moral panic

The Imposter is a 2012 documentary film about French con artist Frédéric Bourdin, who impersonated missing Texas boy Nicholas Barclay. Available on Apple TV, Amazon, and more.

Beware the Slenderman is an HBO documentary about the 2014 attempted murder of 12-year-old Payton Leutner by two classmates who believed in the Slender Man internet myth.

HBO Max docuseries covering the 2001 disappearance and murder of D.C. intern Chandra Levy, the Gary Condit scandal, and the contested conviction of Ingmar Guandique.

Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle is a 2018 four-part documentary series about Jim Jones and the 1978 Peoples Temple massacre in Guyana, killing more than 900 people.

Alabama Snake is an HBO Max documentary film about Pentecostal preacher Glenn Summerford, convicted of forcing his wife to be bitten by a rattlesnake in Scottsboro, Alabama, in 1991.

House of Hammer is an HBO Max docuseries covering the sexual-abuse and rape allegations against actor Armie Hammer, surfacing publicly in 2021, and the generational misconduct within his wealthy family.

The Case of: Caylee Anthony is a documentary special examining the 2008 death of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony in Florida and the acquittal of her mother, Casey Anthony.

HBO Max documentary about the Bling Ring, a group of LA teens who burglarized celebrity homes in 2008–2009, stealing over $3 million in property.

Satan Wants You is a 2023 documentary about Michelle Smith and psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder, whose book Michelle Remembers sparked the real-world Satanic Panic. Streams on CBC Gem, Tubi, Apple TV and Kanopy.

On May 21, 1924, in Chicago, Illinois, nineteen-year-old Nathan Leopold and eighteen-year-old Richard Loeb kidnapped and murdered fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks in what they believed would be an unsolvable crime. Instead, a single piece of evidence would expose their scheme and lead to one of the most sensational trials of the twentieth century.

Keith Raniere, founder of the self-help organization Nxivm, was convicted in June 2019 on all seven counts of racketeering, sex trafficking, and fraud. The Waterford, New York resident received a 120-year prison sentence in October 2020 for leading an enterprise that systematically victimized women.