, at first, skeptical of the film because of the found footage aspect. However, it is a brilliant deconstruction og the subgenre. It is well acted, smart, aware of itself and quite funny in some scenes. One good jump scare and a creative story.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Found footage movies are inevitably going to draw comparisons to The Blair Witch Project, and rightly so. That film captured lightning in a bottle with its low-budget, improvised realism and its characters' gradual decent from mere skepticism to sheer terror. It hit all the right notes in making its fiction feel real without conforming to established horror movie tropes like gore, ominous music, scary creatures, brooding killers, or jump scares. It was fresh and new because it threw all of that out and made its own set of rules adhering to the one unwritten rule of great horror: the unknown is always more frightening than the known. Unfortunately, very few found footage horror movies seem to understand that kind of subtlety, either attempting to re-create the magic of TBWP by hitting all the same notes, or by clumsily cramming the same stale old tricks in with their "gritty" hand-held camera work and improvised dialogue. Erik Christopher Meyers' Butterfly Kisses attempts to do all of that, and while it does a fine job of setting up an interesting premise and plot, it ends up wrecking what it builds with cliches. I won't bother with a plot summary, as the description above pretty well sums it up. And it IS engaging, for its first hour. It carefully sets up its story; there's a documentary within a documentary, things no one can explain ( and no one to explain them), the possibility of a hoax, etc. There's enough to keep one guessing for a while. It's all pretty fascinating for a while, gradually building a feeling of unease that is palpable. Then they ruin it with the cheapest trick in the book: a jump scare with screeching white noise. To create suspense and fear so intelligently and carefully and then shatter that framework with a screaming scare diminishes the thing they built. It takes the mojo out of what would have been a wonderfully creepy ending because it shows too much when it could have left the viewer guessing. I was sucked in for the first hour of Butterfly Kisses. There were so many excellent ideas, but the overall effect was weakened by a refusal to let go of useless horror staples. While not terrible, it ultimately misses the mark. And it came so close.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

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Audience Member

This movie had a ton of potential, but in the end ended up being just good (a 3.25* to be exact). It's a layered film with multiple storylines all going on at the same time. The different components are: (a) in 2005 Sophia and Feldman are doing a school project/documentary on the urban legend Peeping Tom (aka Blink Man); (b) in 2015 Gavin finds all of Sophia's and Feldman's recordings and makes a documentary about their documentary (he edits the footage, improving the quality of their videos and it's sound); (c) also in 2015 Gavin hires a film crew to make a documentary about his attempt to make a documentary (about the students making their documentary). It may sound complicated but it all adds up. These documentaries bring about some important questions: Is Peeping Tom real? Then there's the question re the authenticity of each of the 3 groups filming their documentary (did Sophia/Feldman create a hoax documentary, therefore Peeping Man isn't real? Did Gavin doctor any of the Sophia/Feldman's videos he found, in order to sell his documentary? Did the film crew doctor any of their footage re Gavin or the original tapes in order to create demand for the final product that we as viewers end up watching? It gets a bit meta.) So at it's heart it's a movie about authenticity... is Peeping Tom real and/or did anyone doctor their footage in order to increase demand for their video. Of these 2 questions I wish they focused more on whether Peeping Tom was real. Because some of those scenes really scared me! Whereas the scenes re Gavin becoming more and more unhinged were a bit boring and they screwed up the pacing of the final product. In the end, you have to decide if it was all true or whether someone doctored the footage. I went with everyone telling the truth and therefore Peeping Tom was real and therefore he killed Feldman and Gavin and made Sophia self mutilate (which FYI they could've done a better job of filming... it looked very fake). Another thing I didn't like (and which we see more and more now in today's found footage movies) is the tapes being of such terrible quality that different scenes get spliced together in Sophia/Feldman's recordings (the found footage). For god's sake don't stoop down to that level in order to take the easy way out... have good quality found footage by working harder at making that footage seem real. My2c. But even taking all that into account, it's still a movie that will hold your attention because it's interesting. It likely won't scare you (except for may be 1-2 scenes) and it's nowhere near the quality of Blair Witch Project (I mention that only because I see a lot of people comparing the 2 in their reviews... like they're even comparable). It definitely has it's faults, but if you're a found footage fan who watches all the crappy micro budget ones, this will be a welcome change that can be enjoyed. Just temper your expectations.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

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Audience Member

Butterfly Kisses is a bold piece of film-making that will probably struggle for life out side of the festival circuit, but debut director, Rafael Kapelinski and first time writer Greer Taylor Ellison should be applauded for their bravery when tackling such a dark subject. Butterfly Kisses doesn't judge or force sympathy onto Jake it's protagonist, a 16-year-old peadophile who is fighting his dark urges in a world saturated in internet porn and pressures to lose virginity. It presents a different view on the subject of predator that raises many interesting thoughts that make us think as a society. All movements and new points of view start in the arts and this, I think, will be the beginning of something new. A future cult classic that will get better with time. The film has a low budget and flaws but these are film makers that will become household names on the world stage of art-house cinema. 5*

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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Rafael Kapelinski

Director

Theo Stevenson

Jake

Elliot Cowan

Billy

Rosie Day

Zara

Charlotte Beaumont

Amy

Thomas Turgoose

Shrek

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Jonathan Romney

Screen International

A striking feature debut for director Rafael Kapelinski ...

Jul 24, 2019

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Kaplinski tells a fluent story; his film looks and sounds good, and he gets very good performances from his cast.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 24, 2019

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Synopsis

A teenager becomes more and more withdrawn because of a secret that he can't tell anyone.

Director: Rafael Kapelinski
Executive Producer: Edmund Marlowe, Alexia Rocha, Lauro Rocha, Ramin Sabi, Zoe Solanki
Screenwriter: Greer Ellison
Production Co: Blue Shadows Films, Film London, BBC Films
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 23, 2019

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