ABOUT THE FILM

LOGLINE

To Catch a Predator was a popular television show designed to hunt down child predators and lure them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and eventually arrested. PREDATORS is a chilling, thought-provoking exploration of the scintillating rise and staggering fall of the show, and the world it helped create. From MTV Documentary Films.

LONG SYNOPSIS

A cultural sensation from its inception in the early 2000s, Dateline NBC’s candid-camera investigative series To Catch a Predator ensnared sex offenders and lured them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and arrested while cameras rolled. The show was a hit and transformed its host Chris Hansen into a moral crusader and TV star, while spawning a worldwide industry of imitators and vigilantes.

But why did we watch so voraciously — and why do we continue to devour its web-based, clickbait-driven offshoots?

Looking back on the show and the countless franchises it spawned, filmmaker David Osit turns his camera on journalists, actors, law enforcers, academics, and ultimately himself, to trace America’s obsession with watching people at their lowest.

PREDATORS is a chilling, edge of your seat film that delves into the murk of human nature to observe hunter, predator, subject and spectator alike, all ensnared in a complicated web of entertainment as far as the eye can see.

Director David Osit

Producers Jamie Gonçalves, Kellen Quinn, David Osit

Executive Producers Jennifer Ollman, Nina L. Diaz, Liza Burnett Fefferman

Co-Executive Producers Arthur Bradford, Chad Beck

Supervising Producer Molly Gilula

Editors David Osit, Nicolás Nørgaard Staffolani

Director of Photography David Osit

Music Tim Hecker

FESTIVALS
2025: Sundance (World Premiere), CPH:DOX (International Premiere)

AVAILABLE TERRITORIES
The World

EXHIBITION FORMATS
DCP, Digital Download