Predators
David Osit’s deeply considered documentary looks at the effect and appeal of TV shows that aim to expose paedophiles.
Image courtesy of Dogwoof Releasing.
It is never surprising to find that a documentary released in the UK by Dogwoof is a work of quality but their recent offerings have been such that they are on a roll. It was in mid-September that they had the courage to distribute The Golden Spurtle. On paper that film being about a porridge making championship suggested a work which one might tactfully describe as one of rather specialised appeal but when seen it proved to be one of the most uplifting and pleasurable films of 2025. Later that month The Librarians was a welcome alarm call about books being banned from American libraries and October brought us Love+War an outstanding bio-pic about the remarkable war photographer Lynsey Addario. And now we have Predators, another documentary worthy of awards. This is the third feature from David Osit whose talents embrace directing, editing and photography and, if its immediate predecessor, 2020’s Mayor, was a good observational work about life in Ramallah, this new piece takes him to a new level.
The starting point for this film is the American reality television series To Catch a Predator which, linked to Dateline NBC, premiered in 2004 and lasted until late in 2007. Its host was the journalist Chris Hansen and the concept was to film a sting specially set up for the programme to trap paedophiles. An adult who looked younger would make contact with a paedophile who would then be invited to a house where he would be secretly photographed in conversation with the decoy. Following that Hansen himself would walk in. He would challenge the man and talk to him in full awareness that, once he said that the paedophile was free to go, he would walk out straight into the arms of the police waiting outside.
To some extent the popularity of a programme like this links up with the question of why TV studies of real-life crimes attract so many viewers, but this particular programme with its emphasis on paedophilia raises matters directly related to that issue. Some people would simply applaud any set-up that led to paedophiles being apprehended, but Osit’s film poses the question as to whether something designed to entertain an audience can in dealing with such a subject validly be considered as being for the public service. Furthermore, Predators is at pains to point out that, despite Hansen regularly saying "Help me to understand", his programme in no way helps one to do that. While Osit never plays down what young victims are likely to suffer, his film includes outtakes from the footage shot for To Catch a Predator which illustrate very clearly that the series preferred not to use anything which rendered the paedophiles more human (any sign of regret or any plea to be allowed to get treatment could be expected to hit the cutting room floor).
Predators is divided into three sections. The first half looks back on the history of To Catch a Predator including on-screen comments by the ethnographer Mark de Rond and interviews with two women who had at the age of eighteen or so been willing to take on the role of a seemingly younger decoy leading on their target. When it comes to the use of archive material the editing of it is often extremely adroit and the first half of the film is structured to lead to a climax in the form of what happened in Murphy, Texas, in 2006. This was one time when, instead of luring a predator out, the intention was to confront him in his own house and events took a tragic turn (a fact that did not prevent the footage taken being aired subsequently).
The second segment of Predators is entitled ‘Copycats’ and focuses on predator hunters who, having become devotees of Hansen’s programme, subsequently set out as virtual vigilantes to copy it by using their own decoys to entrap paedophiles. One hunter well known for this is the YouTuber Skeeter Jean and he and a decoy used by him, T-Coy, are both featured here. It is at this stage in the film that David Osit himself puts in an actual appearance as we see him recording for this film one of Skeeter Jean’s entrapments but respecting the victim's wish that his face should not be shown. As for the final section of the film, ‘Take Down’, this does two things. One aspect sketches in Hansen's more recent career including attempts to build on the earlier success of To Catch a Predator by both varying the format and reviving it. But above all the focus here is on the streaming service ThruBlu founded by Hansen with Shawn Rech. Exposing predators remains central to his work here and this is illustrated by a case in which an 18-year-old boy involved with one aged fifteen was looked on as a predator. The other key feature as the film draws to a close is an actual on-screen interview by Osit to which Chris Hansen, now in his mid-sixties and celebrating forty years of journalism, had consented.
That Predators allows Hansen and everyone else the space to express their own views is part of its special character. This is not a film that seeks to offer an onslaught of words to make you accept its outlook even if one does feel that Mark de Rond is a presence whose questioning attitude reflects that of Osit himself. Instead, Osit has created a film which is highly sensitive to the fact that documentaries, including indeed this one, can all too easily become intrusive in a damaging way. But, by asking the viewer to consider paedophiles as flawed human beings rather than as monsters to be put down with relish, he makes his case in a special way: it relies less on words than on the fact that what we see on screen is itself evidence of the desirability of a response quite different from that of such people as Chris Hansen and Skeeter Jean. There must be many times when viewers after watching a film choose to describe it as ‘thought-provoking’, but in the case of Predators it is a description that has rarely been so true. And that is why Dogwoof have in this film another outstanding documentary, one among the very best of those released in 2025.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Chris Hansen, Dani Jayden, Casey Mauro, Mark de Rond, Shawn Rech, Dan Schrack, Skeeter Jean, T-Coy, David Osit, Greg Stumbo, Byron Harris, John Roach, Walt Weiss.
Dir David Osit, Pro David Osit, Jamie Gonçalves and Kellen Quinn, Ph David Osit and others, Ed David Osit and Nicolás Nørgaard Staffolini, Music Tim Hecker.
Sweet Relief Productions/Rosewater Pictures/MTV Documentary Films-Dogwoof Releasing.
96 mins. USA. 2025. US Rel: 19 September 2025. UK Rel: 14 November 2025. Cert. 18.
