Image: Netflix
Netflix is continuing to create captivating true crime content. Its latest show to join the likes of Unsolved Mysteries, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, and American Murder: The Family Next Door is Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, a creepy four-part docuseries about an unusual missing person case.
I went into this series with no knowledge about the case that was about to unfold, and boy, was it wild. Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel recounts the story of Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old woman from Canada with bipolar disorder and an active Tumblr presence who traveled to Los Angeles in 2013. She checked into the Cecil Hotel downtown, only to disappear and be discovered dead, floating in a water tank on the roof days later. While there was little evidence pointing to what happened, the LAPD released a bizarre video of Lam caught on an elevator security camera just prior to her disappearance that shows her pushing multiple buttons, waving her hands around, and looking out the door as if someone is nearby.
Rather than presenting viewers with all the facts up-front, the documentary slowly hands out bite-sized details to keep viewers guessing.
This event spurred on a flood of conspiracy theories created by internet sleuths who became deeply involved in the case as they watched it unfold. Was someone watching her? Was there a ghost? Did the hotel edit the video to hide something? Was the LAPD covering something up?
While Elisa Lam’s disappearance is what fuels Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, it is just as much about the national attention her case garnered and the way it spiraled — and it lets viewers’ own minds run wild as they go along for the journey.
Rather than presenting audiences with all the facts up-front, the documentary slowly hands out bite-sized details to keep viewers guessing. These breadcrumbs come in the form of high-quality reenactments, animations, photographs, video footage, and lots of interviews. With every new piece of information presented, your perspective on what’s happening is likely to evolve.
Image: Netflix
Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel does a fine job of collecting the viewpoints of those involved in the case. We hear from the hotel’s former general manager, a couple of hotel guests, a maintenance worker, a neuropsychologist, an L.A. historian, a Youtuber, a detective, and others. We don’t, however, get any details from Lam’s family or friends — and some input from the people closest to Lam could have offered an important, greater sense of who she was as a person. While viewers learn about Lam through Tumblr posts that she treated like journal entries, the theatrics of the docuseries oftentimes threaten to cross the fuzzy line between fascinating crime examination and the very spectacle it aims to critique.
I’m wary that the doc welcomes the very thing it warns against: obsessive internet sleuthing. Because while the online frenzy surrounding the case is all a part of the story, the way these theories are brought to the forefront while the final facts are left toward the end could easily trick viewers into thinking there’s something more — that someone is lying — and there are more details to be uncovered. Keen viewers are less likely to get caught in this trap, but it is something to be conscious of when embarking on this journey, especially because it’s so absorbing.
If you can’t stand how every episode of Unsolved Mysteries ends up, well, unsolved, you probably won’t be satisfied with the way Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel ends. The documentary makes a conclusion about what must have happened to Elisa Lam, but the lack of hard evidence makes the most probable scenario sit uneasily — especially because this comes after a flood of conspiracies is unraveled.
Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is likely to entrance viewers with the harrowing details of a bizarre case. It’s cinematic, detailed, and flat-out wild. Just be careful to not get caught up in the sleuthing craze along the way.
Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is now streaming on Netflix.