SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

flower820 I found this documentary to be pointless and useless. The only part I enjoyed about this film was the "flashbacks" to current times in Black River Falls, WI because it is my hometown. Even though the film is about WI's history and Black River Falls, I found it to be boring and uninformative. Watching the film made me feel as if I were insane because I am from BRF. The historical viewpoint was interesting, but it seemed as if the film was saying that WI breeds insanity. I think living in a place with a very small population and little to do would drive me crazy as well. I couldn't find much of a point in the film either.

baselle Wisconsin Death Trip is a beautifully filmed, lyrical look at the underside of human existence in Black River Falls, Wisconsin during the late Victorian era, cross-cut with color images of Black River Falls one hundred years hence (1997). Told with still photographs, renactments, narrators, Wisconsin Death Trip will certainly shock moviegoers who long for the 'good old days' when we lived in close-knit small towns (or farms), life was simple, immigrants were hard working, family farmers were successful, and children always obeyed their parents.WDT shows us, often graphically, that murder, madness, crime, drug and alcohol abuse, arson, bad children, guns, superstitions, poverty, ignorance, adultery, and fears about old age have always been with us and perhaps will always be with us.The only negative comment I can make is about the veracity of the 'documentary'. Many of the events that were reported in the movie to have occurred in the pages of the Black River Falls newspaper occurred in other places - Beaver Dam and Poynette are much further south, Appleton is much further east, Eau Claire and Rhinelander further north, and the state mental hospital in Mendota is in Madison. The river and the sandstone bluffs are near the Wisconsin Dells; beautiful, in Wisconsin, but not near Black River Falls.Anyway, I think that for such a beautifully photographed film such as this, it is minor quibble. Wisconsin Death Trip is the movie you would get if Fellini, an absurdist and grandmaster of black and white film, had worked with Bergman, with his dour humanism and northern European sensibilities.Loved it. My family came from Wisconsin; wish they had used some of our family stories.

david_varela I saw WDT when it was first screened by the BBC, but had been looking forward to it ever since it arrived on the festival circuit. Word of mouth suggested it was dark, unusual and innovative - and, for once, word of mouth was right.Rarely have I seen stronger evidence that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. The stories here are fascinating - twisted tales of everyday folk who would happily fit into any Stephen King novel.And the style of the film is just as remarkable. Beautiful monochrome cinematography and a deadpan voice-over from Ian Holm reflect the macabre lunacy of Black River Falls. Mesmerising and unforgettable.

mr_impossible Some seem to have missed the whole point of this engrossing documentary. I wouldn't normally regard myself as a documentary person but this film is stylistically excellent using period photographs and specially shot black and white footage mixed in with colour shots of the town of Black River Falls (which the movie examines at the turn of the century) as it is now. To put it bluntly, and I don't feel I'm spoiling anything by saying this, the population is suffering from insanity ranging from the homicidal to the simply inexplicable. Ian Holm provides a haunting narration culled entirely from the local newspaper of the day and this is interspersed with excerpts from the records of the local asylum to which many of the towns inhabitants are committed.The story is one of collapse as harsh victorian values prove incapable of dealing with the economic and social conditions the town is experiencing. The towns inhabitants are simply incapable of dealing with their circumstances. Suicide and mania are the results.An excellent film let down almost not at all by the slightly banal comparisons made between the town in its victorian 'glory' and its modern status as a crime capital which falls a little flat but is not without interest. Proof of the effect of environment on psychology.