Cropsey (2009)

2009
Directed by and starring Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio

A few weeks back I reviewed Killer Legends, a documentary created by Joshua Zeman that explored all of the folklore, mythology, and true life freaky shit surrounding a few popular urban legends.  Proving that truth is a whole hell of a lot scarier than fiction, that movie was all kinds of awesome.  I was prepared for Cropsey to do the same thing.  This was Zeman's first flick released back in 2009, done in the same style but with a different co-host and co-creator in Barbara Brancaccio.  The concept was also the same - take a well-known campfire scary story and explore a real-life equivalent, although this time it's a single story that gets the excavation treatment for 90 minutes rather than the anthology style of Killer Legends.  And while I was entertained by the film, I didn't think it was quite as good as the sequel.  It seems like the majority out there on the interwebz disagree with me, but what else is new.

Reviewing documentaries is a tricky business, because it's difficult without spoiling all of the narrative.  I'll start off by saying this - I was at least a little familiar with the urban legend of Cropsey, unaware that it started it came from Staten Island but knowing the basics.  A maniacal killer living in the woods kidnaps children, brings them to a remote location, and does terrible, terrible things to them.  The stuff of nightmares, without a doubt.  I was also MORE than familiar with the 1981 slasher flick The Burning which uses the Cropsey story as the basis for its way over-the-top killer.  Growing up in the area afforded Zeman the opportunity to hear many different iterations of the story, and that's where this movie comes in.  Yes, folks, there was a real-life Cropsey operating in Staten Island throughout much of the' 80s, and his name is Andre Rand.

Now, Cropsey is a rather convoluted movie, especially for a documentary.  It starts off simple enough, complete with a soul-destroying musical score that will make your hair rise up on more than a few occasions.  Andre Rand was an employee of the Willowbrook State School on Staten Island in the 1960s, a haven for special needs children at the time that was decidedly something other than a haven and even the subject of a Geraldo Rivera expose.  Well, Andre stayed behind after the school closed its doors, taking refuge in the surrounding woods.  That's what is known.  Over the years, various children - most of them female, and most of them also handicapped in some form or another - started disappearing after last being seen with Rand.  And this is where the speculation begins.

For starters, it's not known exactly how many victims the dude had.  He was CONVICTED of two of the murders, but there is a strong possibility of five victims - and an outside possibility at much more, considering just how many kids disappeared from the area throughout this time frame.  But the truly strange thing about this story is all of the little side messages and rumors that exist.  If it's creepy, it's connected to Andre Rand.  Satanic cults, sex trafficking, Michael Bay's movie career...it's all here and freely explored.  While a lot of this stuff is indeed chilling, it's also here where I think the movie loses a little bit of steam.  Social issues are much more a part of this film than the later Killer Legends, at least in some of the diatribes that witnesses and theorists of the case invoke.

Fortunately, the movie still has a lot going for it.  The atmosphere that I loved so much in the later film is already well apparent.  Zeman is a really talented film-maker that knows how to make truth decidedly not boring and different from my college history teacher who spoke like a Roman Reigns promo.  Part of it is that music, yeah, but it's also in the presentation.  Again, he's a very likable host who doesn't seem to take sides with the various law enforcement officials, lawyers and Staten Island residents who throw their own two cents in as to the case of Andre Rand.  Brancaccio is also quite the interesting little number, feisty in a completely non-annoying way and tenacious in the bits where she gets to play detective.  I'd love to see her in more films like this.

So...yeah.  That's pretty much all there is to say about the film.  There is a stretch that almost shot itself in the foot with me when the sociology and mob mentality commentary became a little bit too overbearing, but it's still a very enjoyable little documentary and more than worth the click on Netflix.  For that, I'll award it *** out of ****.

Oh, and there's also a very interesting story about the film-makers' attempt to contact Rand himself - still serving time in Rikers Island - but I'll leave it up to you to see how that turned out.