Wisconsin Death Trip is a 1999 docudrama film written for the screen and directed by James Marsh, based on the 1973 historical nonfiction book of the same name by Michael Lesy. The film dramatizes a series of macabre incidents that took place in and around Black River Falls, Wisconsin in the late-19th century. It utilizes silent black-and-white reenactment footage contrasted with contemporary color footage of the region, along with voice-over narration by Sir Ian Holm, orating contemporaneous newspaper articles written about the occurrences. Music featured in the film includes DJ Shadow and John Cale.
Marsh began developing a documentary film adaptation of Lesey's book after moving to the United States in 1995. The film was produced over approximately four years, with Marsh intermittently shooting the reenactment footage on location in Wisconsin over a one-and-a-half-year period. The film opened at the Telluride Film Festival in September 1999 before being released theatrically at New York City's Film Forum in December 1999. It premiered on Cinemax on July 4, 2000. In the United Kingdom, the film was shown on the BBC as part of the documentary series Arena, who had originally helped finance the project.
Wisconsin Death Trip was largely met with critical praise, particularly for its cinematography, though some film critics criticized its structure and inclusion of modern-day footage. The film received several accolades, including two BAFTA Television Award nominations; cinematographer Eigil Bryld won the award in the category of Best Photography.
Plot
Between 1890 and 1900 in northern Wisconsin, a series of bizarre events begin to occur amongst the local population (largely German, Swedish, and Norwegian immigrants) after the closure of several mines in the area, in conjunction with a collapse of the local economy and liquidation of banks. Several infants are abandoned by their parents, while a diphtheria epidemic claims the lives of numerous children. A local schoolteacher, Mary Sweeny, is institutionalized after going on a rampage breaking the windows of numerous homes and buildings while under the influence of cocaine. Meanwhile, a young deaf and mute boy shoots his little sister to death with a pistol. The wife of a German immigrant is mysteriously found frozen to death six miles outside of Black River Falls, after mourning the death of her own child.
In Brandon, two young boys ambush a farmer and murder him with a shotgun before taking over his home. The elder brother, John, flees after the crime is discovered, and a manhunt ensues. Once captured, John is sentenced to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, a Norwegian teenage girl commits suicide by drowning herself in a lake near Kenosha; her suicide note reveals she was physically abused and over-worked by her parents. Several other young jilted lovers commit suicide by hanging and other methods. Anna, a young Polish girl, is discovered to be a serial arsonist responsible for burning multiple properties down.
Numerous young adults in the region face a number of turmoils, and commit violent acts of varying degrees: A father bludgeons his infant son to death before attempting to murder his wife, and later, a young man shoots a woman to death when she refuses his marriage proposal, before turning the gun on himself. Religious delusion also plagues the local communities: John Isaacson holds the members of a Christian meeting at knifepoint, believing himself to be vanquishing Satan. Shortly after, a German immigrant intentionally starves his livestock to death, and blames it on witches he believes are preying upon him. Mrs. Dutton, of La Crosse, believes herself to be Jesus reincarnated, and a Mrs. Lawson, believing herself to be haunted by Satan, drowns her three children in a lake in St. Croix.
In Brockway, a woman claiming to be a world-renowned French opera singer named Pauline L'Allemand arrives from Chicago to claim a land she has allegedly inherited. With her son, Edgar, she builds a home and stages a series of live performances that are compromised by her false teeth. Her disheveled state leads locals to believe she may be an imposter. Pauline's mental state deteriorates, and she begins hearing voices and claiming to be in communion with spirits. After Edgar steals cement to repair their dilapidating house, the two are put on trial, during which Pauline engages in incoherent rants and espouses anti-Catholic conspiracy theories, leading her to be declared legally insane and institutionalized at Mendota Hospital.