Predators
Exploring the controversial NBC series that caught potential child predators in sting operations, leading to arrests, and its eventual cancellation. (NR, 96 min.)
Showtimes
Friday, October 17, 2025
(TBD)
A captivating and provocative exploration of America’s obsession with true crime and vigilante justice, Predators explores the rise and fall of To Catch a Predator. Each episode of the popular Dateline NBC series was designed to hunt down child predators by luring adult men to a house with a young decoy. There, TV host Chris Hansen would eventually emerge from the shadows and confront the men in front of the cameras before they would eventually be turned over to the police. Award-winning filmmaker David Osit “stealthily lures viewers” (The Hollywood Reporter) into the controversial world of the show, exposing its murky ethics and shifting our expectations with shocking revelations—not just about the show, Mr. Hansen, and his copy-cats, but the very documentary we’re watching. “Raw and riveting” (IndieWire), “brilliant” (Variety) and “absolutely fascinating” (Rolling Stone), this “stunning film [is] an act of courage” (RogerEbert.com).
Featuring: Chris Hansen, Dani Jayden
Director: David Osit
Genre: Documentary, Crime, Thriller
"It’s still an absolutely fascinating watch."
— David Fear, Rolling Stone
"A documentary that dares to question everything, including itself."
— Adam Kempenaar, Filmspotting
"A raw and riveting documentary that skeptically re-examines the program’s appeal, legacy, and ethicality."
— David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"Tonally, this steady and powerful film is everything the original program wasn’t: hesitant, sorrowful and compassionate for every human being onscreen."
— Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times
"David Osit’s trenchant documentary recognizes that To Catch a Predator sold humiliation as entertainment in the guise of legitimizing law-and-order punitivism."
— Derek Smith, Slant Magazine
"Apart from anything else, Predators is a clinic in documentary ethics, but Osit’s intellect doesn’t mute his pain, sensitivity and outrage. It’s a film for the heart and the head."
— Scott Tobias, The Reveal
"Osit’s brilliant, subtly needling film leaves us unnerved and alert, but not certain of our convictions -- an outcome, perhaps, that more true-crime programming should pursue."
— Guy Lodge, Variety
"Initially teasing a condemnation, only to come away with something less certain and more fascinating, it straddles various lines, and perspectives, with impressive confidence."
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
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