Cropsey Not Rated

I was watching a documentary about the evolution of more modern horror pictures.  As I am a fan of horror pictures I started writing the list of the films mentioned and they mentioned the film The Burning.

Out of curiosity I did research on various movies in the list.  When I got to The Burning I found that this film was listed as being inspired by the real life "Cropsey".  I had never heard of Cropsey prior to this.  When I did research on Cropsey I came across this film.

This is a documentary that tells of two young people who research a series of mysterious disappearances involving children on Staten Island and the connection to the "real life Cropsey" who allegedly kidnapped and killed these children.

According to the documentary the stories of Cropsey are  commonly found throughout New York.  The stories always feature a guy who attacks and kills children.  He is sometimes an escaped lunatic from the local mental asylum.  Sometimes he has a hook for a hand.  Stories of Cropsey are used to frighten children to "keep them safe".  For example, "If you play by the old hospital Cropsey will get you."

The people who made this documentary talk about how they grew up with the Cropsey stories and never thought that they were real until a little girl named Jennifer disappeared.  The alleged "real life Cropsey" was arrested and convicted of kidnapping the girl but the jury was unable to find him guilty of murdering her.  As of the documentary's release, poor Jennifer is the only child whose body has been recovered.

This documentary was full of tragedy and darkness.  It's one thing to watch a horror picture and know that it didn't happen.  It's quite different to watch the real thing playing out.  I was further moved by the knowledge that Cropsey and the events that occurred in this documentary were attached to Willowbrook.

For those who don't know, Willowbrook was called a school but it was really an institution.  Willowbrook is infamous for bringing to light the horrible conditions that people with developmental disabilities faced in institutions.  For further details (although I wouldn't advise it because it is really sad and horrifying)  see Willowbrook:  The Last Great Disgrace.

All in all, this documentary was interesting because it showed how a horror story/urban legend of an area affected and continues to affect the people of Staten Island.  It was also interesting to see the legal procedures/trials attached to this story.

The two people who did the documentary did a very good job of objectively presenting the story.  It was nice because I have come across some documentaries that are skewed towards a specific viewpoint.  This documentary could have easily skewed towards attacking the "real life Cropsey" but they didn't do that.  They also didn't sound as though they were trying to "take advantage" of the tragedies.