Directed by David Osit

This upsetting examination of the grimly groundbreaking show that inspired pedophile hunter culture leaves me feeling awfully bleak about the exploitation that this has had a major hand in fueling. When that initial teaser had dropped for Primetime, it succeeded at intriguing me as to what this movie could potentially do in regard to offering up a critical lens against the harm that To Catch a Predator and Chris Hansen have done. Then we had the next trailer drop, and goddamn, it has hooked me in even more powerfully. As of this writing, it’s turned Primetime into one of my most highly anticipated movies of 2026. So I proceeded to decide that it would only be appropriate to finally cross Predators off my watchlist, and good lord, this documentary has only solidified my contempt for such televised material. I can’t help but draw connections between the pedophile hunter industry and the true crime industry, considering they both hinge on consumer demand to advance their voyeuristic and capitalistic forces forward while making entertainment out of humans committing horrifying actions and of the victims on the receiving end of those actions. In regard to the former industry specifically, that comes with its own thorny layers, because if you try to call out the greedy sleaziness of its territory, you may end up getting slammed with bad-faith attacks that accuse you of defending sex predators. It’s ridiculous, considering I can easily condemn pedophiles and the predatory harm they inflict against minors while also pointing out the inherent flaws of this industry simultaneously. There’s an invaluable thing called “nuance,” and I fear that plenty of people will lose their capacity to utilize such a tool when Primetime releases and inevitably kicks off what will probably be an exasperating round of ignorant discourse.

Interestingly enough, I’m actually a little surprised that director David Osit doesn’t target Hansen with more ruthlessness via this documentary, but I do think there was some leniency being afforded towards Hansen because Osit had been a viewer of TCAP and had used it as an attempt to understand why these predators prey on children and teenagers. In any case, though, it’s not like Hansen comes out of this looking like a hero. No, no, he comes across like an opportunistic shark who’s using his mission to capture pedophiles and protect the youths as a justification for raking in all the views and the clicks. He’s the face of a system that thrives on painting itself as morally righteous when it comes to swiftly punishing those who prey on the kids, and yet this is the very same system that’s specially designed to shield pedophiles. Hell, look at how little things have materially changed since the release of the Epstein files. We keep focusing on the individual with these predator-catching routes, not the system, and of course, this is what vigilante justice is all about—focusing on the individual and acting like that will solve everything. It’s why that form of justice is inherently right-wing, since this side of the political scale blames the individual as well. Goddamn, it’s not even like this path is particularly effective in regard to catching pedophiles specifically, considering the snares can be used as a way for them to legally wiggle out of the courtroom with little to no punishment. Sure, we could then go on to say, “Well, at least this kind of show was able to educate a massive amount of people on the dangers of pedophiles who are searching for kids online,” and I’m not even saying that education is nonexistent. I can appreciate whatever beneficial lessons audiences may have sincerely drawn from that series.

At the same time, it doesn’t detract from the damage that TCAP did as a police state-esque measure and as a launchpad for future pedophile-catching shows that can put a camera in anyone’s attention-seeking hands if they’re feeling vicious enough to catch people who are deemed to be predators (notice how many of these shows will target alleged pedophiles who are developmentally disabled, which I don’t think is an accident in this ableist world). In addition, let’s not forget to bring up the trauma that the decoys have to wrestle with due to the time they spend luring in pedophiles. Even if the setting is built to be as safe as possible for the decoys, they’re still left to cope with the occupational stress of being put in a position where these pedophiles are concentrating on them specifically. I shudder to think of the psychological and emotional impact that this work has had on them, particularly Dan Schrack. There’s such a quiet devastation that comes with watching his segment and coming to grips with the PTSD he’s suffered from TCAP, especially since he was the decoy for Bill Conradt, the assistant district attorney who ended up killing himself—a fatal event that led to the show’s shutdown. If something like this was able to happen, then it makes me wonder what else could have unfolded. Is there a hypothetical situation where a target could have killed someone, such as a decoy, Chris Hansen, or a cameraperson? I can’t help but let my mind run on down these roads that push us to ruminate over the unintended consequences of a series like TCAP.

I’ve seen some critiques that claim this documentary is being manipulative, but I personally think it does an effective job at pulling back the curtain on this scummy landscape that pedophile hunters have built for themselves—a landscape in which we become complicit when we devour its content that’s arranged to be entertaining for the masses. It’s chilling that this can even be “entertaining” in the first place, and it accomplishes that while encouraging us to accept the implicit propaganda that strangers are the major threats we need to worry about in spite of the truth being that we actually need to keep an eye out for pedophiles who are within our inner circles. Look at the minors who endure pedophilia from a family relative, from a friend of the family, from a member of the school faculty, etc. Their ability to prey on children and teenagers is something that these pedophile hunters distract us from.

I’ll wrap up my thoughts on Predators by commenting on a broadcast that it shows us—the news broadcast that had played to spread the word about Conradt’s suicide. Bizarrely enough, the coverage abruptly transitions from that grisly topic and hops right on over to Britney Spears’s second stint in rehab, which is followed by a promo bit for Jay Leno’s show that brings up a guy who seems to be noshing on a watermelon. This seriously gives me a flashback to The Voices, a superb Ryan Reynolds movie that I recently revisited. At one point, it deploys a news broadcast with this same exact kind of sudden tonal shift. If there’s any moment that suitably encapsulates what TCAP and its lurid field of work is all about, this is it.

My final rating: 4 out of 5 stars