Review of Cropsey (2010) by Eric K — 22 Jan 2011

âCropseyâ? is a brilliant, yet unsettling documentary about an age-old campfire urban legend that became horrifyingly real in the 1980â(TM)s for Staten Island, New York. The legend has different variances: A burn victim from a teenage prank turning into a homicidal campsite stalker (as seen in 80â(TM)s slasher classic âThe Burningâ). A former attendant worker at a Staten Island mental institution that returns to the location after its closure, surviving in the woods and underground tunnel systems, snatching up kids in the dead of night. This documentary focuses on the latter myth., and explains how and why it became a harsh reality for residents of an âeverybody knows everybodyâ? type town.

While the film raises many questions but provides little answers (mainly because the case displayed in the film is decades old, and was decided on circumstantial evidence), it is done really well and is painfully interesting. Recommended if you are into cold case files and documentaries that deal with things that are unanswered, and will probably remain that way for a very long time, if not forever.