Mr. Movie TikTok
Screenshot via Mr. Movie/TikTok

Is ‘The Trail’ an actual true crime documentary, or is it parody?

Or did Mr. Movie strike again?

By now, you may have seen the TikTok post from Mr. Movie about a mind-blowing Hulu true-crime documentary called The Trail. And if you’re like us, once you listened to Mr. Movie talk about it, you couldn’t wait to watch — but does this purported Hulu documentary actually exist?

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Whetting our true-crime appetites, Mr. Movie claims the Hulu show details the disappearance of several kids on a trail at a place called Starved Rock in Illinois, and adds that when people searched for them, the searchers disappeared, too. “Fourteen people went missing down this trail before they realized something was up and blocked it off,” Mr. Movie says.

And when Mr. Movie mentioned trail cams, we checked if our Hulu subscriptions were up to date. He continued:

“As the investigation goes on, it just gets weirder and weirder. Around the perimeter of the site, they found a ton of trees covered with trail cams. By the time they collected them all, they had hundreds of trail cams.”

Hundreds of trail cams, you say?! Sign us up! So, can you actually watch this supposed masterpiece of true-crime filmmaking? — Here’s your answer.

The Trail may not be an actual documentary, but Starved Rock is a real place with a dark history

via Mr. Movie/TikTok

Sadly, The Trail is not an actual true crime documentary — Hulu producers, are you listening? But don’t despair. Starved Rock State Park is a real place in Illinois, however, and 14 people have gone missing there. In the 1960s, three women, Lillian Oetting, Frances Murphy, and Mildred Linquist, were murdered there. But no, sorry, no trail cams were ever discovered.

In 1961, Chester Otto Weger was convicted of killing the women, but he says he’s innocent, and in 2020, he was released from prison after six decades behind bars. And while The Trail‘s is not, in fact, an existing documentary, there is a documentary called The Murders at Starved Rock, released in 2021 and streaming on Max. Maybe that series will satiate your true-crime craving.

via Max/YouTube

Anyway, if you caught Mr. Movie’s TikTok and wondered, “Where can I watch The Trail documentary?” based on the comments, you’re not alone. Some comments queried where they could watch the movie. Some even claimed to have seen the trail cam footage.

According to one comment, though, Mr. Movie’s fooled us before. “About a year ago, you had me waste three days of my life searching for a show that doesn’t exist…now I just come for the comments,” it said.


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Author
William Kennedy
William Kennedy is a full-time freelance content writer and journalist in Eugene, OR. William covered true crime, among other topics for Grunge.com. He also writes about live music for the Eugene Weekly, where his beat also includes arts and culture, food, and current events. He lives with his wife, daughter, and two cats who all politely accommodate his obsession with Doctor Who and The New Yorker.