The unyielding, algorithm-fueled glut of true crime content gains yet another entry in the straight-to-streaming canon with Dead Asleep, the latest from documentarian Skye Borgman. Much like in her 2017 Netflix film Abducted in Plain Sight, the film’s goal is to be as shallowly entertaining and consumable as possible, even if that means trading documentary ethics for a slick, sensationalist slant. However, the film is not particularly egregious in its missteps, closely following a blueprint that has been regurgitated on a recent loop—a component much more damning of the entire true crime media obsession than one single film.
Dead Asleep follows the case of Randy Herman Jr., who was arrested in 2017 after brutally stabbing his childhood friend and roommate, Brooke Preston, to death. Despite being covered in blood and possessing defensive wounds when police arrive on the scene, Herman claims to have no recollection of the incident—an assertion that causes him to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. While Herman’s cognitive functions appear to be completely rational in his on-screen interviews, his defense posits that the DSM-5 would categorize him as having sleep arousal disorder—and this unquellable corner of his psyche is actually what drove him to kill without motivation. Allegedly having suffered from chronic sleepwalking throughout his entire life, Herman believes he was experiencing a period of unconscious action when he murdered the 21-year-old. Given exclusive access to Herman (now 28 and serving a life sentence), his family, legal representation and journalists who locally reported on the West Palm Beach murder case, Borgman’s doc is nonetheless one-sided. Preston’s family declined involvement in the documentary and as such, Brooke is hardly a palpable presence in the narrative. She is presented in Facebook videos playing beer pong, social media selfies and even a bizarre 3-D modeling of her final moments, but her personality and personhood are all but ignored.
Before any promotional material for Hulu’s latest original true crime documentary even began circulating, it was already the topic of heated contention on TikTok. “You think you can hurt me?” reads the caption on user @jpresttt’s video. “Hulu just released a documentary on how my little sister was brutally murdered…so now we get to relive the worst day of our lives.” The woman solemnly dancing on-trend in the video is Jordan Preston, Brooke’s older sister, who also lived in the house where Herman and her sister resided. Immediately, fellow TikTokers began to chime in, planting themselves in two distinct camps: Those who agreed Hulu was exploiting Brooke’s murder for casual consumption, and those who wanted Jordan to drop the title so they could catch the film when it premiered.