Predators (2025 film)

The documentary film explores the rise and fall of the reality television program To Catch a Predator, which aired on NBC from 2004 to 2007 featuring interviews with some of the former decoys, clips and unseen raw footage from the series (alongside other archival footage featuring Jimmy Kimmel, Oprah Winfrey and Jon Stewart praising the show's impact on popular culture) and an interview with host Chris Hansen.^[4]

David Osit wanted to make a documentary revolving around To Catch a Predator after finding a fan community on Reddit, which included raw and unaired footage.^[5] Osit additionally wanted to explore copycat versions of the show made by other people.^[6]

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2025,^[7] where it was cited as one of the best films of the festival by numerous publications including IndieWire, Vanity Fair, Variety and Rolling Stone.^[8]

In March 2025, MTV Documentary Films acquired distribution rights to the film.^[9] It was released on September 19, 2025,^[10]

In November 2025, Paramount+ announced it would begin streaming the film worldwide starting December 8.^[11]

Predators received positive reviews from film critics, and has been cited as one of the year's best documentaries.^[12][13] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 67 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10.^[14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 85 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". In his Critic's Pick review for IndieWire, David Ehrlich referred to the film as "raw and riveting",^[15] and Variety critic Guy Lodge wrote, "Osit's brilliant, subtly needling film leaves us unnerved and alert, but not certain of our convictions – an outcome, perhaps, that more true-crime programming should pursue.".^[16]

It was also listed as a New York Times Critic's Pick.^[17]