I remember sort of enjoying Cropsey, finding it kind of frustratingly made, but compelling enough to give it a pretty decent rating. I didn’t write a review, so I have no idea exactly what I liked/disliked about it. But watching this film, which could be called Cropsey II, I worry I was far too generous.

This movie is a mess. It’s ostensibly about the origin of four major American urban legends. The research these guys do is so surface-deep, though, that I worry that it isn’t at all reliable. (They are willing to go back to the ’50s, pretty much, but beyond that, they have no interest.)

The filmmakers portray themselves as making an intellectual inquiry into the nature of urban legends but their dialogue is so brutal, and some of their tactics so ridiculous, as to make you squirm. (The final line, which is escaping me right now, is brutal.) To just give you a few examples: they constantly go to crime scenes in the dark, to make it Creepy with a capital C, or something, but you cannot see anything because they only carry flashlights. And they go to people’s houses and just tell them that a murder was committed in their house. Why would you do that?

I feel like a properly researched properly structured film could be made about each one of these individual legends. If that seems too in-depth, a less ridiculous movie could have been made about these four, for sure.

4/10

• Written by Joshua Zeman
  
• Directed by Joshua Zeman
  
• Starring:
  • Rachel Mills
    
  • Joshua Zeman
• Country of origin: United States
  
• Original language: English
  
• Produce: Rachel Mills
  
• Cinematography: Gregory Palmer
  
• Editors: Aaron Crozier, Brian McAllister
• Running time: 84 minutes
  
• Production companies: Gulp Pictures, Storyville Entertainment, Gigantic Picture
• Distributor: Gravitas Ventures
  
• Release:
  • Original network Chiller
    Original release: March 16, 2014