I've been on the internet since the AOL days... a long, long time ago. I learned even back then that people can put on a facade --- and you'd never know real from fake. Ultimately, though, even if they pretend to be something else, it's still themselves they're exposing.
Hunter Moore wanted to "pretend" innocence. He wanted to assume a persona where he could hurt others and laugh at their expense without reprecussion. Thing is, the more you wear a mask, the more the mask actually becomes who you truely are. The fake becomes the real. The "faux" bully becomes the real bully. And that's the way of it.
The documentary exposes how much of a bully Hunter Moore honestly was / is. It takes us step by step on how the website came to be, how it grew into a monster, and how, at the heart of it all, was Hunter uncaring, unmoved by any sympathy and in the end --- how he paid for being the monster he'd grown into.
Most reviewers want to say that this is a lesson on not posting stupid stuff on the internet. They're missing the point. The real lesson here is that our culture wants to reward the bad-boy and so we "pretend" to be that.... not even aware of the fact that the more we play this game.... the more truely despicable we actually are. Hunter played the bad-boy.... and it cost him several years of his life in prison. If you think that's "fun" --- If you think Hunter is admirable and someone to follow --- then you really haven't paid attention to the real cost at the end of that road.
What is actually unsettling in watching this is not the damage done to so many lives, but rather, seeing how many people sidled up to Hunter --- whether claiming to be part of his "family" or by simply making a spiteful comment at IsAnyoneUp --- how many people are actually that rotten to the core.... and don't even see it. And probably don't even see it after reading this.
