'Predators' review: Insightful doc shines a light on controversial series 'To Catch a Predator'

Courtesy of MTV Studios

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If you owned a television between 2004 and 2007, chances are you stumbled across “To Catch a Predator.” The wildly popular sting series, led by investigative journalist Chris Hansen and watchdog group Perverted Justice, lured would-be sex offenders, men looking to meet underage children, into a decoy home. There, actors posed as minors before Hansen confronted the suspects on camera about their behavior and intentions. It made for sensational television, and it’s easy to see why the show lasted as long as it did. Nobody sympathizes with a child predator, and watching their lives implode on national television carried a grim satisfaction.

David Osit’s unexpectedly gripping documentary “Predators” doesn’t ask us to sympathize with the men caught on tape. Instead, it pulls back the curtain on our culture’s fixation with the series and asks the larger question: did it actually accomplish anything? In most cases, prosecutors refused to pursue charges because the show’s methods risked rendering the evidence inadmissible.

The film features interviews with people involved in the original production, including Michigan’s own Chris Hansen, who still takes pride in the show’s legacy, even as it spawned countless YouTube copycats. Unlike Hansen, these imitators lack the training or responsibility to deal with individuals who may be deeply troubled, unstable, or even suicidal. Osit’s central provocation becomes clear: why is society so eager to watch another person’s life unravel before our eyes?

That’s a heavy question, and one the documentary doesn’t fully resolve. Nobody is excusing the actions of men who believed they were grooming minors. But eventually the line between fantasy and reality has to be addressed. After all, their incriminating online conversations were already enough for arrest, long before the cameras rolled or Hansen appeared. In that sense, Osit seems to suggest that “To Catch a Predator” may have amplified pedophilia by turning it into a cultural spectacle.

“Predators” also revisits the fallout that led to the series’ eventual cancellation, while Osit’s own motivations for making the film surface only at the very end. By then, the documentary has already pulled us in with its probing, unsettling questions. Ultimately, it turns the mirror back on the audience and asks: why are we watching this in the first place?

Grade: B 

PREDATORS will open in theaters on Friday, September 19th before a streaming release later this year.