Cropsey (2009)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jason S

  
  This was a chilling doc about a series of child murders. It's scary to see all of the history behind it. The location is eerie and the people we meet are just as off putting sometimes. Well shot and well put together.

• Randy T

  
  Noncommittal presentation of the events surrounding the disappearance of several children in Staten Island, New York. <i>Cropsey</i> doesn't pretend to know all the answers, but it certainly asks all the right questions. Creepy and compelling.

• Thomas J

  
  I was expecting more of urban legends in general and this movie is more of a story that narrows in on one suspect for crimes committed over two decades. It is still ok....but the descriptions were misleading.

• Creep F

  
  I highly recommend this real-life documentary! Actual Story: "Growing up on Staten Island, filmmakers Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio had often heard the urban legend of "Cropsey." It was a cautionary tale invented to keep them out of the abandoned buildings… More
  I highly recommend this real-life documentary! Actual Story: "Growing up on Staten Island, filmmakers Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio had often heard the urban legend of "Cropsey." It was a cautionary tale invented to keep them out of the abandoned buildings that remained of the Willowbrook Mental Institution. Cropsey was supposedly an escaped patient who would come out late at night and snatch children off the streets sometimes with a hook for a hand, other times with a bloody ax. But in 1987, Jennifer Schweiger, a 13-year-old with Down syndrome, disappeared from their community. For Zeman, Brancaccio, and the other kids of Staten Island, their urban legend became real. Even as adults, this real-life boogeyman hasn't escaped the minds of the filmmakers. The eeriness of the mystery pulsates through the film as they journey into the underbelly of their borough to investigate not just Schweiger's disappearance but four other missing children linked to a shadowy drifter named Andre Rand. As more information and clues unravel, Zeman and Brancaccio become more immersed in shocking surprises and revelations. The reality they uncover in this uniquely hair-raising documentary is more terrifying than any urban legend." <a href="http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/HorrorQf/?action=view&current=Cropsey1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/HorrorQf/Cropsey1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> My Review: I finally watched this. It's very creepy, and it's all real. Andre Rand is one sick, scary bastard. He brings true meaning to the word insanity. Don't watch this documentary expecting any answers, because there aren't any. When you dwell into the mind of a "truly" insane psychopath you get lost in the mist of irrationally incomprehensible non-actualities and are left with nothing but bewilderment. The ending may leave you pissed off, like it did to me. Not because it's bad, because it's not, but because I so desperately needed answers that just weren't there. There never will be any (at least I believe). It's a mystery that'll haunt the community (and viewers) for life. And Andre Rand being imprisoned is just a security blanket for our worst fears and let's us sleep better at night, looking past the truth which is much darker than any movie monster we can imagine. There are still the darkest of souls walking the night, and the tunnels of the Willowbrook Mental Institution, with blood on their hands and a sinister smirk on their mischievous shuddersome faces for getting away with child murder. There's another world aside from ours, a replica of Hell - but just as uncompromisingly evil. Andre Rand, and others like him, live in that hell. And although we may not know them and are oblivious to their true form, they still reside amongst us - barely out of reach so don't feel too safe. Not only are they passing you by in the street...they're also breathing down your neck! And this is the truth. We learn that here, in a chill-inducing scary documentary that goes by the name of a real life boogeyman - one who's legend was never proven by fact, but has in fact proven to be frighteningly deadly... His name is "Cropsey". <a href="http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/HorrorQf/?action=view&current=Cropsey2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/HorrorQf/Cropsey2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

• Steve K

  
  Creepy documentary isn't quite what you think it will be. Instead of an exploration of childhood urban legends and how they may have been affected or created by actual crimes, the film singularly turns to one particular criminal and his horrible acts. Still creepy, just not… More
  Creepy documentary isn't quite what you think it will be. Instead of an exploration of childhood urban legends and how they may have been affected or created by actual crimes, the film singularly turns to one particular criminal and his horrible acts. Still creepy, just not what I thought it would be. The two leads behind the film sure seem to enjoy being on camera.

• Jake B

  
  Very memorable documentary that is worth seeking out.

• Ed Fucking H

  
  If the name Cropsey sounds familiar to you, you've probably seen the classic Slasher the Burning about a madman who lives in the woods and likes to hack up young horny teenagers. This isn't about that, but about the real life urban legend of Staten Island New York. This film… More
  If the name Cropsey sounds familiar to you, you've probably seen the classic Slasher the Burning about a madman who lives in the woods and likes to hack up young horny teenagers. This isn't about that, but about the real life urban legend of Staten Island New York. This film started out about the urban legend at least but then switched focus to a convicted child killer named Andre Rand, whos parallels with the Urban Legend are uncanny. He lived in the woods, and was convicted of killing at least one mentally disabled child (based on shoddy evidence) and is suspected of at least 4 more. He was a former attendee at a school/instituion for the mentally handicapped that has since been shut down called Willowbrook, and him and a number of former employees and patients were known to live in the abandoned building as well as in the underground tunnel systems of the building. Willowbrook was also quite the controversial instituion in it's day due to it's unhumanitarian treatment of it's patients. Some footage is shown of the place in it's heyday and it is disturbing and sickening to say the least. The film goes on to explore the case, a look at Andre Rand (both from former friends and some of his main accusors), the going on's of Willowbrook, and some of the crossover with the Cropsey Urban Legend. All in all a very good and intresting True Crime documentary. I liked that the filmmakers wanted to explore this case and compare it to the Urban Legend, but I think as the movie developed they lost interest in exploring the urban legend and focused more on the case itself which was a little dissappointing for me as this was the most intresting thing about the film for me. Still though a very good Doc that is worth seeing for people intrested in true crime.

• Jason R

  
  Very in-depth and personal look at an urban legend that became all to real for two filmmakers as they documented the real-life disappearances of several Staten Island youths and the man that is believed to have been responsible for the horrible crimes. Very well researched and put… More
  Very in-depth and personal look at an urban legend that became all to real for two filmmakers as they documented the real-life disappearances of several Staten Island youths and the man that is believed to have been responsible for the horrible crimes. Very well researched and put together. The film is very gripping and disturbing all at the same time. It is scary to think what is lurking around your hometown and unfortunately for the people in this community they found out the hard way. Definitely check this one out!

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