Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel | |
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Genre | Documentary |
Directed by | Joe Berlinger |
Starring |
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Composer | Wendy Blackstone |
Country of origin | United States |
Original languages |
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No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 4 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producer | Graham Riske |
Cinematography | Jeff Hutchens |
Running time | 51–58 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | Netflix |
Release | February 10, 2021 |
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is the first season of the Crime Scene docuseries. [1] Released in 2021 and directed by Joe Berlinger, it chronicles the death of Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel. It features Viveca Chow, Judy Ho and Artemis Snow and premiered on February 10, 2021 on Netflix. [1] [2]
No. | Title | Original release date |
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1 | "Lost in Los Angeles" | February 10, 2021 |
2 | "Secrets of the Cecil" | February 10, 2021 |
3 | "Down the Rabbit Hole" | February 10, 2021 |
4 | "The Hard Truth" | February 10, 2021 |
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel was released on February 10, 2021, on Netflix. [3]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 54% based on 26 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5.30/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A sad story poorly told, Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel buries the heart of its tragic case under unsavory conspiracy theories and tasteless reenactments." [4] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [5]
Writing for Insider , Libby Torres pointed out seven questions that the documentary left after claiming that the mystery was solved. Among them, the fact that it was not identified who edited the video of Elisa in the elevator (which has signs of tampering); the police went with sniffer dogs to the place where Elisa's body was, but they didn't find it; the hotel did nothing after receiving the information that Elisa was exhibiting strange behavior: "In the show, the hotel's former manager, Amy Price, explains that bizarre behavior was par for the course at the hotel, which has housed drug addicts, mentally ill people, and sex workers throughout the years. Price essentially tells producers that while Lam's behavior was odd, it didn't merit any special attention. As a viewer, though, it's hard not to wonder why the hotel didn't do more to help and whether or not assisting Lam could have prevented her death." [6]
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The Cecil Hotel is an affordable housing complex in Downtown Los Angeles. It opened on December 20, 1924, as a budget hotel. In 2011, the hotel was renamed the Stay On Main. The 14-floor hotel has 700 guest rooms. The hotel has a checkered history, with many suicides and deaths occurring there. Renovations started in 2017 were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the hotel's temporary closure. On December 13, 2021, the Cecil Hotel was reinaugurated as an affordable housing complex.
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On February 19, 2013, the body of Canadian tourist Elisa Lam was recovered from a large cistern atop the Stay on Main hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, where she had been a guest. She was last seen alive on January 31 and was reported missing by her parents on February 1. Her body was discovered by a hotel maintenance worker investigating complaints of flooding and low water pressure.
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