Dare to Watch These Chilling Documentaries

Teams searched for missing children in ruins of abandoned buildings in the "Cropsey" documentary.

By: Alexa Stephens

Staff Writer

 

“Dreams of a life” 

This real-life tale tells the story of Joyce Vincent, a woman who died in her home alone surrounded by half-wrapped Christmas presents, and was not found for three years. By no means a social introvert, Vincent had a large circle of friends, all who believed she had a secretive side. She was loved by many, but missed by none during her 36 month mysterious disappearance from life.  Playing off the common fear of being alone and forgotten, this documentary uses Vincent’s unusual story to strike the hearts of many and leaves an uneasy feeling long after the credits have rolled.

“Child of Rage” 

This film reveals the story of Beth Thomas, a child who suffered severe psychological damage and behavioral problems due to being sexually abused.  A reenactment of the real story shows a couple adopting a young boy named Eric and his sister Catherine, pseudonyms for Beth and her brother. They both seem quiet and kind at first, but Catherine soon begins to display terrifying behavior. The couple seeks to uncover Catherine’s background and the reasoning behind her actions while trying to find any way to help her recover from her nightmarish past.

“The Poughkeepsie Tapes” 

This horror-style documentary portrays a series of gruesome crimes that took place in a town just north of New York City.  During a police raid, a collection of tapes is found that shows a record of a man’s horrible crimes of multiple victims. Everything is captured from the abductions to the torture and postmortem mutilations.  Even with the tapes, police are not able to uncover the criminals’ identity who, still alive, toys with and targets the police officers who are out to find him.

“Jesus Camp” 

This documentary focuses on three children who attend a Christian summer camp located near Devils Lake, N.D.  Following the extremist views of camp director Becky Fischer, the children are taught to purify themselves to become part of “God’s army.”  Most of the kids seem to enjoy the camp and its teachings, but the more in-depth the documentary gets, the more the children begin to seem like brain-washed robots, making the whole documentary eerie and unsettling.

“Cropsey” 

This documentary tells the story of a New York City urban legend of a boogeyman-like figure named Cropsey and a convicted child kidnapper from Staten Island, Andre Rand. Originally used as a general name for any psychotically violent criminal, the term Cropsey grew into an individual figuration of its own and frightened children in the way the boogeyman used to. Detectives plunge into a series of missing child cases in this film in order to reveal the person behind the crimes and unmask the manifestation of the urban legend, Cropsey. The twist and turns this story takes turns an already horrifying tale into a real-life nightmare.

Email Alexa at:

astephens@live.esu.edu