LOST 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.
