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Abducted In Plain Sight (Netflix)

Started by CaledonianGonzo, February 03, 2019, 06:15:31 PM

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CaledonianGonzo

Holy mother of god. This story is bananas.

bgmnts

Nah, it's the kind of subject matter that makes me want to murder half the universe, Thanos style.

CaledonianGonzo

The reactions on the #abductedinplainsight hashtag are gold.

TrenterPercenter

Holy atomic FUCK!! what am I watching?!

ToneLa

Ooh, been on a bit of a kick about Tara Calico, will probably watch this for the same macabre reasons.

I can wade through the encyclopedia of serial killers book dispassionately noting the sheer banal repetitive similar bleaknesses of most of the killers and the poor victims, but there's something very fucking chilling about people being, not killed, but taken, unknowable and despairing.

That might be a bit fucked up, but aye, this is gonna hit me at the right time. Maybe not at 2am on a Monday mind...!

mjwilson


Blinder Data

Quote from: mjwilson on February 05, 2019, 09:25:42 PM
What is then? Drama? True crime?

True crime documentary - no murder though, just a barking mad family drama. Trashy but compelling. I went in cold and I'd recommend it.

The perp's brother must be one the most unflappable people who's ever lived. I bet if he lived through the Hiroshima bombing he'd describe it as "just some big cloud".

SteveDave

Every 5 minutes there was some new "WHAT!?" moment. Waiting 5 days before notifying the FBI, the mum being charmed by "B" and then the dad wanking him off.

BlodwynPig

The abducted girl starred in Criminal Minds and more recently in Netflix "smash" Maniac.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: SteveDave on February 06, 2019, 02:49:31 AM
Every 5 minutes there was some new "WHAT!?" moment. Waiting 5 days before notifying the FBI, the mum being charmed by "B" and then the dad wanking him off.

The only "reward" in the entire show (apart from her survival and strength) was seeing the FUCK in court suddenly realising she fucking hated him. "Oh, I see"...the arrogance and attitude immediately wiped from his visage. Suicide shortly thereafter. Perfect.

mothman

Quote from: BlodwynPig on February 06, 2019, 02:54:29 AM
The abducted girl starred in Criminal Minds and more recently in Netflix "smash" Maniac.

Not that Maniac, a different Maniac. From 2012.

biggytitbo

I watched this a while back not knowing what it was  and there are at least a couple of parts where you'll rewind and watch  again in disbelief at what you just heard. Mind boggling stuff.

up_the_hampipe

I remember reading about this story a while ago and saying "WHAT" out loud multiple times during the article. I don't think the documentary will have the same impact knowing the story beforehand. I used to tell people about it just to blow their minds.

Blinder Data

It's really interesting because - obviously not excusing anyone - it really was a different time. The fact they could get married in Mexico without any issues, the attitude of the churchgoers and the brother towards B, the fact they kept saying "we didn't know what a child molester was" - B's crimes were viewed v differently.

The parents are pretty brave people to admit all this on telly, and I also think people are judging them (especially the mum) based on being very reserved, inexpressive people. The phone conversations with B are mind-boggling really, the mum seems calm as anything considering she's talking to a guy who knows where her daughter is.

B's aim to get as close to the parents as possible and possibly even compromise them must be pretty common. Of course sexually engaging with both mum and dad is rare but I bet abusers who are close to the family of their victims try that shit all the time, we just don't hear about it.

popcorn

Does this have anything in it that is going to trouble the person sitting next to me on the train tomorrow morning? Assume I won't be sharing my earbuds with them.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: Blinder Data on February 07, 2019, 11:14:54 AM
It's really interesting because - obviously not excusing anyone - it really was a different time. The fact they could get married in Mexico without any issues, the attitude of the churchgoers and the brother towards B, the fact they kept saying "we didn't know what a child molester was" - B's crimes were viewed v differently.

In the Ted Bundy documentary, they talk about how the concept of a "serial killer" was unheard of until the 70s. They didn't even have that term for it when Bundy's victims started popping up. People were a lot more trusting because they didn't know that these monsters could even exist.

biggytitbo

Quote from: SteveDave on February 06, 2019, 02:49:31 AM
...and then the dad wanking him off.


Yes that bit especially I genuinely did have to rewind it and watch it again, as I couldn't believe what he just said.


A more naive time indeed.

biggytitbo

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on February 07, 2019, 11:39:50 AM
In the Ted Bundy documentary, they talk about how the concept of a "serial killer" was unheard of until the 70s. They didn't even have that term for it when Bundy's victims started popping up. People were a lot more trusting because they didn't know that these monsters could even exist.


I think they just had less precise terms for the same thing though, like they'd call them mass murderers or multiple murderers etc.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: biggytitbo on February 07, 2019, 12:58:03 PM

I think they just had less precise terms for the same thing though, like they'd call them mass murderers or multiple murderers etc.

They didn't bring it up in the documentary just because it was a new term. It was to illustrate how little was known at the time.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: mothman on February 06, 2019, 10:53:47 PM
Not that Maniac, a different Maniac. From 2012.

Oh. Yeh, she didn't strike me as A-list stuff.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on February 07, 2019, 11:39:50 AM
In the Ted Bundy documentary, they talk about how the concept of a "serial killer" was unheard of until the 70s. They didn't even have that term for it when Bundy's victims started popping up. People were a lot more trusting because they didn't know that these monsters could even exist.

but Rasputin?

oh, right...Boney M didn't release that until the mid 70s.

DukeDeMondo

I'm not sure what to make of this. Initially I thought I was in for something in the line of Dear Zachary, maybe, and I steeled myself accordingly, but then that wasn't what it ended up being at all.

What it was, was something that made me feel very uncomfortable. It may be that I'm misreading it, I'd have to see it again to be sure, but I definitely felt like certain scenes were being played for sly laughs, and I didn't think there was a whole lot to laugh about, really. Certain soundtrack choices, certain editing decisions. The handjob's already been mentioned. That was one scene I had trouble with. I felt like that shot of the father was held as long as it was purely to allow us to guffaw and What The Fuck? to ourselves for a minute before it moved on to the next revelation. Which felt a wee bit fucking icky to me. And the scene where the victim talks about the first rape in the motor home. I felt like that was absolutely designed to provoke bemused giggling above anything else. In that case it was largely because of what was going on on the soundtrack.

So I dunno. I dunno that it was very much more than a bunch of "get a load of these fucking headbins!" Which I don't think is all that appropriate an approach to a story like this.

But, again, I may be wrong. That's what it felt like to me, anyway, on first viewing.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on February 07, 2019, 07:11:28 PM
I'm not sure what to make of this. Initially I thought I was in for something in the line of Dear Zachary, maybe, and I steeled myself accordingly, but then that wasn't what it ended up being at all.

What it was, was something that made me feel very uncomfortable. It may be that I'm misreading it, I'd have to see it again to be sure, but I definitely felt like certain scenes were being played for sly laughs, and I didn't think there was a whole lot to laugh about, really. Certain soundtrack choices, certain editing decisions. The handjob's already been mentioned. That was one scene I had trouble with. I felt like that shot of the father was held as long as it was purely to allow us to guffaw and What The Fuck? to ourselves for a minute before it moved on to the next revelation. Which felt a wee bit fucking icky to me. And the scene where the victim talks about the first rape in the motor home. I felt like that was absolutely designed to provoke bemused giggling above anything else. In that case it was largely because of what was going on on the soundtrack.

So I dunno. I dunno that it was very much more than a bunch of "get a load of these fucking headbins!" Which I don't think is all that appropriate an approach to a story like this.

But, again, I may be wrong. That's what it felt like to me, anyway, on first viewing.

I know what you mean, the director does linger on her interviewees after certain revelations, although a more charitable reading - and I'm not refuting yours - is that it's just to give us a few moments to absorb what we've just heard before we can concentrate on the next part of the story.

Also, the wanking story is capped by the dad breaking into tears, isn't it? During moments like that, I think it's pretty clear that the director wants us to empathise with most of these people (unless she's a lunatic who thinks it's funny when naive old men shed tears while gravely reminiscing about the time they wanked off a man who sexually abused their daughter).

TrenterPercenter

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on February 07, 2019, 07:11:28 PM
"get a load of these fucking headbins!"

This is accurate and should have been the sub title

+karma

biggytitbo

I think a good director (and whoever made this is a good director imo), would obviously pick up on the elements of black comedy in the story and leave it in there for the viewer to also pick up on, if they want, rather than trying to close it off. There is nothing worse in a documentary where the director is trying to manipulate you into feeling exactly what they want you to feel, like they're making a bad tv movie.

Vitalstatistix

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on February 07, 2019, 07:11:28 PM
And the scene where the victim talks about the first rape in the motor home. I felt like that was absolutely designed to provoke bemused giggling above anything else. In that case it was largely because of what was going on on the soundtrack.

There is no fucking way this scene is played for laughs, man. It's horrific!

I mean, I don't remember the soundtrack at that point I admit, but.. nah. Some viewers may snicker, but I can't see how that's what the filmmakers were going for. The hand job revelation, MAYBE.   

BlodwynPig


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on February 07, 2019, 07:11:28 PM
I'm not sure what to make of this. Initially I thought I was in for something in the line of Dear Zachary, maybe, and I steeled myself accordingly, but then that wasn't what it ended up being at all.

What it was, was something that made me feel very uncomfortable. It may be that I'm misreading it, I'd have to see it again to be sure, but I definitely felt like certain scenes were being played for sly laughs, and I didn't think there was a whole lot to laugh about, really. Certain soundtrack choices, certain editing decisions. The handjob's already been mentioned. That was one scene I had trouble with. I felt like that shot of the father was held as long as it was purely to allow us to guffaw and What The Fuck? to ourselves for a minute before it moved on to the next revelation. Which felt a wee bit fucking icky to me. And the scene where the victim talks about the first rape in the motor home. I felt like that was absolutely designed to provoke bemused giggling above anything else. In that case it was largely because of what was going on on the soundtrack.

So I dunno. I dunno that it was very much more than a bunch of "get a load of these fucking headbins!" Which I don't think is all that appropriate an approach to a story like this.

But, again, I may be wrong. That's what it felt like to me, anyway, on first viewing.

You could be right but that wasn't my own reading of it. It is one of the most fucked up and horrific things I've ever witnessed though, and was very uncomfortable with the way the mum talked about her own affair with B, like she still had feelings for him to this day.

C_Larence

Best part was probably when they showed the Catholic school application, in which B had answered "Who told you about this school" with "God". Really playing to the crowd there.

McFlymo

It must've took great courage for the mum to admit that even after she knew he wasn't trustworthy she slept with him. I think this is important in helping us understand how these fucked up people can be very, very compelling and manipulative, so that not only will your defences be down, you won't just doubt your feelings about them, but you will start to be convinced that it's ok to embrace your feelings FOR them. I guess that's the "plain sight" aspect and the real power of dangerous people, that I've found hard to understand before.

Anyway, that was a bleak watch. I am now wondering do I know anyone who behaves like that guy? Can I really trust anyone? OMG!!! PEADO GEDDONS!!!