Butterfly Kisses

In May 2015 Gavin York, a struggling wedding videographer, finds a box of tapes labeled Don't Watch in his in-laws' basement. He watches them and edits one of the tapes on an old laptop, realizing they're part of a longer documentary. The tapes tease a mystery surrounding a local legend.

The tapes recount the urban legend of Peeping Tom, summoned by staring into the Ilchester Tunnel at midnight for an hour without blinking. When the target blinks, Tom draws closer and kills them. Sophia and Feldman set up a camera to act as a human eye to test the myth.

As they review footage, Peeping Tom begins to appear in the tunnel shots and then in other scenes. The presence seems to infest the camera itself, as turning the camera on and off simulates blinking and brings him closer. Feldman's grip on reality begins to slip under this pressure.

Feldman's mental state deteriorates under the haunting presence, and he is eventually murdered by Peeping Tom. Sophia is left to continue the project alone, carrying the fear of the legend's reach. The documentary risks becoming a one-woman fight against a malevolent presence.

Seeing potential for a filmmaking breakthrough, Gavin hires a crew to document his discovery and attempt to prove Peeping Tom's existence. He struggles to find any legitimate records of Sophia or Feldman, suggesting the tapes' origins may be questionable. His ambition drives the new documentary in a different direction.

The crew grows skeptical as they search for provenance and find hints that Sophia and Feldman had previously used an actor to portray a real person in an award-winning documentary. This history fuels doubts that the footage is fake or manufactured by Gavin himself. Erik Kristopher Myers leads the group as they push back against the project.

With no press outlets interested, Gavin posts the footage online and arranges a radio interview to promote it. Callers, including Eduardo Sánchez, dismiss the film as derivative and mock his obsession. The public chatter deepens the tension around the project.

Gavin's obsession strains his personal life, and his wife leaves him after discovering he used their son's college savings to fund the project. The stakes rise as his financial and emotional commitments spiral.

Gavin directs the crew to meet him outside Ilchester Tunnel to recreate the ritual with a camera. The group argues over whether to seek psychiatric help, and tensions flare as Gavin appears to run toward the tunnel. When they reach the scene, he has vanished along with the camera.

Nine days after Gavin's disappearance, Erik receives a package containing a DVCam film, a separate letter to Sophia, Gavin's journal, and a hotel keycard. The materials prompt the crew to reconsider what they are making and why.

In a hotel room, the crew discovers Gavin's corpse in the bathtub. They decide not to alert the police and debate what the footage means for their project. Erik resolves to continue, reframing the story around Gavin rather than Peeping Tom.

In more footage, Sophia recalls a dream where she could stare at the tunnel for the full hour and believes she summoned Peeping Tom. She claims Tom is in front of her and describes a way to defeat him, before dramatically severing her own eyelids with a shattered frame's glass.

In the mid-credits scene, Sophia appears in an insane asylum and seems to caress Peeping Tom's face. The film ends with the implication that the line between fiction and reality has shattered. The audience is left with questions about who truly created the danger.