Mommy Dead and Dearest

Mommy Dead and Dearest

2017 "In this family, every illness was a lie - except the mother's."
Mommy Dead and Dearest
Mommy Dead and Dearest

Mommy Dead and Dearest

7.3 | 1h22m | en | Crime

Child abuse, mental illness, and forbidden love converge in this mystery involving a mother and daughter who were thought to be living a fairy tale life that turned out to be a living nightmare.

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7.3 | 1h22m | en | Crime , Documentary | More Info
Released: March. 11,2017 | Released Producted By: HBO Documentary Films , Abstract Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website: https://www.max.com/movies/mommy-dead-and-dearest/87b41129-1e1e-41ff-b32c-926711b94311
Synopsis

Child abuse, mental illness, and forbidden love converge in this mystery involving a mother and daughter who were thought to be living a fairy tale life that turned out to be a living nightmare.

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Cast

Gypsy-Rose Blanchard-Anderson

Director

Bryan Sarkinen

Producted By

HBO Documentary Films , Abstract

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Reviews

room102 A documentary about a Munchausen By Proxy case that ended in a murder.Gypsy and her mother Dee Dee are both victims of each other: Gypsy is psychologically and physically abused by her mother who gives her endless medications and medical treatments since she was an infant. A loving mother on the outside, she's actually keeping her daughter an emotional captive and physically disabled. Gypsy gets in touch with a young man, develops a romantic relationship with him and finally manipulates him to kill her mother. After the murder Gypsy writes posts on Facebook about the death of her mother and the couple go on road trip and have a good time.Are these the actions of an abused child that had enough or the acts of a manipulative cold hearted murderer?This documentary constantly keeps you ambivalent on Gypsy's actions. Especially when you hear Dee Dee's parents talk about their daughter like she was the devil and are actually glad she is dead.Gypsy escaped the death penalty and probably got the best outcome she could have had under the circumstances.
lucynewson-34503 Different to any crime documentaries that I have seen, unusual due to the murderer is framed as the victim (Gypsy). Understandably Gypsy is a victim due to her mistreatment from her mother. The documentary explores Gypsy's child abuse and taught me about Gypsy's mother Munchausen by Proxy syndrome. Honestly the most engaging documentary that I have watched.
calvinnme Gypsy Rose was the only child of Dee Dee Blancharde, a master manipulator and sociopath who apparently learned, maybe inherited those traits from her own mother. She fed Round-up to her grandmother, who managed to survive, may have possibly starved her own mother to death when she got to be too big of a medical burden, and got pregnant by a 17 year old boy when she was 24. If the sexes had been reversed she might have gone to jail or at least been registered as a sex offender. Instead, Rod Blancharde married her. But Dee Dee was too dark for the minor with her tales of witchcraft and her pet tarantula, and the marriage did not last long.So why are we here? In 2015 Gypsy Rose Blancharde arranged to have her boyfriend kill her mother as she slept, and then they celebrated with sex in the same house as the corpse and then stole Dee Dee's money - about 5K lying around the house - and went back to Wisconsin to live with the boy's folks. The police quickly figured out what happened, because Gypsy and her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, both left a trail a mile wide on Facebook about their exploits. At first the police thought this was a boiler plate murder situation - daughter and mother fight, daughter solicits the help of the boyfriend to kill mom, sociopath daughter and boyfriend go out and celebrate with mom's money. Thus Gypsy was initially charged with first degree murder.But then a closer look revealed that Gypsy was as much a victim as anybody. Since birth Dee Dee Blancharde had used her daughter to get money and attention by claiming she had multiple illnesses - muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, cancer, and gastrointestinal problems that required a feeding tube into which meds for all of the illnesses I just mentioned were pumped. Gypsy never went to school, never had any kind of relationship with anybody except mom, and believed she had all of these illnesses except the muscular dystrophy, because she knew she could walk, but was instructed not to by mom whenever people were around. She didn't even know her true age until after the murder because she had no concept of time. If a doctor got suspicious - not too many did - Dee Dee would just switch doctors. When somebody reported possible abuse, Dee Dee sweet-talked the deputies that visited out of believing the accusations. Dee Dee even got papers drawn up saying Gypsy was incompetent, so if she had ever tried to make a break for it, mom could have the law bring her right back to mom and her prison cell.What Dee Dee did not count on was Gypsy's puberty and online access getting her involved with a member of the opposite sex, and one who had as many mental problems as Dee Dee, maybe just as evil.Given all of the mitigation - to put it mildly - the prosecution realized that Gypsy was not just another natural born killer, but really was painted into a corner, and lacked any idea of what was right or wrong because the only two people in the world she had contact with her entire life were her sexual deviant boyfriend and her sociopath mom. So what happened to Gypsy, now in the clutches of the legal system? Watch and find out.Oh, and don't be too harsh on Gypsy's dad either. He tried to be involved in her life, but Dee Dee kept close tabs on her daughter and moved her around, ultimately out of state, to minimize ties.This was a good documentary that explored all of the angles, but at any angle Dee Dee Blancharde was a monster, and like the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz, it is difficult to feel too sorry for her early demise. Her relatives tended to agree.
Reaper-of-Souls Truly one of the best true crime documentaries I have seen lately. This is not your normal true crime case. It's very well presented by the filmmakers and will cause many mixed emotions as you learn the whole story behind it. I don't want to give away anything for those who don't know the case, but just know that it is just as heartbreaking as it is horrific.