A couple of years ago, I learned about the Keddie murders. I read up on the case, grew intrigued and eventually discover the Cabin 28 documentary. This was several years ago, so the documentary wasn’t accessible at the time. As bad as I wanted to watched the film, I sucked it up, dealt with it and eventually forgot about it all. Just recently, I discovered that the documentary was now available in its entirety on YouTube. Boy! I was blown away and excited. I couldn’t believe it and took a few hours out of my schedule to indulge. So, was the wait worth it?

Well, the story revolving around the Keddie murders is strange and fascinating. Even to this day, it parallels some of the greatest unsolved mysteries. The story itself will stick with you for a few good days, at least. The documentary doesn’t really do it justice. It starts out incredibly slow and focuses on nothing substantial for the first part. This section of the film lasts approximately 50 minutes. Although it is sad and interesting to listen to the people of the town, it doesn’t tells us anything about the murder or the potential murderers.

At this point, I was already disappointed, but I stuck with it. The second portion of the documentary started out strong. We saw new crime scene photos and fresh faces were interviewed. Then, it all went downhill. For the next twenty or thirty minutes, three psychics were interviewed. This didn’t do the film’s credibility any favors. Truthfully, I skipped past these frauds and continued. The good news is that things do pick up near the very end of the documentary.

The last thirty minutes or so of the documentary is great, substantial and eye-opening. Unfortunately, the majority of viewers won’t make it that far. The first part could be stricken from the film entirely and it would only improve matters. Skip past the psychics or you’ll find yourself rolling your eyes and growing annoyed. Once you wade through the rubbish, you will find some excellent information tucked deep into the film. In the end, the murderer or murderers of the Sharp family and Dana Wingate remain un-prosecuted and unknown.

 

Sadly, no documentary or film will be able to change that. Unlike the approach the documentary attempts to take, I didn’t see the cops as the bad guys or incompetent. In fact, they seemed to have done a great deal of investigating and had a room full of documents to prove it. Were they attempting to hide something? It is doubtful, since they did hand over all of their information to the filmmaker. Regardless of what you believe, there is one thing that is certain. The brutal murders of Sue Sharp, Tina Sharp, John Sharp and Dana Wingate will always pierce your mind and you’ll likely contemplate it from time to time.

 

As far as the documentary goes, it was decent, but could’ve been tremendously better. It didn’t live up to my hype unfortunately. In fact, there are much better and more informative ways to explore the crime. For that, the documentary deserves a 6 out of 10. It is worth a watch, as long as you’re willing to keep your trigger finger on the fast forward button.