Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021) is a four-part Netflix docu-series about the disappearance of Canadian tourist Elisa Lam in 2013. Directed by Joe Berlinger, the series begins as if it is a traditional true-crime series, setting up a mystery around Lam's disappearance and death. However, her death was ruled an accidental drowning, and the show delves into the sordid history of The Cecil Hotel and Los Angeles's Skid Row neighborhood and the toxic culture created by internet sleuths who, based on little evidence and their own fantasies, spread conspiracy theories about Lam's death.
The series debunks many of the common myths around the Lam case and defends the police, coroner, hotel staff, and a Mexican death metal musician who were all the subject of conspiracy theories and unfounded accusations.
This show provides examples of:
- Advertised Extra: Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker, stayed at The Cecil in the 1980s. This is heavily highlighted in the trailer but only mentioned in passing in the series.
- Agent Mulder: Many of the internet sleuths qualify as this. Rather than accept rational explanations, they see the supernatural and won't be dissuaded. The series makes it clear that in real life, unlike in fiction, such thinking is very unhelpful.
- Amateur Sleuth: Lam's death becomes a sensation for many self-appointed web sleuths. Despite many of them not having access to all the evidence or even being in Los Angeles, they develop many theories. Several YouTubers are shown enthusiastically exploring the hotel. In the end, they do not solve anything and are the opposite of helpful.
- Black Metal: Morbid is a self-described Black Metal musician. The dark themes in his work cause him to be suspected of killing Lam, despite having a solid alibi.
- Break the Believer: The series's creators, albeit somewhat gently, do this to many web sleuths. The final episode features a montage of many of them admitting Lam's death was likely an accident and not the result of foul play, supernatural or otherwise.
- Bullied into Depression: Morbid admits the online bullying caused him to become depressed, resulting in a suicide attempt and losing all interest in making music.
- The Cameo: In "Down The Rabbit Hole", a clip from BuzzFeed Unsolved can be seen, as they did an episode on Lam’s case.
- The Coroner: The coroner explains the so-called anomalies in Lam's autopsy, outlining why he ruled her death accidental.
- Demonic Possession: Lam's strange behavior is theorized to be this, but it's explained by the fact that she is bipolar and hasn't been taking her meds.
- Eldritch Location: Many online sleuths come to believe that The Cecil Hotel is a nexus of dark energy or a portal to hell. Historians in the series explain that its location on poverty-stricken Skid Row explains the many murders, suicides, rapes, and overdoses as well as the fact that at least two serial killers stayed there. However, the historians seem to agree that in a metaphorical sense, the hotel does have dark energy around it.
- Evil Elevator: Elisa Lam's disappearance becomes an internet sensation when footage of her acting strangely in an elevator goes viral. Online conspiracy theorists postulate that the elevator was somehow evil, but the series makes it clear that any odd behavior by the elevator can be explained by Lam's button-pressing or the fact the video was slowed down. However, the elevators in The Cecil Hotel were the one place where the guests at the more upscale hostel section of the hotel mixed with the long-term residents of the upper floors, something which could have caused issues but was not a factor in Lam's death.
- Failed a Spot Check: Despite the police extensively searching the roof, they never checked the water tanks as they didn't think a person would climb inside them.
- Instant Web Hit: The video of Lam in the elevator quickly goes viral, even becoming the founding document of one particular YouTuber's channel.
- Intrepid Reporter: A journalist is interviewed. He attempts to hold himself above the web sleuths and self-describes as a skeptic, but he also makes it clear he found many of the coincidences strange and somewhat irresistible.
- Government Conspiracy: One off-the-wall rumor involves a government conspiracy to use Lam as a bioweapon. It has no basis in reality.
- Heel Realization: Several of the web sleuths who fanned the conspiracy flames realize the error of their ways by the end of the series. Morbid, however, makes it clear that no one apologized to him.
- Hell Hotel: The Cecil is reported to be haunted, a nexus of dark energy, a serial killer magnet and it's a No-Tell Motel. Haunted or not, it is a once opulent hotel that has become a flop-house on Skid Row but thanks to its Hollywood adjacent location and still impressive lobby, it has developed a mystique.
- I Ate WHAT?!: When the hotel guests find out why the water tasted funny, ran black, and had low pressure, they are understandably horrified.
- Lead Police Detective: Two police detectives are interviewed, including the lead detective of Lam's case. He expresses regret that they didn't find Lam sooner and as well as sympathy for her and her family. He even sympathizes with the web sleuths, admitting that it is easy to get caught up in the chase.
- The Ophelia: Elisa Lam's sensitivity, youth, beauty, and mental illness cause many people who did not know her in life to romanticize her and fixate on her. For one web sleuth, she even seems to function as a Lost Lenore, even though he never met her in life. This is despite the fact that unlike in fiction, real-life drowning victims aren't pretty.
- Police Are Useless:
- The manager's response when asked why she didn't call the police after witnessing Lam's erratic behavior. The truth is that mental illness is commonplace at the hotel and on Skid Row. The overwhelmed police would likely not have responded to such a call.
- Averted with Lam's death. The police have access to far more information and are far more equipped to investigate than amateur sleuths.
- The Reveal: One of the series's big revelations is the fact that the water tank lid, which had been originally reported as being closed and locked when Lam's body was found, was in fact open when the janitor found her body. This made her presence in the water tank far less mysterious.
- Up Marketing: The manager cleverly and deceptively rebrands part of the hotel as Stay on Main, an inexpensive but hip hostel catering mostly to foreign tourists. Guests of Stay on Main have a separate entrance and lobby, but they share elevators with the long-term residents of the Cecil.
- Wretched Hive: The Cecil Hotel is home to some of the worst elements of society because it sits on Skid Row, a real-life wretched hive.
