I usually don’t check out Netflix unless I’m specifically looking for something, but when I found a movie titled, The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, I just had to check it out since I love horror movies like Evil Dead. So, imagine my surprise when I found out that The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker wasn’t some Jeffrey Dahmer-type movie, but rather, a documentary covering none other than YouTube sensation, “Kai,” (Real name: Caleb Lawrence McGillvary) who I vaguely remember seeing years ago from some Gregory Brothers video.
Now, maybe if I’d actually read the description of the new Netflix documentary rather than just instantly clicked on it, I might have saved myself the negative vibes. But, after having watched the relatively short documentary, it really left a sour taste in my mouth. And, apparently, I’m not alone as many viewers seem to be upset with it. I’ll get into that reason – since I share it, too – as well as four other reasons why I really disliked this new Netflix documentary.
As People Have Already Stated, It Feels Like It's Exploiting Somebody With Mental Illness
One thing that truly bothered me about this documentary, and apparently many others, is that Kai likely has a mental illness, and many of the people involved with this documentary seem to be exploiting it for entertainment’s sake. Let me explain. In the first half of the documentary, we learn about the man who uploaded the video of Kai, and how Kai became a sensation overnight.
We also learn that people wanted to track him down and give him pretty much the world, including his own reality TV show, all from that one video of him going, “Smash, smash, suh-mash!” And it all seemed pretty rosy… at first.
But, since this is a true crime documentary, of course it all goes pretty dark, pretty fast. That doesn’t bother me so much, since that is all par for the course with this genre. That said, it all feels kind of icky in this case with the way that people in the entertainment industry talk about Kai, since he seemingly has some sort of mental illness.
But, instead of discussing it for what it is, they instead just go over how creepy he seemed around them, which is incredibly off-putting, especially when you consider how Netflix will probably profit off of this documentary. It just feels gross.
Since It's Relatively Short, The Tonal Shift Feels Quite Abrupt
Netflix apparently has a lot of true crime documentaries, so I guess they’re doing something right, but this is the first I’ve ever watched from this platform, so excuse me if this is the norm. But, this documentary is super short! I’m talking not even a full 90 minutes (Okay, so it’s 85 minutes, but still!).
Brevity is usually my sort of thing, but The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker is actually unique in that it’s telling two stories. The first story is of how Kai became YouTube famous, and how he basically lost all of his career opportunities since he seemingly can’t function in a way that is socially acceptable.
However, the second half is about how Kai was convicted of murder in New Jersey. Honestly, these could be two separate documentaries entirely, and the tonal shift from the first half to the second feels super abrupt, and even jarring. Not that I would have liked to have seen more of the icky first half, but that second part, which even features Kai’s mother, is actually quite fascinating, and, in my mind, much better done than the first half. But, the second half seems to get a short shift due to the first half, and the murder kind of just comes out of nowhere, so it definitely isn’t a seamless transition.
The Actual Events That Made Kai An Internet Sensation Are Kind Of Rushed
Here’s what’s also pretty interesting. I genuinely knew next to nothing about Kai aside from that video from a few years back. But, from my watching of the video, I didn’t grasp that Kai was actually in the car with the person he ended up hitting with a hatchet. I know that doesn’t make much sense since he is known as the hatchet wielding HITCHHIKER, but I didn’t know that he was hitchhiking with the person who he would eventually assault. For some reason, that got lost for me.
But, I learned in this documentary that Kai was with that person, and that he even said some eerie comments to the driver before the man crashed his vehicle into a pedestrian. With this revelation, we learn that Kai may not have been so innocent, but the documentary spends very little time going into this, using it only as a basis for why Kai probably shouldn’t have been trusted, even back then.
Even so, why was this aspect of the story rushed when it’s ostensibly the crux of the argument for why Kai probably murdered a lawyer only a few months later? It feels like something that could have been explored a great deal more.
Kai's Second Victim Seems Almost Like An Afterthought To Further The Narrative
Netflix surprisingly has a lot of great movies right now with engaging stories that are well told. The same cannot be said for this documentary though, since the real kicker to this whole story – you know, the fact that this YouTube celebrity is now a convicted murderer – almost seems like an afterthought!
That’s right. The actual murder aspect of this incident, which is what I would really like to learn about, is almost glossed over, as the hook of Kai being a flash-in-the-pan celebrity seemingly takes up most of the documentary. And this is a real shame, since we don’t really learn much about the New Jersey attorney Kai is convicted of slaying. Yes, we learn a little of his details, but he gets overshadowed by the narrative that the documentary is trying to tell, making the actual victim to the crime seem secondary, which doesn’t make much sense in a true crime documentary.
It Misses An Opportunity To Delve Deeper Into The Issue Of Mental Illness And Homelessness Across The Country
Mental illness is no joke, and there are movies that handle it effectively. So, you would think a documentary that is dealing with a real person would approach it with tact, but no. It doesn’t. Whereas the documentary could have delved into homelessness and how mental illness impacts millions of people, it instead decides to take a quirky (Netflix categorizes it as “offbeat”) approach, getting dark where necessary, but never really getting into Kai’s homelessness unless it’s to punctuate the fact that some TV execs couldn't find him.
This is a real shame, since even though I don’t want to support Kai since he was convicted of murder, I also feel that Netflix dropped the ball by not getting into mental illness on the streets. Homelessness is a serious issue, as well as mental illness. So, for this documentary to not really get deep into either was a disappointment to say the very least.
But, what do you think? Did you see The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker?
