User reviews

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.

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!

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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!

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.

There's no conspiracy, it's more of a mental health issue with this guy and his wife.

There is so much evidence towards the idea that his family was killed by someone, that they did not want his movie to be produced.

Tried to watch, very slow, watched a lot better documentarys.