Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Dark Tourist’ on Netflix Questions Our Morbid Fascinations

Who would want to spend their hard-earned money exploring some of the most depraved sights around the world? It turns out a lot of people. Netflix‘s latest docuseries Dark Tourist examines this phenomenon, questioning why we’re drawn to dark destinations like murder sites while taking a hard look at the men and women who profit from them. 

DARK TOURIST: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Journalist David Farrier, one of the directors of 2016’s Tickled, types on a laptop as the camera pans around the room, taking in a collection of skulls and models of human organs. In a voiceover he matter-of-factly says “I’ve decided to explore dark tourism, a global phenomenon where people avoid the ordinary and instead head for holidays in war zones, disaster sites, and other off-beat destinations.” He then gets right to the chase. In its first episode, Dark Tourist will explore exorcisms in Mexico City, the Pablo Escobar-themed vacation industry in Colombia, and a six-hour interactive tour on the U.S. Mexico border that follows Farrier and his cameraman retracing the steps of illegal migrants.

All of this is clearly explained before Dark Tourist cuts to its delightfully warped opening credits animation, which looks like Man Seeking Woman‘s credits but with a dark twist. This travel show is all about the parts the Travel Channel leaves out.

The Gist: It feels insincere to call Dark Tourist a travel show because it’s not exactly about tourism. Rather it’s something between a reality show and a docuseries that holds a magnifying glass up to the men and women profiting from tragic moments in human history while also scrutinizing the tourists who seek out these attractions. It’s a show about the world’s weirdness told through our perverse obsession with said weirdness.

Each roughly 45-minute episode focuses on a different area from around the world and explores three different dark attractions from that area. In the process of exploring these exhibits, Farrier interviews these tour creators, their guides, the tourists themselves, the locals, and everyone in between on his quest to understand why. Why are people drawn to these places, and what does it say about us?

Our Take: Dark Tourist has to thread a pretty delicate needle. After all, isn’t a show about people capitalizing off of human tragedy also capitalizing off of that same tragedy? That’s what makes David Farrier such an integral part to this complicated process. Farrier approaches each of this show’s destinations with an open-handed earnestness that rarely outright applauds or condemns any one attraction. He’s merely attempting to understand this odd fasciation, and more often than not he’s endearing in his journey.

If you’ve seen Farrier’s documentary Tickled, then you know why the New Zealand journalist was tapped to host this project. Much like his documentary about a corrupt underground tickling organization, Farrier is apt at combining a dogged knack for exploring disturbing rabbit holes with his own quiet and sincere demeanor. On more than one occasion you get the feeling his interview subjects have shared more with him than they ever intended to, and yet no one seems particularly upset about letting him into their world.

The series’ first episode, “Latin America,” contains a great example of this during a Pablo Escobar-themed tour in Colombia. After exploring both the cornier side of narcos tourism (a driving tour with an Escobar lookalike) as well as the more luxurious side (a tour of one of Escobar’s high rises given by Escobar’s sister-in-law), Dark Tourist heads to La Catedral, the five-star personal prison Escobar built for himself to serve out his jail time. Once there Farrier meets John Jairo Velásquez, better known as “Popeye”, the man who was Escobar’s personal hitman.

The Popeye interview is filled with bewildering facts about the hitman, from his body count of over 250 people to his current success as a YouTube star. But slowly the conversation transforms from a perverse look at an assassin into a deep dive into why someone would murder their girlfriend for their boss. As Popeye alternatively jokes about the people he’s killed in La Catedral and claims he regrets his actions, Farrier won’t let up his quiet hounding about Popeye’s mental well-being. He eventually even offers Popeye the number to his own psychologist. In response, Popeye kisses his gun and claims it’s the only psychologist he needs.

“I didn’t want to end up liking you, but I like you,” the host begrudgingly says to Popeye at the end of the segment. In a weird way, that sums up most of Dark Tourist.

Both Farrier and the show are unabashedly honest. The host will often speak up if he doesn’t believe something is real, and he will call out people he believes are being overly theatrical or downright dishonest. Throughout the entire U.S. Mexico border-crossing tour, Farrier can be seen laughing uncomfortably. But these inconsistent moments are largely what make the series work.

Sometimes half-promotional, sometimes scathing, it often feels like Dark Tourist doesn’t know what it is or what it wants to be. But that uncertainty embodies the dark tourism industry itself. There’s no clear answer about why there are multiple legal tours about Jeffrey Dahmer’s life or a driving tour through a town that’s been soaked in radiation. However, these things exist and point to a weird, grotesque part of human interest. At the very least it’s worth questioning this bizarre fascination instead of pretending that it doesn’t exist.

Sex and Skin: At one point Popeye goes into detail about the group orgies he used to have with Pablo Escobar. Welcome to Netflix, baby.

Parting Shot: The first episode of Dark Tourist fittingly ends with Farrier being caught by “border patrol” at the end of his U.S. Mexico border tour. Though he can still be seen nervously laughing at the absurdity of this experience, his voiceover is much more somber as he highlights again how this tour was created to teach people about the very real dangers of attempting to cross the border. Beneath its dark origins and B-movie execution there’s a real lesson lurking under this particular attraction.

Sleeper Star: The most interesting interview of in “Latin America” is with Doña Queta in Mexico City. Halfway through the episode, Farrier attempts to understand why a group of people would worship Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk saint that is the saint of death. But instead of delivering the dark and cult-like backstory Farrier likely wants to hear, Queta explains that honoring Santa Muerte is more about proving you’re unafraid of death. It’s a nuanced explanation for a phenomenon that seems intrinsically disturbing.

Most Pilot-y Line: Farrier transitions into the border tour by saying, “Tourists might relax one more time poolside, sipping their last tequila before catching their plane home. But I’m not interested in leaving Mexico the easy way.” I get that tourists and dark tourists are two different breeds of people, but c’mon. This one is a bit on the nose.

Our Call: Stream it, for sure. Dark Tourist explores in detail the same dark impulses that prompt people to binge documentaries about murder and read graphic books about cults. It may make you uncomfortable, but it will also force you to question why we’re into so many messed up things.

Stream Dark Tourist on Netflix