It Came From Four Star: Wisconsin Death Trip (1999)

Becoming increasingly fed up with streaming and digital media in general, I purchased a membership at the city's one and only Four Star Video Co-Op. Four Star is a Madison establishment with a vast DVD/VHS collection of many things you can't find elsewhere and I will be occasionally posting about the movies there I find interesting. The 1973 nonfiction book Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy is an odd curio of a book. A collection of macabre newspaper clippings and original photo negatives from late 19th century Wisconsin, the book documents the desperation and madness of those who lived around Black River Falls. 1999's Wisconsin Death Trip documentary adaptation of the book works as a compelling companion piece to the original's almost ethnographic approach. Director James Marsh depicts black and white turn of the century reenactments mixed with then contemporary color footage of Black River Falls, both contextualizing the different periods but also the original book, over 25 years…