We are the Monster in ‘Don’t F**k with Cats’

We are the monster in director Mark Lewis’ ‘Don’t F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer’ (2019). A three-part documentary series that considers the role internet sleuths and online culture played in stoking the evil that eventually slaughtered Chinese exchange student Jun Li.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Jun Li was murdered by Canadian psychopath Luka Magnotta, who seems to have begun his violent exploits by posting videos of himself killing cats online. In this, Magnotta broke the cardinal internet rule that gives the docuseries its name: ‘Don’t f**ck with cats’.

With heartwarming cat videos practically forming the bedrock of all that is good and holy on the internet, Magnotta’s videos of his drowning, vacuum sealing and setting snakes on felines earned ire from all over the globe. But particularly from a group of internet investigators led by Deanna Thompson and John Green who formed a Facebook group bent on identifying and apprehending him.

‘Don’t F**ck with Cats’ briefly outlines the disturbing story of a narcissistic young man with dreams of becoming famous.

Not beyond doctoring photos of himself ostensibly travelling the world, planting sensational stories about his link to a famous serial killer and creating fake profiles to gush over his photos online, Magnotta is framed as particularly deluded and willing to do just about anything for clout.

Just how far Magnotta will go becomes apparent when the backlash to his cat videos begins.

As Thompson and Green rally the Facebook troops and close in on his location through some seriously impressive and pretty stalker-ish examining of every frame of the videos, Magnotta revels in the attention and escalates the violence.

Teasing the group through his YouTube likes and a threatening video shot at Thompson’s workplace, Magnotta uses the internet not only to gain notoriety but also to taunt its do-gooders even as he plots to fulfil their worst nightmare: That he will eventually move on from torturing and killing cats to doing the same to humans.

It’s a fear articulated in the Facebook forum and an idea Magnotta – who infiltrated the group – must have been privy to as he gleefully read everyone’s theories and ultimately redirected the search from Namibia. Yes, Namibia. This documentary is wild.

It’s also entirely frightening. But not in the way one initially thinks. While Magnotta’s murder of Jun Lin – which he films and posts online – is horrifying so are the events that led up to it.

Though Magnotta’s flashy internet persona isn’t private, its unsettling to see just how much can be gleaned from the innocent items we post online. More unnerving is how our internet culture fuelled by likes, sensationalism and the insatiable quest for attention no matter the personal, environmental, cultural or societal cost can become warped, conscienceless and even deadly.

“Did we feed the monster, or did we create it?” says Thompson, who briefly stepped away from the investigation for a moment as she found herself obsessed, dark and actively trying to think like a killer.

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”

In an interview with the director, Lewis shares that Thompson received a note with a version of this Nietzsche quote during her investigation and it is an apt one.

When we watch and make documentaries about these killers, when we obsess over their lives, motivations and crimes, do we create more murderers ready to do the unspeakable in their quest for significance? Do we feed their narcissism to the point that they need to do more, worse or move from cats to Jun Li?

The blame is not solely with us but ‘Don’t F**ck with Cats’ makes a sobering case against the viewer, the liker and the provocative online sleuth as Thompson turns to us in the docuseries’ last scene and asks…

“Are you complicit?”

‘Don’t F*ck with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer’ (2019) is now streaming on Netflix.

– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com

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