This was equally frustrating as it was cathartic. Having grown up and lived less than 100 miles from where these events took place, the places mentioned hold a certain familiarity for me. I admit that I hadn't heard of any of this when I grew up, so it was quite a shock. This documentary does a beautiful job of balancing the hunt for a monster, with the grieving that is done by the loved ones who were left to deal with their loss. It also highlighted the efforts and failures of the law enforcement. Some of them went above and beyond to help, while others shirked their duties. At the end of this, you're left with the chilling reminder to believe women and children when we speak out. I recommend this without hesitation.
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katygal258 November 2023
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vnssyndrome8922 December 2023LOST WOMEN OF HIGHWAY 20 (Documentary) 3 out of 10 stars Time to Read: 1:20min
BASIC PLOT: This documentary explorers (badly) a series of murders of women between 1978 and the early nineties. Everyone knew who was doing it, but no one would stop him, and innocent women died as a result.
WHAT WORKS: *THE CASE IS A GOOD STORY FOR A DOCUMENTARY It's just too bad that another group of filmmakers didn't get to this story first.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *THIS NEEDED AN OUTLINE BEFORE IT WAS EVER FILMED This documentary is so confusing, I couldn't tell what was happening from one minute to the next. It jumps from place to place, back and forth in time, with no foreshadowing, or worse, bad foreshadowing, and in the end, I imagine a lot of people changing the channel. I watch A LOT of documentaries, 1000's by now, and I understand what a well laid out documentary should look like. It's not this.
*THE WHOLE FIRST EPISODE, THE FILMMAKERS INTIMATE JOHN ACKROYD IS A GOOD GUY This is a betrayal of the audience. There's this thing called foreshadowing, this way the audience has some semblance of what's going on. Not here! They do the opposite, with statements taken out of context, making the bad guy, into the good guy! Unbelievable! Again, WTH?
*THE FILMMAKERS DON'T GIVE US ENOUGH INFORMATION There aren't enough suspects to make the type of unveiling they are going for, work. Instead, they jump from year to year, going backwards and forward in time, jumping from victim to victim, with no consistency or cohesion.
*THE WEIRD LITTLE VOICEOVER COMMENTARY ABOUT THE FOREST WATCHING THE CRIMES, IS JUST FREAKING WEIRD! Really!? What the hell?!
TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *I can't recommend this documentary, and it's too bad, because these victims deserved better than this DISJOINTED mess. If you're looking for an interesting, non-exploitative, true crime documentary, I recommend instead The Killing Season (2016), an excellent true crime documentary about the LISKs, from filmmakers Joshua Zeman and Rachel Mills. It is engaging, well paced , and informative. If you're looking for another HBO doc, try instead the four part documentary, Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York (2023). It's a very graphic, compelling and well done documentary by Anthony Caronna and Howard Gertler. Another gripping, true crime documentary is The Eleven (2017). It's a six part documentary, prompted by a confession letter to a journalist, from a psychotic murderer, Edward Harold Bell. The journalist and a retired detective investigate the case.
CLOSING NOTES: *I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out. -
autoc6 November 2023Tragic story, most of the video time was talk, talk, talk, which bogged down into boredom. This was a serious situation. The husband is a murderous jerk who got away with too much, even when using preposterous alibis thanks to indifferent, disinterested Cops. The bottom line was "don't trust the local cops when you're out in the middle of nowhere." they Could have livened things up quite a bit by including some Big Foot or UFO sightings, or both, What you do see is a lot of 2-lane roads, plenty of trees, and lots of snow. Exciting stuff. Yeah, right. I Won't be watching the rest of the series. Disservice to the grieving relatives.