Strange Harvest

True crime has been around for hundreds of years, arising not long after the invention of the printing press. Whether it serves as a warning to the populace that a pleasant neighborhood is no guarantee of safety, or as pure entertainment designed to satiate our innate curiosity about the unfathomable darkness that lies inside others, recent years have seen numerous examples explode into the cultural consciousness. Interestingly, it didn't start to gain traction in movies until nearly 100 years after the invention of the medium, with Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line. Even after that, narrative films "based on a true story" are far more prevalent, despite the most common form in other mediums being reportage.

As such, despite the many podcasts and TV series that parody the genre (some award winning), there are precious few notable mockumentaries of true crime committed to celluloid. There's the 1992 Belgian film Man Bites Dog, 2006's Behind the Mask: The Rose of Leslie Vernon, and that's about it. Both feature investigative reporting teams who've been given exclusive access to a serial killer as he goes about his routine/prep, building in an inherent forward motion, and keeping you engaged despite knowing that what you're watching is not, in fact, real.

Read my full review on Pop Culture Maniacs.