Abducted in Plain Sight ★★★½

Abducted in Plain Sight
Channel: Netflix
Director: Skye Borgman
IMDb Rating | 6.7
Humpo Show Rating | 6.8

The twisting, turning, stranger-than-fiction true story of the Brobergs, a naive, church-going Idaho family that fell under the spell of a sociopathic neighbour with designs on their twelve-year-old daughter.

Initially released in 2017, the documentary was picked up by Netflix this year and has spread like wildfire across social media, and like many, I had seen some of the many memes and outrageous posts on Twitter concerning the mad Broberg family and the peadophile neighbour Robert Berchtold. Intrigued, I decided to watch the 90-documentary film. Be prepared to be shocked.

Jan, Bob and Mary Ann Broberg are the main people involved in the documentary, and they are three of the strangest and brainless people I have ever set eyes on. Bob and Mary Ann won’t be winning any ‘Parents of the Year’ awards any time soon. To allow their child to sleep in the same bed as a convicted peadophile that had kidnapped their daughter is beyond ridiculous.

You could argue that Jan was manipulated and brainwashed by Berchtold, but for a girl of secondary school age, to not have the intelligence or common sense to talk about what was happening regarding the aliens and Berchtold to anyone is baffling. Even now, she doesn’t seem normal.

The documentary film inspires many questions for the viewer – here are a few of the main ones I was shouting at the screen:

How can parents allow their 12 year old daughter to have ‘sleep-overs’ with a 40 year old man?
How can they both be easily lured into a sexual relationship with the same man?
How can parents permit their daughter to leave to live with a convicted peadophile in caravan in a different state?
How can parents allow a peadophile spend the night three or four times a week for six months in their daughter’s bed after, while listening to sex tapes?
How can a man sit on camera and  say his brother was a peadophile but was also a great car salesman?

It is quite frankly unbelievable. Abducted in Plain Sight is a typical Netflix watch and is perfectly targeted at the huge number of 18-30 year olds that love true crime documentaries and meme-worthy content.

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The Humpo Show | Richard