The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

I am a sucker for a good true crime/mystery docuseries. Netflix’s The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel reeled me in immediately as it had something most shows its ilk don’t for me - I already know a little about the case. Before watching the show, I’d already seen this video (nothing overtly scary happens in it, but it is incredibly creepy), simply with a caption along the lines of “this is the last footage of this woman alive”. That was all I really know, but I instantly recoginsed the video on the Netflix trailer, and remembering how freaked out I had been after watching the first time, I obviously couldn’t resist dropping all my other entertainment plans to find out what really happpened to her.

I don’t want to spoil it, even if it is factual, the series still tells a narrative, and I think it’s a compelling one. Even with the additional context, I think the whole thing is incredibly unnerving, and it got under my skin far more than similar shows depicting real events have done. The way the series wraps up made it quite ambiguous as to whether or not they want you to have more questions or to consider the case closed - I am certainly in the former camp.

A scary, thrilling unravelling of a piece of modern internet history - well worth a watch, if you’re into that kind of thing.