Dir: Barbara Brancaccio
Country: USA
Year: 2009
Duration: 84mins
Print Source: josh.zeman@verizon.net
http://cropseylegend.com/
Cropsey begins as a study of urban mythology, exploring the legend of the titular bogeyman, an escaped mental patient who according to the whispered campfire stories of children and teenagers in New York and New Jersey. had either a hook for a hand or carried an axe
However, as Cropsey progresses it starts taking increasingly disturbing detours, through the horrors that lie just below the surface of the New York borough of Staten Island. Boasting the Fresh Kills Landfill - a garbage dump supposedly visible from space - the borough is rumoured to be where the mob dispose of bodies and was once home to the massive Willowbrook Mental Institution. Five children vanished from Staten Island in the 1980s and this is where mythology and reality appear to merge. It is a place where the bogeyman is terrifyingly real.
Both directors grew up on Staten Island and in this unique documentary film they return home to delve deep into contemporary fears and modern horrors. Searching for the truths behind the missing children and the local legends of the bogeyman they uncover a world rarely seen. Critically acclaimed, Cropsey is a vividly realised and uniquely unsettling film.