Justin Andress
There’s more to our world than the humdrum routine of our day-to-day. Between the cracks of our safe and secure normal lives, are things wondrous and terrifying just waiting to be discovered. For most of us, that bit of excitement lurking under our daily grind is best left at arm’s length; for others, life isn’t complete until they’ve greeted the darkest parts of humanity face-to-face. Fortunately, the latter group tends to bring a video camera along for the ride. As a result, Hollywood has produced hundreds of documentary features that provide a brief glimpse into the unknown, the morbidly fascinating, and the just plain creepy. The next time you’d like to lift up the rug of society and spend time with our real world monsters, here are some documentaries that effortlessly capture parts of the world you didn’t even know existed. Just be cautious; these real world stories aren’t for the faint of heart.
1. Child of Rage
The 1990 documentary is based on a series of interviews with Beth Thomas. In her early childhood, Thomas was the subject of severe abuse. The result was an affliction known as reactive attachment disorder, a physiological ailment that essentially destroyed her conscience and imbued in her a love of suffering. Even more disturbing, the doc follows Thomas as she undergoes a controversial form of therapy that’s since been deemed abusive pseudoscience.
