'Unseen'
(2018 / Paglin Films)
Overview: In 2009, police discovered the bodies of eleven women decomposing in and around the home of known sex offender. With unprecedented access to the surviving victims, Unseen looks into how this killing spree went unnoticed for so long.
DVD Verdict: As you can well imagine from reading just the intro to this new documentary, the main questions still being asked are the very same ones that after all this time are still being stonewalled.
After a two-year period during which numerous women were reported missing in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, a reported rape leads police to a grisly discovery: a serial killer, operating virtually in plain sight.
So, the first main questions is: Why had police failed to investigate the missing-persons cases? Also, next up would be: Why did neighbors turn a blind eye to the killer’s activities?
Told through the wrenching testimony of survivors, 'Unseen' is as riveting a true crime thriller/documentary that I have seen in the past decade. Posing all sorts of credible questions, even proposing a few alternate avenues of exploration to be explored (given all the police dead ends), 'Unseen' challenges (from nearly the off) the notion that nobody knew something about these tragic murders.
Informing us of the on going struggle to get the semblance of any decent answers to these questions and so, so many more, the documentary also poses disturbing questions about marginalized lives and criminal justice.
Directed and produced by the uber talented Laura Paglin and with wondrous cinematography from Kahlil Pedizisai, 'Unseen' is a movie you need to see. But if having read all this you still think it's not for you, then take one more look at your neighbors ... just in case you're proven wrong one day! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.
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