A Gray State (2017) Poster

(2017)

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5/10
Interesting story
gjkrulick11 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Ultimately I enjoyed this movie but as others have noted, the film maker does not spend much time on any other possible conclusion than the narrative you are left with. Two small bits with the keyboard jockey conspiracy guys is the only real glimpse into an alternate story as to what happened with this young family. I happen to agree with the probable answer that mental illness drove David to do the unthinkable but i would have preferred a bit more time having been spent on other possibilities. I am sure I will now go down the internet rabbit hole to find any "evidence" of a conspiracy as the film really did not explore that angle at all. My specualtion would be that the film maker was convinced, after investigating the story so deeply, that what he presents is the truth. I was just disappointed that Netflix eludes to the story being more of a conspiracy in the description.
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6/10
Gripping for sure, we'll never know why
kme00828 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Need to know what is being said in the video recording left on Davids phone before his voice recording labled "Komel's prophecy 30oct14" sound is unintelligible and leaves us feeling like a key detail is missing right as the documentary ends. What did she forsee, feel, speculate, or otherwise? This film did a good job of documenting but I think it makes clear that this was not a conspiracy do-in but rather an unfortunate mental health nightmare.
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6/10
Unfortunate story
Calicodreamin14 April 2020
The very unfortunate story of the murder-suicide of the Crowley family. The documentary includes relevant interviews and archival footage. A thoughtful timeline of events is presented and the interviews have good flow. Most of the content is about the making of Davids movie and gave the documentary a home movie vibe rather than a true crime vibe. Overall a decent documentary.
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7/10
A tragic but fascinating documentary.
stuartwfrouse23 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this documentary while under the weather. It's at once compelling because the man it talks about is so driven and compelled to make a movie but spirals into a desperately sad situation. I would recommend watching this documentary as there are several points where you can see how the internet and conspiracy theories can play into the actions and beliefs of an unwell person. I found the ending, which involves a prolonged shot of a crime scene a touch insensitive but this also served a purpose. The point being in my opinion that a grand act such as a murder suicide really doesn't solve anything. Life continues and it's exponentially worse for the people who are left to pick up the pieces.

That said I feel this film tell the very difficult story of a man who felt he had a story to tell and ended up in the very darkest of situations.
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6/10
Don't Be Fooled: Not an Actual Documentary
schoolyphanton17 August 2020
This film is not an actual documentary. The people in the film are actors, some better than others. Upon viewing this film, you are left to wonder which is more compelling, a fake documentary or documentary of fakeness? This film provides both.
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4/10
Not too interesting
kirstywalters7710 April 2019
All I got from this and not ever knowing or hearing anything about this guy is that he was a narcissistic control freak. He didn't sit well with me from the beginning and as I said, I knew nothing of him. Maybe this is a great documentary if you understand or know who he is but it's not what I was expecting. Watching a self absorbed douche bag doesn't inspire interest for a newcomer. I feel bad for his wife and daughter and can only imagine how he was at home without a camera on him. Hmmm.... weird!
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8/10
Gripping yet disturbing
anthonyjlangford17 December 2017
I was gripped from the opening scenes. Not knowing the story, it unfolded like a mystery, thanks to a solid structure from a director in control. I don't wish to diminish the content, as really, this is a very disturbing and sad story, as told through the people closest to David, the young man at the center of A Gray State. He was clearly talented but did not realize that as he was creating his debut feature film, he was really documenting his own story, one, which unfortunately, we are now all to privy to. It's a shame that the young woman who shares his journey wasn't represented more by her family, but given the situation, you can understand why they probably didn't wish to participate. As a parent, it's absolutely heartbreaking. A truly tragic story, that didn't leave any questions for me, that it might do for others. The human mind is a fragile thing, especially after trauma. There is a high degree of responsibility, however, of governments to look after those whom it exposes to war, that should last long after duty is over.
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2/10
long, repetitive and ultimately disappointing
mj-0415528 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The story does not provide any insight on any the alleged conspiracy theory, neither does it delve into the psyche of the protagonists. To me the story is nothing more than the sad unfolding of a young person's mental illness with a tragic ending. We know nothing about the protagonist's childhood, family upbringing or intimate relationships. All the movie does is interview friends and family who speculate on and on his apparently disintegrating marriage. Did he suffer from PTSD? Paranoid schizophrenia with delusions of grandeur mania? Very few concrete facts, a lot of speculation...
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8/10
Haunting
Dynerax2 April 2019
It was said that "this story gets you, you can't wash it off..." Haunting. It's the only word to describe A Gray State. The story of a family slowly going off the rails is well laid-out, even if it's tragically predictable.

It's a dark ride into the dark recesses of madness, in real time, as documented by the insane person. Yeah, okay that sounds fun. A modern retelling of The Shining, only it's non-fiction.

From the onset, you get the details of an family everyone envies, a supportive wife, wonderful daughter and charismatic and driven father. The entire family seems to be involved in the making of a feature film, it has momentum and real progress. Behind the scenes is a family - a father and his decent into madness. As an ex soldier in Afghanistan, he details his experiences and the trauma slowly reveals itaelf as the story unfolds. What makes it predictable is that the family is so idyllic - there *must* be something wrong - and tit's laid out painstakingly with meaningful interviews with people that knew the family.

The filmmakers lay it out methodically and it seems to only heighten the sense of dread, the doom that's coming.

The story itself is so compelling and captivating that I had done my own research into these events after watching this. The material is ideal soil for the conspiracies to take root. It's a sad, misguided distraction and only takes away from the dreadful conclusion.

David Crowley carefully orchestrated and crafted his life, his exit was his final act and very calculated - complete with its own soundtrack.

Must watch - but be prepared to be affected by this for a while...
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4/10
It was slow, and there isn't a conspiracy.
modestman836 August 2019
I really thought I was going to watch something that made me think 'WOW! That's deep! The government did kill them!' I really thought I was going to be WOW'D by this documentary like 9/11 conspiracy, or the Marilyn Monroe murder conspiracy, but after watching this documentary it was clear to me (no questions asked) David killed his wife and kid and then took his own life. He liked to control and seemed very narcissistic which lead me to think wanted to the publicity and make us all think the murders (after his death) was a conspiracy (which it wasn't.)
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1/10
Official narrative propaganda
zedxtwo12 October 2020
If I could give the film the same rating as the amount of crime-scene investigative details provided, it would be zero, A better title would be "Crowley Family Home Movies Plus Interviews." By the way, if so-called "friends" (like maybe some guy you once met in grade school) go around saying you murdered your family and killed yourself without evidence, they were never friends. Any dissenting opinion to the official suburban Minneapolis Police's narrative is suspiciously absent. Next, they will tell us George Floyd committed suicide too, the location of those events being at the focal point of the proposed film Crowley was working on since 2010.
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8/10
A Fascinating Story That Is Only Mildly Repetitive
neener370721 January 2018
While I do think this was a great documentary with an interesting enough story to tell, it was slightly repetitive in spots. About a new director with budding potential named David Crowley who is mysteriously murdered while creating an admittedly provocative film about a police state with an oppressive government. The story, while repetitive at times, does a great job telling the story to the viewer, providing an easily understood story of David's personal life, his life as a promising new director, and his families unfortunate end. But as I said before, the only slight drawback is that it often repeats itself when telling the story. And we will discuss it.

The film jumps around between David's personal life, his work on the film, and his murder. The issue is SOMETIMES, the story repeats itself when starting a new section. I found myself thinking that the film already explained that he was a potentially great film maker, feeling that the film repeats its to remind you of things that didn't happen too long ago for me to forget and need to be reminded. I would have also liked to hear more about his murder, which I found to be an interesting plot line that wasn't fleshed out as much as I would of hoped. But I must emphasize that these are only minor issues.

Over all I would recommend the film to anyone, though some may find it to be too conspiracy theory laden, but as an avid documentary viewer, I enjoyed it.
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10/10
Fascinating and timely psychological horror
Zebb678 August 2019
I think the low rating, at least among those voting and not the critics who like the film, is disappointment the filmmakers did not turn Crowley into some kind of martyr, but treated him as the disturbed murderer that he was. As we've seen in the news so many times just in the last couple years, This can very well be the results of following absurd and dangerous conspiracy theories and letting your emotions overtake your reason. Even more relevant in 2019 than it was when first released. Highly recommended!
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1/10
DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!
JenniferMary12212 February 2018
Erik Nelson manipulated the information and is obviously bias, not presenting all facts and events in a neutral manner. If you end up watching this, make sure you also research the case yourself to get the full picture.
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2/10
Dont waste your time!
stevepinder0244 October 2020
There's no conspiracy, it's more of a mental health issue with this guy and his wife.
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8/10
SPOILERS SPOILERS
ellisalex26 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I never heard of this film or of the filmaker in the documentary. I saw the title on Netflix and watched it one day after work. The documentary itself was good. The subject matter was interesting. It was no murder mystery. The mystery is why did it happen. The mystery is what heppened to this man and why did the wife go into the rabbit hole with him. I never understand murder suicides and to kill your child, and wife then yourself is unrelateable to me. Especially writing in your wifes blood. Like I said it was a good dicumentary.
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1/10
Manipulative and biased
jasonbarnettnz10 February 2022
Doesn't deserve any stars. This is a total whitewash to hide the real meaning behind the original movie. The director was attempting to expose the dark aide of freemasonry as well as the overall agenda for world domination of the 33rd degree and related secret societies which workshop what can only be called an evil agenda.
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2/10
A Gray State
emilywes564 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Last week I watched this documentary. I have a very negative opinion about the people who made this documentary and the people who promoted it. I was looking for a documentary or a film by David Crowley himself and his crew, instead, I watched a documentary with the same title as his movie was going to have and a plot that lead from the beginning to the result that he did kill his family and himself. It is quite annoying that the director and producer used the title of the movie that he was going to make, "A Gray State". Why would they do this? It is a different film, it is a documentary, to put this exact title is misleading and unacceptable, when in fact they attack his own personality and daily life. Disturbing is the fact that, whoever is behind this documentary had full access in his personal diaries, personal moments with his family, personal discussions with his wife or his kid. Even if this is the most useful part of this film, because we get to know more detail about how he worked and how he LOVED THEM DEEPLY, the content is not objectively put into the plot. They want to design throughout different stages of his life, the portrait of a crazy man. But that is it. They want it but they do not achieve it. This documentary has huge gaps, and from beginning until the middle has a steady pace, giving us sigh of the behind the scenes from his production of the film. We see how he thinks, how he wants to bring his movie to life. We see that he encourages people to know about the government of America, he speaks of how he thought of army and what made him change his mind, irreversably. David Crowley is honest. He admits he killed people, he admits he was in the battle field "defending" his country. He has seen the truth and wants to do something about it. He is BRAVE. Every man or woman that speaks in the film about him, speaks words of kindness, they say how perfectionist he was and how he would help others. We can understand a person, from the way he acts and the way he talks. He seem to be conscious about everything, he has understand how he should stand up against the injustice he has experienced. TRUTH coming out from simple people IS ALWAYS irritating for the ones that want to keep people sleeping and being numb. He speaks about how American government uses its soldiers, he speaks about the marcial law and how they want to pass it without anyone noticing it. He speaks about the huge distance between the elite and the society, the weak and the ones in power. He refers to a New World Order. It is no secret they killed them all. They gave us a photo of ALLAH AKBAR written in the wall, and a diary oddly put infront of the scene of murders and they're done with it. Again, the terror of the muslim, but what muslim is that, when both David and his wife where Christians? He had a huge desire to get this movie done. His wife and his daughter were his biggest supporters. Suddenly, when he announce that he will make this film, many people are getting interested, many people ask for this person to be one voice of hope in this dark present times. He is excited, he has his film crew, his wife helping him with everything, his friends believing in him. He makes public speach and shows a trailer of the film that he made without many money, so he can raise the amount of money he needs to make it happen. THE AMOUNT OF MONEY IS there, he has all the help to make it real feature film. THE TRAILER OF THE FILM IS EVERYWHERE, in every social network. People see it, speak about it, it goes viral. ........ Suddenly, something happens. David and his family isolate themselves from their friends, their families. The production stops slowly to proceed. They are staying together into their house and they seem to be worried about something. Again, they are together, working inside the house.
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5/10
Sheep will enjoy it
btoews17 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Pretty simple doc-anyone who is a "conspiracy theorist" will quite likely turn out to be a homicidal maniac who kills his wife and kid in a murder suicide. Lets just pretend that we don't know that 99% of murder suicides are not carried out by dreaded "conspiracy theorists" just whack jobs. Keep watching the esteemed MSM and get the whole truth and nothing but the truth-LOL.
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1/10
Secret cover-up
cszarek9 October 2021
There is so much evidence towards the idea that his his family was killed by someone that did not want his movie to be produced.
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1/10
Ughh rolling eyes
MidoriAi18 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Only family and friends were interviewed.. Why someone would want to kill a class B director? The parts that this docu showed about the movie were super class b and bad acting. There are a lot of independent journalist in many countries that talk how it is. He did a movie. A bad one at that. I mean, again, why would anyone want to silence this control freak? Maybe he should have let people a say in at least the film, so it wouldn't be so cheap and clishè made..

And what about playing war?? He then went to Irak, because he wanted to do it for real. War is not a game. Innocent people died. And who are you to dictate Islam is bad?

And what about Komel family?

You will never know why he killed his family.. And the final scene was the place were they find them dead. Chilling.
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1/10
Not great
wooder-2502825 March 2019
Tried to watch, very slow, watched a lot better documentarys.
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2/10
A not very interesting story about a guy who had ptsd and committed murder suicide
safkscga5 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
He married a dietician who had a side hustle as a cake maker. He starts a gofund to make a stupid movie. We never really learn what the movie is about or about the movement that he was a part of. They go off the deep end and kill themselves. Some people think there is a conspiracy but there really isn't one. The story could have been told in 20 mins. Boring.
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