The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker (2023)
Genre: Documentary / Crime
Duration: 85 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Colette Camden
IMDb score:
6,2 (14.709)
Releasedate: 10 January 2023
The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker plot
Canadian-born Caleb Lawrence McGillvary is known in the US as Kai, the axe-swinging hitchhiker. The homeless twenty-something is proclaimed a hero in 2013 when a video of him, filmed by a local news organization in Fresno, California, goes viral. It shows how Kai enthusiastically tells how he attacks a man from whom he gets a lift with an ax, after this Jet Simmons McBride suddenly hits an unsuspecting pedestrian and starts attacking a bystander. He first becomes an internet sensation and then ends up in prison after a downward spiral.
Reviews & comments
lang pee
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- 3328 messages
- 1441 votes
What an exciting documentary, and what an annoying gland. A homeless person who hits someone on the head three times with an ax and just goes on with his life. You didn't have to be a clairvoyant to see that the man was crazy and dangerous, but then the terrible herd behavior resurfaced and suddenly everyone thought he was fantastic and everyone saw money in it. This was just a documentary of a crazy person who was already crazy from birth probably and then it got even worse because of a very bad mother....
Translated from Dutch · View original
N00dles
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- 633 messages
- 2308 votes
Somehow I had never heard of "Kai", so it was interesting to see how such an internet sensation arises and how he goes viral with his "charisma" and "free spirit" and musical talent. Especially the beginning, with his heroic deed and rise to Hollywood fame, is captivating.
What I did miss was a deeper look into the person of Caleb, his 'true nature' and the circumstances of that murder of the older man.
I would also have liked to see more of the interviews with his mother and cousin. I still don't understand exactly why what happened, but maybe that's because there are simply no ready answers. But if you do tell the story, at the very least make sure that there are slightly more answers than questions.
So yes, interesting first half in which the main question is "how does this story end" (if this has passed you by) and a somewhat unsatisfying (but nevertheless amazing) second half with a rushed ending.
3*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Donkerwoud
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- 8696 messages
- 3960 votes
Memes do not do justice to the unruly reality. 'The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker' (2023) is yet another preachy documentary in which the excesses of an internet phenomenon are commented on, while Netflix itself also lays it on top. Here's the crazy story of (almost namesake) Kai who committed 'an act of heroism' when he hit someone's hostage three times on the head with an axe. A journalist managed to interview him shortly after the incident and the mythical hitchhiker turned out to be so charismatic that he could become an internet hit. But then the elephant in the room: how desirable is it to suddenly proclaim fame to an unstable person with questionable morals? Not that 'The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker' (2023) provides in-depth answers. It lingers a bit with the spectacle of that extremely free boy and his sudden flirtations with fame and fortune. There is little to tell about his life or motives, because the documentary leaves out a lot about, for example, Kai's possible abuse past.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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