Cropsey

Movie Title--  Cropsey

Release Year--  2009

Running Time--  1 Hour and 24 Minutes

Film Type--  Documentary

Director--  Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio

Two filmmakers from Staten Island dive into the mysterious urban legend of Cropsey and realize that there is more to the stories of their youth than they truly knew.

Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio were not friends as children but they were told the same stories; the stories of Cropsey.  The stories had been made up to keep the children out of the Willowbrook State School's abandoned buildings.  Cropsey was said to be an escaped mental patient  It was only as they grew older that they realized that Cropsey wasn't as made up as they as children had thought he was.

Andre Rand was a man that had worked at Willowbrook for a few years and knew his way around the abandoned grounds.  It had been said in the past that when a institution such as Willowbrook shut down, it was hard for some people, patients and workers, to leave.  Rand was one such person and he lived among the ruins of Willowbrook.  When a mentally handicapped girl goes missing, Rand becomes the number one suspect and it isn't long before the girl's body is found not too far away from his campsite.

After Rand is put away, the police start to look at Rand as a suspect for a few of the other child disappearance cases.

This was not one of my favorite documentaries.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't my cup of tea.  Really, of the people that were interviewed for this film, not many of them were from off Staten Island where to me the case against Rand is super bias.  I'm not saying that this guy didn't do what he was acused of and I am not saying that he is a good guy, I am just saying that because he did what he did and the community is so small, there were already a lot of opinions formed about him before his second case was presented.

Finding out that there is fact in what a child thinks is a scary story from their youth, is quite spooky.  If you are looking for a good view about a "grown up" urban legend, this is an alright one to sit through.  Make your own decision about this one and Don't Forget the Popcorn!