Goodnight, Sugar Babe: The Killing of Vera Jo Reigle

This was one of the most infuriating documentaries I have ever watched. The entire cast of people interviewed in this film appear to be products of incest, rampant drug/sexual abuse, and mental illness. I had no idea people this creepy even existed, especially not in Ohio. I am a social worker with homeless people in a major southern city, and I have never witnesses anyone even remotely as grotesque and ultimately insane as these people. It was hard to look at and listen to these people. What really enraged me was that everyone knew exactly what was going to happen as Vera left the house the night of her death, and yet they just stood by and watched. Not to mention the many other incidents of abuse that they all watched Vera endure. I'm still not sure how all of these people were witnesses to some of the events that occurred and not charged with anything..seriously, how many people lived in that house? They all seem so aloof and most of them seem developmentally delayed. The entire family is revolting, and I don't understand why Cheri "sugar babe" is not in prison. Good film, but trashy people and disturbing events.

I'm a big fan of documentaries and while browsing Amazon, stumbled upon this film. I wasn't sure what to expect but figured it had to at least be an interesting story. This film was sort of like watching an episode of Jerry Springer. The colorful characters that make up the story seem as though they'd fit perfectly on the set of the notorious talk show, unafraid to air personal dramas and tales of violence. I say this, not to be mean, but to make the point that this film does not seem focused on portraying the victim or embarking on a larger narrative about her, the cycles of abuse that seem commonplace according to the family members and acquaintances interviewed, or how her mental capacity may have made her a target for abuse. Instead, the focus of the film seems to be on the victim's abusers, with much of the subject matter revolving around the matriarch of this "family". I also found myself uncomfortable with how locals and family members were portrayed. This film feels like sensationalism, intent on pointing out the most lurid and shocking details about these people and their behaviors, despite the fact that some of it is irrelevant to the story.

This film also feels incredibly amateur. Production quality is low, with much of the film looking and feeling like something made by sophomores in the AV Club at the local high school. There is little structure to the story. You're given a quick slideshow presentation of everyone being interviewed for this film, with its respective fade in/out of each photo and their names typeset in Bradley Hand below each one. And then the story takes off. The information comes in small jumbles that are (kind of) in some type of order. But it all ends up feeling like you're sitting in their living room, surrounded by all of them, and being bombarded with the story of every extenuating circumstance surrounding this woman's murder and having to do your best to make sense of it all. Occasionally I found myself lacking clarity on the victim's murder itself, which...well isn't that why we're all here??

Despite the films preoccupation with the seedier details of the people in the victim's life, I did feel a sense of sadness for this woman. She had no advocate and local authorities did little to nothing to help her. In fact, this is one of the points I wish had been further explored as well. Overall, a truly sad story made even sadder by what I saw as a pervasive atmosphere of neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, poverty and incest surrounding this woman with mental challenges. I don't really recommend this film. It feels seedy, exploitative and cheap.

I gave this movie a six because I love crime documentaries. However while this is that, it seems less about the very tragic life of Vera, and more about how this jaba the hut of a womans evil puppeteering caused an entire family to become complete animals and brutalize another human being for fun before ultimately murdering her for the sole purpose that they no longer had fun doing it. The police and everyone else in this pathetic town should be held accountable. Every single person let this woman down but that disgusting family should be in prison for the rest of their days. One family member couldn't help but smirk and smile each and EVERY SINGLE TIME he saId ANYTHING about what happened to this womab. They are all guilty and not a single one of them deserve to see the light of day ever again except at yard time in prison. This sugarbear is as vindictive as the crazy woman from Evil Genius. It goes to show you true evil is walking (waddling?) among us and weather you believe in a God or not, it's plain to see real evil exsits. This family is proof. I understand they wanted to do a documentary about this hienous crime but i think the focus was on the wrong subjects. Vera was only the backdrop even in a movie about the crime that was her murder. Its a shame, for her and her poor daughter, the moment she ever laid eyes upon the Brooks family. May she rest in peace.

Ok after I read others reviews, I didn't feel so bad about stating the truth. Does anyone in that town have teeth or do exercise?? They need to look into that. And also such a frustrating documentary because it's about this messed up family, who should all be in prison, instead of vera who was brutally murdered.

Firstly, I agree with the other reviews that believed this film seemed to be more about the hillbilly family than the victim or her murder. Secondly, I've never seen so many f*caked up teeth in one film. With the exception of perhaps 4 ppl in the entire film (none of which were part of the family) everyone had the most twisted, funky grills. Most all the boys in the film were either inbred or had clear traits of some sort of disability. In short, a family of white trash recruits a mentally disabled woman to live in their house and be their slave. The mother (a toothless, 400lb woman in a wheelchair) controls a syndicate of hoodlums made up of her welfare sons. The mother convinces the 22yr old special needs woman to get pregnant by her 16yr old son, in hopes of her having a little girl. Again, let me emphasize the rotten teeth... The mother clearly is a sociopath with severe mental limitations, with a perverse obsession with baby girls. After the mentally disabled woman has the baby, the cult mother has her killed by a couple of the kids living in the house. There is almost no attention given to how or why society allowed this poor disabled woman to be abused and murdered by this family with a combined IQ of about 30. The brooks family was clearly bred to either do manual labor in prison, become members of the MAGA movement, or to appear in another Hills Have Eyes movie. And yet, these ppl continue to breed in multitudes...