The defence The Auteur Devotee
“Form is the argument.”
Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.
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Into the Abyss
Documentary · Crime · 2011
We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes.
Movie details
Into the Abyss
“A gaze into the abyss of the human soul.”
2011 Documentary · Crime 1h 47m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.9 / 10
Community rating
We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Into the Abyss?
For the defence
The Auteur Devotee
“You watch the director, not the movie.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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A teen slams her car into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend. What seems like a tragic accident becomes a murder case.
Maternal Instinct
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Police pull over a woman who claims she just gave birth. But the baby — and the blood — aren't hers. Twisted lies unravel in this true-crime documentary.
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer
Documentary · 2003
British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.
Ted Bundy: Mind of a Monster
Crime · 2019
New exclusive access and never before heard testimony gives a unique insight into the mind of America's most notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy. Breathtaking archive from the time and the voice of Bundy himself, reveals the monster inside the man.
The Alabama Solution
Documentary · 2025
Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems.
Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story
Documentary · 2020
After 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown is sentenced to life in prison, questions about her past, physiology and the law itself call her guilt into question.
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
Documentary · 2013
An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.
Welcome to Chechnya
Documentary · 2020
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
Boys State
Documentary · 2020
This raucous journey into the heart of democracy captures an unusual rite of passage: 1,100 teenage boys from across Texas coming together to build a representative government from the ground up.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Werner Herzog
Written by
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog
Narrator (voice)
J
Jason Burkett
Self - Convicted Murderer
R
Richard Lopez
Self - Death House Chaplin (as The Reverend Richard Lopez)
D
Damon Hall
Self - Montgomery County Sheriff's Department
L
Lisa Stolter-Balloun
Self - Daughter and Sister to Victims
C
Charles Richardson
Self - Older Brother of Jeremy
J
Jared Talbert
Self - Citizen of Conroe Texas
Court is in session
Put Into the Abyss on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Technique in search of a pulse.”
Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.