Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Spikeopath What is a Cropsey? A Cropsey is the name given to a bogeyman used to frighten children by way of safe education (stay away from that place/that man/them woods etc). When Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio grew up they learnt that their Cropsey was in fact real. Or was he?Andre Rand was a convicted child kidnapper from Staten Island who is strongly suspected to have committed a number of child kidnappings and murders between 1972 and 1987. Most of the missing children were special needs cases, and with Rand having close ties to Willowbrook State School, a sorry place for the mentally ill thats conditions were exposed by Geraldo Rivera's infamous documentary in 1972, and his known living arrangements out in the Greenbelt Woods around Willowbrook, he seemed the likely culprit for sure.Zeman and Brancaccio do a sterling job of piecing together all available evidence and reports involving Rand, including interviews with family and friends of the missing children and the detectives who worked on the case. They even have epistle contact with Rand as they try to arrange a meeting with their very own bogeyman. The footage and stories involving Willowbrook are skin crawlingly effective, the visits to the ruins of the place equally creepy.We constantly see pictures of the missing children, and that of the only one who was found, murdered, close to one of Rand's makeshift campsites. These are real horrors in this horror film, and they cut the psyche like a knife. Unfortunately the makers lose a little focus in the final third, as more revelations and accusations enter the debate some of the unease wears off, the doc gets chocked as it were, and some of the harsh realities are replaced by fanciful supposition.Still, in the main this is a tremendous documentary, challenging and unbiased. It could just have been Zeman and Brancaccio walking around interviewing the usual suspects et al, but they go deeper than that to leave a lasting impression on both the mind and the soul. 8.5/10

tereseatbiocybernaut One thing I like about this film... and that I don't like... is that it opens the way to the next step in the story. Unfortunately, the film does not provide an avenue for the step to be taken. It didn't move forward fast enough and left the juicy bits for us to imagine. Feels like perhaps there was not the will or the money needed to take the story to the final conclusion. The dissection of his psychological profile. As made clear in the movie, he is very affected by his experience at Willowbrook (and his mother's experience in care) why not look at what happened at Willowbrook because he probably started there and what was Willowbrook's official or unofficial means of disposing of the deceased patients? Were there many unexplained accidents while he was there? Who did he work with and then have contact with or visit on Staten Island after Willowbrook shutdown? But mainly, what did Willowbrook do with the deceased patients in their care? and where was his mother buried? How could he have recreated those circumstances on Staten Island? Plus, he likely knew of ways to get into parts of Willowbrook that seem totally unaccessible to folks unaware of what it is like to be homeless. Take the camera in there, not just superficially look over the grounds please. There were furnaces and other places on those grounds that would naturally be a place he would have known about which could very well be buried in ruins now and that's what I needed to see- more effort.

Targe This doc is worth it just to see Heraldo Rivera as a student reporter, lol! This movie explores a dark urban legend that very much appears to have been true - that a deranged lunatic did indeed lurk in the ruins of an abandoned mental asylum and abduct young mentally challenged children in order to 'put them out of their misery' on Staten Island, New York.The film-makers make no pretense about going for the 'scare-factor jugular' and deliberately film the terrifying abandoned asylum at night, from creepy camera angles, and all with what sounds like a modified version of the shark attack theme from JAWS playing in the background.Some reviewers may choose to crucify them for that, but I don't, by doing that they turn a somewhat dry documentary into the Blair Witch Project of documentaries, and creeped me RIGHT OUT THE DOOR, which was really fun and unexpected.The purpose of reviewing this film should not be a voice opinion on whether Rand did the crimes or not, but many reviewers are doing just that, so I'll weigh in too.I am happy to say (and much to my surprise) 'New York's Finest' actually got their man this time around. It's a shame they couldn't nail him for murder, and surprising they couldn't, given that: 1. He ADMITTED to kidnapping Jennifer Schweiger, and wanting to end the suffering of all mentally challenged children!!! A child who turns up murdered and buried in a shallow grave near one of his campsites!2. He is placed, REPEATEDLY near the crime scenes, near the victims prior to their abduction, his car is reported, he is reported hanging around or working near victims. He apparently abducted an ENTIRE BUS OF KIDS from a playground for goddsakes!!!3. His BIZARRE behavior (catatonic, wild-eyed, drooling monstrousity) after viewing the Heraldo documentary on conditions at the asylum where he worked, and his subsequent comment to police that 'we the staff were victims too' All of this and further details in the doc Should have easily been enough to convict him. The film-makers make a convincing case that is not tight enough for a unanimous jury decision, partly based imo on fear of false conviction due to the fact that in this case, 'he just looks too much like a serial killer, maybe we are making a mistake based on his appearance??'This is an excellent doc for those that like crime scene investigation thrillers, and don't mind being a little freaked out. Make sure to watch this with the lights down low on a windy stormy night, like I did! This film has some of the creepiest camera work outside of Blair Witch, and the cameraman should go on to do very well in Hollywood! I'd be grabbing him up if I was a horror director. The film-makers themselves have also done an amazing job, both with setting and sound editing, and they have BALLS OF STEEL for creeping around that asylum at night!WELL DONE TO THE NYPD!!! You couldn't get death, but at least you got this monster out of circulation!

Geeky Randy Lazy documentary about Andre Rand and the child abductions that led to his convictions. Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio share the director's chair--and not to mention, annoyingly, the unnecessary center of attention. Loses focus at the beginning--the title itself is merely a lead to the actual subject of Andre Rand and the kidnappings. Some call it unique and terrifying, winning the Audience Award at SINY Film Festival. One of the biggest problems with the film is that Andre Rand is painted--and arguably presents himself--as a simpleton, yet he clearly gives the run around to the directors all throughout the documentary. Delivers nothing more than a simple news report. What a joke.** (out of four)