10 scary documentaries on Netflix for Halloween 2021

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

Release Year: 2021

Directed by Joe Berlinger

Starring Tim Marcia, Amy Price, Josh Dean

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is a four-part docuseries that chronicles the death of Elisa Lam. The Cecil Hotel was a budget hotel in downtown Los Angeles with a history of murders, suicides, and overdoses. Lam went missing in 2013 while traveling through L.A. The mystery around her disappearance heightened when the police released surveillance footage of her on an elevator behaving strangely. Lam was pacing, gesticulating wildly, and appeared to hide from someone at some point.

When the police finally found her body, it was unclear how it wound up there, and the mystery continued. There was no evidence of a physical or sexual assault. The main focus of Lam’s behavior was about her bipolar disorder and the possibility that she had stopped taking her medication. This Cecil Hotel docuseries weaves a dizzying web of different potential scenarios for the audience to consider. We even see some of Lam’s extensive Tumblr posts that serve as breadcrumbs along the scary journey.

Watch Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel if you are interested in paranormal theories or true crime investigations. This docuseries has a little bit of both.