Netflix’s Cecil hotel documentary revisits Elisa Lam’s mysterious case

[milotic2]

Facebook post"I have arrived in Laland [sic] and there is a monstrosity of a building next to the place I'm staying," Elisa Lam wrote in January 2013. "When I say monstrosity, mind you, I'm saying as in gaudy. But then again, it was built in 1928, hence the art-deco theme. So yes, it IS classy, but then since it's LA, it went on crack

Comments

[qween_frostine]

I am usually very hype to watch any/all true crime stuff, but tbh, I have no interest in this. The conspiracy theories surrounding her tragic death are gross and disrespectful both to her memory and to her family. I don't see any reason to engage with them (even if the doc wants to discredit them, it is still giving the proponents airtime).

[msbombtastic]

The first episode was very sensationalized, the tone of it. I'm not gonna continue it. I don't see why they stretched it into 4 episodes anyways.

[stf_ugh]

Yeah same. When that one person was like (paraphrasing) “it was a serial killers ~playground and everyone knew about it!!” I was like lmao what the fuck??! No it...can’t have been??

So stupid.

[msbombtastic]

lmao yeah. and the intro was laying it on thick, like "it was a PIT of EVIL...."
I do get pointing out the crazy shit has went down there, of course, but it's like they were trying to fill in the gaps of the lack of hard facts about what happened with cheap speculation about how the place may be haunted or how it's just evil

[msbombtastic]

I watched the first episode...I didn't like it, I don't think it's very well executed so far. It's kind of all over the place. I was sort of dozing off near the end of it though lol.

[thispaintedlife]

same, I was on my phone simultaneously about halfway into it lmao. how did they make such a fascinating story so boring??

[__onthebound]

Because it was too long. They drew out information and repeated things when it could’ve been done in 90min (120 max) and grabbed you

[__onthebound]

This could’ve been done in 90min. I didn’t know about this case (or I forgot) but I learned stuff. I liked the focus on Skid Row as an LA native. I felt the relationship between the online sleuths and cops was hard and showed the dangers of this online obsession but maybe was too kind about it!

idk. It felt less exploitative than other documentaries

[daytonameth]

this is one of those cases where i think we can probably stop speculating about it, it always takes disrespectful turns.

there was a documentary on shannon matthews in the UK this week and i sort of feel like we should stop bringing that up too. she's 21 out there living her life under a different name and we should let her move on w her life and stop increasing the chances that she'll be recognised

[fleurs_sauvage7]

Agree. They have no right to risk what I imagine is a very hard fought for new life. She’s not Jon Venables ffs she’s THE victim. It’s so selfish.

[peddlestools]

She was diagnosed bipolar disorder. She had a manic episode. I don't like that they're using her death and turning into some ghost adventures bullshit. There was no elevator game. There were no ghosts. This is stupid,

[sjazzmreow]

The ghosts idea got maybe five minutes of airtime in the doc, not sure why it's mentioned so prominently in the Vice article. But absolutely, the reaction to her case was ott, like all those youtubers going to stay in the hotel and harassing a singer because they decided he did it despite him not even being in the country when she died.