Whenever strange videos are posted online without context, people inevitably start debating over whether the post is part of an Alternate Reality Game developed by an internet artist or some clever form of viral marketing meant to stealthily promote a movie or game. After all, word-of-mouth advertising is much more effective now that every opinion […]
Whenever strange videos are posted online without context, people inevitably start debating over whether the post is part of an Alternate Reality Game developed by an internet artist or some clever form of viral marketing meant to stealthily promote a movie or game. After all, word-of-mouth advertising is much more effective now that every opinion is just a handful of clicks away from going viral, and it makes sense that innovative artists would want to co-opt these methods in order to tell complex stories that can only be deciphered with the help of the internet.
However, in some rare cases, if a video looks convincing enough, people start to question if it might indeed be a genuine case of real-life Found Footage.
That’s what was on my mind when I first heard about the rumors surrounding Whiteface, an internet mystery that began as a collection of bizarre found in unexpected locations across the United States. And as a lover of both Found Footage and emergent media (some of you may remember my short-lived Viral Horrors column from years back), I couldn’t help but dive further into this online rabbit-hole.
Join me as we investigate the mysteries of Whiteface.
WHAT ARE THE FACTS?
On June 23, Reddit User mrslythe made a strange post on the r/VHS subreddit. In this post, he describes a mysterious VHS tape that he supposedly found while thrifting for old videos in Orlando, Florida. The tape was labeled as “Whiteface” in permanent marker and contained footage of a seemingly deranged man in pale face paint recording himself and the city around him while stalking and harassing unsuspecting victims.
After his initial post asking if anyone had ever heard of this movie before, mrslythe was soon bombarded with comments questioning the eerie nature of the recordings. Soon enough, that original post was also updated with replies from other people who had found identical tapes in at least seven different cities. One user in Nashville found his copy in a bar called Vinyl Tap, with this tape having been wrapped in a plastic bag and covered in fake blood in order to add to the creep-factor. Another user found his copy in an art gallery in Bristol, with more popping up in Hollywood and even Burbank.
In total, seven tapes have been recovered so far, and while there’s little information about who exactly is dropping them off, there are anecdotal stories about groups of professional-looking “agents” being caught on security cameras as they leave these videos in seemingly random locations.
Of course, it was only a matter of time before someone digitized the contents of Whiteface and posted it to YouTube. In the full video (which spans a whopping three hours and forty-two minutes), we follow the aforementioned videographer as he stalks the city streets during what appears to be a psychotic episode, with long stretches of monotonous scenery being interspersed with the occasional moment of gruesome violence – including severed fingers and power-drills to the forehead. Of course, it’s more of a mood piece than anything else, with both the runtime and repetitive nature of some shots giving the video an air of unedited authenticity.
As the uploader (Happy Happy Best Life Video Club) noted in his summary, the footage appears to have been shot a few months ago judging from the MinecraftMovie advertisements that appear in the background. Certain landmarks also suggest that the project was produced in the Los Angeles area. And while all the evidence so far points to this being a fictional experimental film, there’s still no trace of it on either IMDb or Letterboxd.
THE VERDICT
It’s still early to be 100% sure, but Whiteface doesn’t seem to be promoting any larger project or even engaging with common ARG elements. For starters, the creator(s) of Whiteface don’t appear to be backed by a larger studio or marketing firm, and while an experimental Found Footage video isn’t that far-fetched of an idea for a campaign meant to promote a spooky horror flick (think of how DreamWorks planted unlabeled VHS tapes on college campuses in order to promote The Ring back in 2002), a nearly four-hour-long epic feels like marketing overkill.
The video also doesn’t seem to tie back to any other websites or online puzzles like you see in most ARGs, with almost all of the discussion being limited to Reddit and the curious users who originally found the tapes – all of whom have active accounts that were almost certainly not created solely for the purpose of promoting Whiteface.
Additionally, the fact that the one of the tapes was found covered in fake blood, not to mention the violent contents of the video itself, suggest that whoever is behind this stunt is a storyteller attempting to unsettle viewers with the use of fictional horror tropes. In fact, the “real Found Footage” theory comes tumbling down once you realize that Whiteface himself has already been identified as the LA-based actor Frank Mosley. And as one Redditor pointed out, the footage also bares a striking resemblance to video clips featured in an art exhibition at Bristol’s HollerHouse gallery back in mid-June.
That’s why I find it unlikely that the tape is anything more than an elaborate art project.
Regardless, the puzzling nature of Whiteface makes me think that the unusual method of distribution is actually a crucial part of the project’s narrative, with the artist(s) behind the film wanting their audience to examine both the footage and the circumstances of its existence as they search for answers.
This doesn’t mean that the entire thing is fake, however. There are a handful of sequences where the movie appears to blend scripted events with real interactions in much the same way as other experimental productions like Matt Johnson’s Nirvanna the Band the Show or even previous online endeavors like the controversial Surveillance Camera Man – a detail that might very well explain why it’s become such a huge phenomenon online.
While there’s still no solid confirmation about the real nature of the footage from either its creators or the legion of Reddit sleuths looking into its origins, I have a feeling that we’ll be hearing more about Whiteface very soon. However, even if we don’t, I think that this peculiar little bit of Found Footage has already proven to be one of the most interesting horror projects of the past few years.
And while we wait for answers, why don’t you watch the video for yourself and let us know what you think about it in the comments below.
