Cropsey

Cropsey can refer to:

People

Places

Other

Cropsey (film)

Cropsey is a 2009 American documentary film written and directed by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio. The film initially begins as an examination of "Cropsey", a boogeyman-like figure from New York urban legend, before segueing into the story of Andre Rand, a convicted child kidnapper from Staten Island.

In 2009, Cropsey premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where programmer David Kwok stated, “The eeriness of the mystery pulsates through the film as they journey into the underbelly… As more information and clues unravel, Zeman and Brancaccio become more immersed in shocking surprises and revelations. The reality they uncover in this uniquely hair-raising documentary is more terrifying than any urban legend.”

Cropsey origins

The name "Cropsey" has nebulous origins. At the time of the kidnappings depicted in the documentary, Cropsey had come to be New York vernacular for any psychotically violent criminal. One of the detectives interviewed in the film suggests that this generic label was used enough to frighten children that the name came to refer to an idea of a particular individual rather than a simple archetype.