Netflix’s new psychological crime thriller, The Stranger is receiving raving reviews from critics and viewers.
Some are describing it as ‘suspenseful’ and ‘an impressive crime-drama.’
The Stranger is based on the tragic true story of the massive real-life manhunt for the killer of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe.
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Morcombe was abducted from an unofficial bus stop under the Kiel Mountain Road overpass in the Woombye district of the Sunshine Coast in Australia.
Daniel’s disappearance was one of the most extensively investigated crimes in Queensland's history.
Starring Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris, the film follows an intense undercover police operation that hopes to bring the perpetrator behind a child’s disappearance and murder to justice.
The movie was released last month in cinemas in Australia, and arrived on Netflix in Ireland, the UK, and US.
Daniel Morcombe was abducted on Queensland's Sunshine Coast in 2003 while on his way to buy Christmas presents for his family at a local shopping mall.
He was later assaulted and murdered.
The crime drama is based on crime reporter Kate Kyriacou's book The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe's Killer.
It follows the group of seasoned undercover detectives who pose as a powerful criminal organisation in order to catch a murderer who has evaded conviction.
While the names have been changed, this did actually happen in real life.
The police operation saw Brett Cowan lured in by the fake crime gang run by a 'Mr Big' with the promise of a big pay-out.
We see this play out in the movie, but the film focuses more on the investigation, rather than the crime itself, meaning we don't see any scenes of the abduction and murder.
Eight years after his disappearance, his killer, known paedophile Brett Peter Cowan, was finally arrested and charged.]
On 21 August 2011, two shoes and three human bones were found at a search site at Glass House Mountains.
The shoes were similar to the ones that Morcombe was wearing when he disappeared.
The film has been the cause of controversy as Daniel Morcombe's parents called the release of the movie, which came out in cinemas in Australia, "morally corrupt and cruel".
Bruce Morcombe revealed that they had been contacted by the filmmakers about making a movie centred on Daniel's killer. "We absolutely said 'no we don't want any part of that'. Daniel's legacy is all about educating kids," he said to news.com.au.
Cowan, now 53, was sentenced to life in prison in 2014 and 116 witnesses gave evidence and over 200 exhibits were tendered in evidence
Cowan was found guilty of all charges, and had two previous convictions for child sex offences.
He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
In 2016, a fellow inmate at the high-security Wolston Correctional Centre in Wacol threw a bucket of boiling water on Cowan, landing him in the hospital with burns over 15% of his body, including his head, chest and legs.
In response to the controversy, the producers of The Stranger called it a "fictionalised account" and said that "out of our deepest respect for the family", the movie avoided any details of the murder and the victim's name.
"Instead it tells the story of the unknown police professionals who committed years of their lives and their mental and physical health to resolve this case and others like it," the statement continued.
The Stranger is available to watch now on Netflix.
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