DON’T F*CK WITH CATS is one of the few crime documentaries I would give a 5/5. One of the main reasons for this is while I do love them, most of them tell the story of a murder or crime that the world already knows much about. This Netflix Limited Series (only 3 episodes, I watched it in one night!) tells the tale of a killer I had never heard of before.
The Title of the series is accurate, given the fact that we first meet our murder, Luka Rocca Magnotta, by finding out that he posted a video on Youtube of him killing two cats by putting them into a vacuum seal bag, and eventually sealing the bag closed with them in it. In the video, he then proceeds to take the cats out of the bag after and play with them. Soon after he posts more videos of him killing cats, leading up to him posting a final video of him actually killing another human being.
What makes this series so interesting, is how twisted and bizarre the whole thing seems. Obviously, posting cat killing videos gets people’s attention and attracts outrage from social media users. Some more than others though. Two people frequently interviewed throughout the film are internet sleuths, who’s main goal for years was to track down this cat killer, and report him to the authorities, fearing that he would eventually kill a person. Another interesting aspect of the Cat Killer case, is that he was obsessed with the movie Basic Instinct. Scenes, lines, and songs from this movie are replicated in the Cat Killers crimes. It was implied that Magnotta himself was aiming to represent Sharon Stone’s character, going as far as to kill someone in the same fashion that Catherine Tramell did in the film.
After watching this movie, I felt so shaken up, that I had to throw on Shark Boy and Lava Girl after to give me something lighthearted to watch. I’ve never watched a movie that made me feel so anxious and disgusted and sad at the same time. However, this docu-series does have something to be learned at the end, which is you can never trust everything you see on the internet.