Topic: Don't Fuck With Cats

[Carpool Dragon]

Yeah I liked the fact that they were so smug and pleased with themselves but they actually achieved nothing except to drive an innocent man to suicide.

[wooders1978]

Yeah I liked the fact that they were so smug and pleased with themselves but they actually achieved nothing except to drive an innocent man to suicide.

He wasn’t entirely “innocent” though was he? Trolling them with a video of a cat being burnt alive

[DukeDeMondo]

As I said whenever ago, I enjoyed the first episode of this well enough, even though I had certain misgivings about it. Pretty well made “internet summons all internet stuff about knowing all about the internet to catch a proper fucking cunt, sort of” sort of stuff. Zipped along, interviewees were compelling. Arresting, whether you knew the details or you didn’t. Should it have zipped along at such an entertaining pelt? Dunno, that’s a question for another time.

The second episode I thought was fine. The third I thought was absolutely fucking rank.

As was the case for everyone else here, it seems, that “who are the real cannibals?” moment at the end angered me so much it took all the medication in me not to kick the laptop off the fucking roof.

You don’t get to pull that sort of move if all you’ve done for the past three hours is titter about how much atrocity footage you’re threatening to dangle before the audience. Very deliberately, very cynically playing a really pretty seedy game of bait and switch that took its cues from Grizzly Man but ended up coming off more like one of the later Faces of Death sequels. May as well have been introduced by a fucking, I dunno, Donald D. Morbid MD. “I have seen things that you can never see! But you might see, if you hang about a bit. But you’ll be the bad guy. I’ll explain later. Or, I dunno, I’ll just point at the screen all fucking Chief Wiggum and hope you can come up with something that’ll make you feel bad enough on your own for we’ve spent three hours trying and we’re coming up with sweet fuck all, we just thought this would probably get funded easily enough.”

This was not a film about “why do we feel compelled to watch this stuff?” It was a slick three hour true crime procedural with a completely unearned “WHY ARE YOU WATCHING THIS STUFF!? IT’S YOU THAT ARE THE BAD!” at the end. It hadn’t a meaningful philosophical thought in it is head, it was empty as fuck and it was fucking offensive.

Compare this to a film like Martyrs. A fictional film, granted, but one that deals with similar material and which has ingrained in its bones the questions that culminate in the MASSIVE FUCKING QUESTIONS it asks at the end. This garbage of a thing thing played Netflix Sleuth Show for a bit and then in the last thirty seconds made an absolutely cock-fingered attempt at profundity that was absolutely laughable.

Mentioning laughable, there wasn’t one fucking thing in this that wasn’t said a thousand times better in the first series of American Vandal.

Load of fucking pish.   

[PeasOnSticks]

Bizarre how they completely buried the question of who tipped them off with the name, since this was the key moment in the whole investigation. Likewise the second pair of hands in one of the videos - pointed out, then simply ignored. That these two seemingly highly significant things were deemed unworthy of further comment, whilst the narrative of the internet sleuths continued to be pushed, speaks volumes about the kind of documentary this is. And I can only add my voice to the chorus of exasperation regarding the ending: just naff and wholly inappropriate, not to say illogical.

It is, however, a compelling case and one I hadn't been aware of previously. And the film does a decent job of showing how the ease with which seemingly anything can be checked/tracked/followed/explored online can lead people further and further down various rabbit holes, all the while seeming to prove whatever hypothesis they've decided on. Let's say, for example (though I don't believe this is true), there really was a shadowy Manny-type figure involved - none of the web sleuths' research seemed to even allow for this possibility (despite another person's hands appearing in a video they'd taken to pieces forensically).

All in all, it was absorbing viewing, but, as a documentary, significantly flawed. 2.8 bags of popcorn.

[paruses]

Have watched the first 1.75 episodes of this this morning. My main motivation was to avoid doing stuff I needed to do. At first I thought it was another spoof thing but quickly realised it wasn't. It does zip along and I got sucked in.
The main protagonists are pretty self-important but bearable; just.

There have been enough spoilers in this thread for me to say that I think their sleuthing was rendered pointless when the body in the suitcase was found along with a photo id and utility bill of the killer. Apart from that their achievements were to be complicit in the suicide of a depressed man and to identify a vacuum cleaner that is only available in North America (pretty annoyed about that as it looked nice and compact and I need a new one). Oh - and that Russian sitcom wasn't a sitcom was it? It was one of those weird variety things that they like on the continent.

Will finish it this afternoon but from what others have said the ending can fuck off already.

[Pseudopath]

a vacuum cleaner that is only available in North America (pretty annoyed about that as it looked nice and compact and I need a new one)

Mate...

[paruses]

Always resisted getting one as I *know* I will end up fucking it one night. I think it's the eyes.

[paruses]

(half) joking aside their successes are now the depressed man and tracking down an episode of a Russian sitcom. I think I might get a Henry. Thanks for the input.

Just watching the third episode. I like the Louis Theroux moment when they interview the attorney Romeo Salta and he throws in that the guy said he looked like Michael Douglas and the interviewer deadpans "Do you get that a lot?". You can see the attorney really wrestle with the fact that he loves it and the fact that he knows he doesn't look like Michael Douglas.

[icehaven]

I'm sure it's been said already but the whole "We told you so" attitude of the websleuths towards the police who "failed" to act on their information when the cat videos surfaced is pointless, as they couldn't have done anything significant anyway. Even if they'd gone after him with an animal cruelty charge he'd at best have had a brief prison sentence, fine or suspended sentence, none of which would probably have stopped the murder. Yes there's the well known thing of serial killers starting by killing animals, but it's not as if the police can actually act on that and arrest someone on suspicion of being a potential future murderer, can they. Smugly declaring you "knew" he was going to move on to killing a person is obviously just hindsight, however convinced you were, and trying to make out the police missed opportunities is disingenuous at best.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Just watching the third episode. I like the Louis Theroux moment when they interview the attorney Romeo Salta and he throws in that the guy said he looked like Michael Douglas and the interviewer deadpans "Do you get that a lot?". You can see the attorney really wrestle with the fact that he loves it and the fact that he knows he doesn't look like Michael Douglas.

That reminds me, was the implication there that Magnotta chose this lawyer because of his Basic Instinct obsession? How many lawyers do you have to meet before one of them looks enough like Michael Douglas?

[EOLAN]

Episode 1, the suicide being quickly glazed over and the big reveal about Luka with no further insight of who gave it was pretty weak.
I did unexpectedly laugh when she said a second video of kittens was like watching the second plane into the twin towers. Oh and I never knew Namibia was difficult to pronounce..

Episode 2 and I keep just being being undwhelmed by their investigative techniques with the whole internet at their disposal. Then the woman replicating the earlier group with the Namibian man, by just pouring out emotional bile to the Montreal police through twitter. Of course they weren't going to listen.

[EOLAN]

Oh that ending. Makes me come away from it thinking I watched a parody. And in some way the documentark maker must know it was.
Alternatively maybe she teally was just speaking to the cameraman/director.

[Spode]

Big John Green thinking he’s a genius for finding his apartment in Canada using google maps and petrol stations while dropping in that there’d been a blog post previously from the lad himself telling people the neighbourhood he lived in. They were hopeless. A name, thousands of pictures and they didn’t once manage to pin him down. In the meantime, he managed to suss out exactly where one of them worked, despite the fact she operated solely under an alias.

[colacentral]

Just watched it all. Would echo all the comments above about how ludicrous the websleuth hook is considering they achieved nothing. The bloke (who I keep thinking is called Luka Modric, can't get his real name in my head) went to great pains to get himself caught, even leaving the Toronto police bags of evidence to sift through, and walking around in the victim's t-shirt on CCTV.

On that point, regarding questions upthread about who gave his name to the group: I thought it was obvious that he did. I remember the mother saying a friend told her about the cat videos before the murder happened too, so I don't think his identity was that much of a secret.

The mother seemed a bit unhinged herself. Some Norman Bates business going on there I think.

I'm sure the second pair of hands business will be opening a websleuths can of worms. My suspicion without bothering to go back and check is that it could be a fake pair of hands placed there specifically to strengthen the Manny story.

The casino video he sent was chilling, but as far as murderers go he was really pretty shite. He was being bigged up as a master of disguise in the trailer, but unless I'm forgetting something his only disguise consisted of a bad wig and a pair of sunglasses, which he wore on CCTV leaving the flat where he did the murder.

Also, what happened with the snake? It was fucking huge too.

[colacentral]

This page gives an explanation of the second pair of hands:

https://www.studentproblems.com/dont-fk-with-cats-biggest-mystery-has-just-been-solved/

According to Green, the hands belong to an unsuspecting neighbour. A researcher from CBC’s Fifth Estate documentary reportedly went and interviewed Magnotta’s neighbours for the network’s own take on the tale. A female neighbour confessed she was the woman holding the python. She’s never named and it’s unclear if any formal charges were made against her, but either way, it looks like we can close the case file on this one.

[EOLAN]

Also; did some of those websleuths really think that Namibian guy was the actual guy in the video; rather than just someone promoting it or involved as a third party. Magnotta was a real skinny Nordic features type while this was a fairly well built dark haired Afrikaaner type. Unless he had switched to someone else's body no way could it be him.

The mother does seem unhinged a bit. Nearly every second IMDB review says they can't believe she can't see that he's guilty. But; I mean it's a basic human or animal nature to seek to protect your young and can empathise with why she seeks to believe he is a victim.

[GMTV]

Would he have committed that murder without the intense scrutiny of the Facebook group? We'll never know...

Watching it I couldn't believe how they brushed off the suicide of the chap they initially suspected of the initial crimes.

And the detached attitude to the murder as some kind of "up yours" to the cat murder sleuths... Jesus fucking christ it's a horrible murder video you're witnessing. Try and feign a bit of humanity eh.

[magval]

Did it ever come out who gave them the name?

[icehaven]

Did it ever come out who gave them the name?

As mentioned further up the thread there's an assumption it was Magnotta himself but I don't think it was ever explicitly suggested in the film, nor does it totally make sense given the lengths he went to hide his identity in the first place then evade capture once he was rumbled. However going on the information given it's hard to see who else it could have been other than someone who just happened to recognise him, but then why would they be anonymous and why doesn't the film show more interest in them, given how crucial their involvement was?

[Cuellar]

Yeah, considering they were given the cunt's name the only thing those sleuths achieved was getting that guy to top himself.

"Why weren't the police asking US for help?!?" Shut up

[ImmaculateClump]

Just got done watching this. Oof, yeah, the ending was laughable.
Hang on, haven't you just spent 3 hours wanking this guy off? Don't point the fucking finger at me, mate.
You decide the tone and the angle. I'm in the passenger seat here. I like to go into things as blind as possible.
I'd argue that putting those sad, thick, internet rubbernecking cretins in the spotlight was just as bad as glorifying the murderer for our entertainment.

Was alright, I hadn't heard of the case so it was interesting to see what was going to happen next. I was expecting a big reveal that all the videos were faked to be honest. There was something about it all that felt like they weren't giving it enough gravitas, like it was leading up to a big reveal, a twist that never came.

Very surprised that a few of you wanted to join those dweeby militant atheists with too much time on their hands from hail satan. I was very happy to part company with that lot once the film was over!

[BlodwynPig]

Just moving onto the 2nd episode so haven't read past the first page here, but those two main characters (investigative ones) are symptomatic of internet culture gone wrong. He gets a murder video and decides to go first to watch it on the big screen and instead of immediately calling the police - I'll send it to Lady Gawper. I know their reactions are done for effect, but what jerks. No need for the titillating shots of dead cats, near dead cats and slivers of murder videos. I'm interested in the story, but its classic Gawper TV.

[BlodwynPig]

and those dumb news snippets at the beginning

"like something out of a horror movie"

"plays out like a slasher movie"

get to fuck you stunted twits.

[BlodwynPig]

For crying out loud.

Lady Gawper: "the video is called 1 lunatic 1 ice pick"

... "he's got some sort of sharp thing, ice picky thing, pointy thing..."

then

"you just start to wonder, what sort of person would do this to another person"

DUMB FUCKING TOUGHTLESS TWIT...Aghhhhhhh, brain of mush, repeating age old tropes salvaged from 1950s news reels in Hicksville "oh lord, ma'am, well, yer just got to wonder haven't you" "not seen anything like this round these parts" "we never needed no locks before, just a quiet town" "I said to Bill, what sort of person would do this to another person, ain't no God fearing man, that's who"

[Noodle Lizard]

Just moving onto the 2nd episode so haven't read past the first page here, but those two main characters (investigative ones) are symptomatic of internet culture gone wrong. He gets a murder video and decides to go first to watch it on the big screen and instead of immediately calling the police - I'll send it to Lady Gawper. I know their reactions are done for effect, but what jerks. No need for the titillating shots of dead cats, near dead cats and slivers of murder videos. I'm interested in the story, but its classic Gawper TV.

As others have mentioned, they seem to treat the actual murder as them "being proven right" more than anything else; the ultimate "needless to say, I had the last laugh". The victim and his family get remarkably short shrift in this documentary in general.

Then you remember that neither of them actually did anything worthwhile to aid the police with their investigation, and couldn't even figure out who he was until he (presumably) told them. I'm amazed there weren't any better people involved in that whole saga to focus on.

[Cloud]

Making the very upsetting mistake of going onto 4chan's /b/, and seeing a very graphic image of a cat that had been shot in the head, is what led me to watch My Little Pony.  (Well cat videos weren't going to help with this one, and it looked cute).  I'd better give it a miss.

[BlodwynPig]

As others have mentioned, they seem to treat the actual murder as them "being proven right" more than anything else; the ultimate "needless to say, I had the last laugh". The victim and his family get remarkably short shrift in this documentary in general.

Then you remember that neither of them actually did anything worthwhile to aid the police with their investigation, and couldn't even figure out who he was until he (presumably) told them. I'm amazed there weren't any better people involved in that whole saga to focus on.

At this point I'm assuming it's Etobicoke Ferris Magnotta, so they surely just needed to get the FBI or Mounties to track him down in episode 1.

[BlodwynPig]

Nah, fucking psychopaths "I had to watch over and over, at least 20 times that day...to convince myself what I was watching was real"

He then sends it to another member of the group and forces her to watch it to "verify it".

They should be jailed. Call the fucking police you vapid cunts. I knew we'd eventually have a culture so removed from reality that real crimes becomes a personal role playing game, but I didn't think it would happen so fast.

[BlodwynPig]

Beginning to really detest "Holy shit" man. A disgrace.

...it just gets word. Lady Gawper "FUUUUCK they found IT" *double fist pump*

The worst kind of humans. The doc should turn its gaze on this sort of sociopathy.

[Noodle Lizard]

They should be jailed. Call the fucking police you vapid cunts. I knew we'd eventually have a culture so removed from reality that real crimes becomes a personal role playing game, but I didn't think it would happen so fast.

As far as I remember, they "tweeted" the police about the cats and were outraged that the police paid them no mind.

The worst kind of humans. The doc should turn its gaze on this sort of sociopathy.

Oh you're going to LOVE the ending XD