Into The Deep Trailer: The Murder That Took Place Midway Through A Documentary

Documentaries about living subjects are always a bit of a wild card, and "Into the Deep" looks like one of the wildest documentaries to come out in recent memory. The doc premiered to rave reviews at Sundance Film Festival but had its Netflix release put on hold due to concerns about the consent of some of the documentary's participants. Now, Netflix has released a trailer for an edited version of the documentary with the non-consenting parties removed, and this doc looks truly fascinating. 

Documentary filmmaker Emma Sullivan intended to make a documentary about the unique inventions and enterprising spirit of Peter Madsen, an entrepreneur who had built three personal submarines and was working on a rocket to launch himself into outer space. Instead of focusing on the rocket's production and launch, however, the documentary's focus changes when Madsen takes a journalist named Kim Wall out on his submarine and returns alone. Now Sullivan must document what becomes of Madsen, and look back and try to figure out if anyone could have prevented this or seen it coming. People don't usually commit murders while they're in the middle of being the subject of a documentary, but in this case, that's exactly what happened. 

Documentaries that change focus in such a sharp way present a world of challenges for the filmmakers, but from the rave Sundance reviews and this trailer, it looks like Sullivan figured out the right direction to take. The director came under some scrutiny in 2020, when the film was supposed to be released worldwide, because two of the participants said they had not consented to being a part of the documentary. They also said that because of the nature of everything that happened, that the upcoming release of the film with them in it was a major source of stress and renewed trauma. One of the participants, Anja Olsen, was shown in the original cut of the documentary being physically threatened by Madsen. Olsen and the other participant, who wished to remain anonymous, were supported by one of the documentary's cinematographers, Cam Matheson, who withdrew from the film after the murder took place. 

While there's no word on how the unwilling participants were edited out, the folks at Netflix at least feel comfortable enough with the edits to release the documentary. The trailer looks excellent, and these kinds of true crime stories in real time are deeply unusual, so Netflix could have another documentary hit on its hands. 

"Into the Deep" premieres on Netflix on September 30, 2022.