Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall

Is worth seeing. Good documentary, but kind of weirdly felt like there could have been more and less. The more would have been as some others noted (spouse, boyfriend, escape, etc.). For me, the less would be the interviews where different individuals contextualize the murder into other issue areas. Not sure those were very inciteful and detracted a bit from the telling of a very real human tragedy.

"Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall" (2022 release; 2 parts totaling 126 min.) is a documentary about the brutal murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall. As Part 1 "The Crime" opens, it is "August 10, 2017" as Kim Wall boards the submarine which Danish eccentric inventor Peter Madsen has built himself. She is doing a piece on him for Wired magazine. The submarine does not return to shore, and before too long, the Danish authorities start looking for it... At this point we are 10 min into Part 1.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from Erin Lee Carr, a widely respected and award-winning documentarian ("I Love You, Now Die"; "At the Heart Of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal"). Here she looks back at the savage (and worse) murder of Kim Wall by Peter Madsen. This 2 part documentary is like Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde. Part 1 feels hurried and aloof, certainly as compared to last year's excellent Danish 6 part mini-series "The Investigation", which truly conveys the efforts by the Danish authorities to tie Madsen to the murder. Then, just as surprising, Part 2 "The Punishment" is an excellent assessment what drove Madsen to do what he did (something that is barely addressed in "The Investigation"). Frankly, I was ready to bail on "Undercurrent" after the disappointing Part 1. Glad I decided to ride it our. Boottom line: if, like me, you have seen "The Investigation", you will not miss out on much if you skip Part 1 of "Undercurrent" and instead you go straight to Part 2.

"Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall" recently premiered on HBO and is now available on HBO On Demand and HBO Max, where I caught it. If you are interested in true crime documentaries, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion, although for those of you who have seen "The Investigation", I'd go straight to Part 2.

I dont really understand the reviews saying that this was extremely slow and boring? I never heard about this crime before and for me it was not boring at all. It kept adding more and more gruesome disturbing details of what happened to this poor woman. The story's timeline was a bit annoying to follow in some places, but other then that it was a very interesting crime story, one of the most horrific I saw. I feel so sorry for the family and friends of the victim and of course they have the rigth to talk about the victim as much they want, if you are not interested don't watch. As for the killer there is not much to it, it is a psychological condition he has and he fulfilled his dream.

Could have been done with one episode. Way to many unnecessary cut aways. Felt like it was in slow motion. Could have been much less boring. Not much else to add but 150 character requirement.

It's really gross and sad to see reviews of this documentary that say it would have been better and could have been covered in less time if there was less focus on Kim's life, who she was as a person, and the people who loved her. Not only is that disgusting, but it also willfully ignores the point of telling these stories and, in fact, the entire point of this documentary (a point which was clearly expressed several times throughout). The point of true crime stories shouldn't be solely focusing on the killer and the crime. These stories shouldn't make the killers a household name while only focusing on the victim for as long as it takes to describe the worst day of their life. These stories need to show the other side of things- the void left in people's lives and in the world now that this person has been taken out of it. We know too many "famous" killers' names and yet next to nothing about their victims. This documentary does an amazing job of balancing the story and the trial with the human impact of Kim's death. It's just really pitiful that folks don't seem to have enough attention span for both.