# Predators (2025 film)
**Predators** is a 2025 American documentary film directed by David Osit that examines the rise, fall, and legacy of *To Catch a Predator*, the [Dateline NBC](https://www.edgepedia.org/dateline-nbc) sting-operation series that aired from 2004 to 2007.[1](https://www.paramountplus.com/sneak-peak/predators-documentary-everything-you-need-to-know/) • [2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/predators-thoughtful-documentary-explores-disturbing-history-true-crime-tv-hit-catch-predator) The film premiered in the U.S. Documentary [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) at the 2025 [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival), received a limited theatrical release on September 19, 2025, and began streaming on Paramount+ on December 8, 2025.[3](https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/paramount-plus/shows/predators/releases/?view=112021-paramount-sets-premiere-of-doc-feature-predators-for-monday-december-8) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/predators)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Subject | The Dateline NBC series *To Catch a Predator* (2004–07), its host Chris Hansen, and the copycat vigilante culture it inspired[1](https://www.paramountplus.com/sneak-peak/predators-documentary-everything-you-need-to-know/) • [2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/predators-thoughtful-documentary-explores-disturbing-history-true-crime-tv-hit-catch-predator) |
| Director | David Osit, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker whose earlier features include *Mayor* (2020)[3](https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/paramount-plus/shows/predators/releases/?view=112021-paramount-sets-premiere-of-doc-feature-predators-for-monday-december-8) • [5](https://vp.eventival.com/jidff/2025/film/1105443) |
| Producers / distributor | Jamie Gonçalves, Kellen Quinn, and David Osit; MTV Documentary Films; Sweet Relief Productions[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/predators) |
| Runtime and release | 96 minutes; limited theatrical release September 19, 2025; Paramount+ streaming December 8, 2025[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/predators) • [6](https://www.ifccenter.com/films/predators/) |
| Festival premiere | U.S. Documentary Competition, 2025 Sundance Film Festival; international premiere at CPH:DOX[3](https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/paramount-plus/shows/predators/releases/?view=112021-paramount-sets-premiere-of-doc-feature-predators-for-monday-december-8) |
| Critical reception | 97% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 79 reviews; 83 on Metacritic from IndieWire and The A.V. Club[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/predators) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/predators-2025/critic-reviews/) |
| Audience score | 39% on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter (100+ ratings), a wide gap from the critics' score[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/predators) |
## Spoilers
### Subject and production
*To Catch a Predator* was a recurring segment of the NBC news magazine *Dateline*, produced with the watchdog group Perverted Justice. Adult actors posed online as minors, lured men to a house fitted with hidden cameras, and correspondent [Chris Hansen](https://www.edgepedia.org/chris-hansen) confronted the visitors on camera before police waiting outside arrested them.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/predators-thoughtful-documentary-explores-disturbing-history-true-crime-tv-hit-catch-predator) • [8](https://www.fullframefest.org/film/predators/) The series was Dateline's most popular recurring segment while it ran from 2004 to 2007.[9](https://www.nziff.co.nz/assets/sm/upload/qp/py/vb/wi/NZIFF%202025%20NI%20programme.pdf?k=91525df51d)
Osit, born in 1987, is an American documentary filmmaker, editor, and composer who previously directed *Building Babel* (2012), *Thank You for Playing* (2015), *Mayor* (2020), and *The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem* (2024).[5](https://vp.eventival.com/jidff/2025/film/1105443) He is himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, a fact the film addresses directly.[10](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/predators-documentary-film-review-2025) The film was presented by MTV Documentary Films and Sweet Relief Productions in association with Rosewater Pictures.[3](https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/paramount-plus/shows/predators/releases/?view=112021-paramount-sets-premiere-of-doc-feature-predators-for-monday-december-8)
### Content and approach
The documentary goes beyond a rise-and-fall account of the series. Osit surfaces raw, unaired footage from *To Catch a Predator*, including clips of men weeping, saying their lives are over, and begging for help, material that Dateline had cut from its broadcasts.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/predators-thoughtful-documentary-explores-disturbing-history-true-crime-tv-hit-catch-predator) An upsetting interview with former decoy Dan Schrack revisits a 2006 episode that ended in a target's suicide; Schrack says in the film that he would never have chosen to be part of that episode had he known how the man would react.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/predators-thoughtful-documentary-explores-disturbing-history-true-crime-tv-hit-catch-predator) • [11](https://www.vanityfair.com/story/primetime-to-catch-a-predator-movie-true-story) The BFI review notes that the stings stopped in 2007 and that cancellation appears to have had more to do with advertiser unease than with moral reckoning.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/predators-thoughtful-documentary-explores-disturbing-history-true-crime-tv-hit-catch-predator)
The film also follows the show's afterlife. Videos of independent groups and individuals conducting sting-style operations have revived the questions the original program raised about who should investigate crimes against minors and how those confrontations should be presented to viewers.[1](https://www.paramountplus.com/sneak-peak/predators-documentary-everything-you-need-to-know/) Hansen appears through both archival clips and new footage, and the film ends with an open-ended, unsettling final scene.[1](https://www.paramountplus.com/sneak-peak/predators-documentary-everything-you-need-to-know/) • [12](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/12/predators-documentary-dateline-to-catch-a-predator-review/685421/) IndieWire's review describes a three-part structure reflecting what it calls an infinite pattern of crime, punishment, and cultural recidivism.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/predators-2025/critic-reviews/)
## Reception
Critics received the film strongly. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 97% Tomatometer from 79 reviews, with 77 fresh and 2 rotten, and an average of rated reviews of 7.80/10; the audience Popcornmeter stands at 39% from more than 100 ratings.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/predators) Metacritic lists scores of 83 from IndieWire and [The A.V. Club](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-a-v-club), 82 from Paste, and 80 from Collider.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/predators-2025/critic-reviews/) Sophie Gilbert of *The Atlantic* called it one of the best documentaries of the year for how it illuminates what she describes as a strange and callous moment in culture.[12](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/12/predators-documentary-dateline-to-catch-a-predator-review/685421/) The critics consensus on Rotten Tomatoes describes the film as examining the motives behind public justice and the ethical consequences of turning real-life trauma into spectacle.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/predators)
The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, Documentary, at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and [TV Guide](https://www.edgepedia.org/tv-guide)'s awards listing records a Best Documentary Feature win in 2025.[13](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/predators/2060187794/)
## Cultural context
The documentary arrived amid a broader retrospective reckoning with early-2000s reality television, in which series and podcasts have examined how under-regulated programming publicly shamed participants and ruined lives.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/predators-thoughtful-documentary-explores-disturbing-history-true-crime-tv-hit-catch-predator) *The Atlantic* frames the film as a probe of the titillating nature of true crime itself, arguing that *To Catch a Predator* turned personal transgression into public drama while appealing to viewers' desire to see people disgraced.[12](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/12/predators-documentary-dateline-to-catch-a-predator-review/685421/) The subject has since expanded into fiction: A24's dramatization *Primetime*, starring [Robert Pattinson](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-pattinson) as Hansen and directed by Lance Oppenheim, premiered in 2026, with AP noting that Osit's documentary remains the more detailed history of the events.[14](https://apnews.com/article/a6d6a9b30da63dc8ffc572080d0a4831) • [11](https://www.vanityfair.com/story/primetime-to-catch-a-predator-movie-true-story)
## References
1. [Predators: Everything You Need To Know About The Chris Hansen Documentary, Paramount+](https://www.paramountplus.com/sneak-peak/predators-documentary-everything-you-need-to-know/)
2. [Predators: thoughtful documentary explores the disturbing history of true crime TV hit To Catch a Predator, Sight and Sound (BFI), 14 November 2025](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/predators-thoughtful-documentary-explores-disturbing-history-true-crime-tv-hit-catch-predator)
3. [Paramount+ Sets Premiere of Doc-Feature Predators for Monday, December 8, Paramount Press Express](https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/paramount-plus/shows/predators/releases/?view=112021-paramount-sets-premiere-of-doc-feature-predators-for-monday-december-8)
4. [Predators, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/predators)
5. [Predators, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival 2025](https://vp.eventival.com/jidff/2025/film/1105443)
6. [Predators, IFC Center](https://www.ifccenter.com/films/predators/)
7. [Predators critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/predators-2025/critic-reviews/)
8. [Predators, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival](https://www.fullframefest.org/film/predators/)
9. [NZIFF 2025 programme notes on Predators](https://www.nziff.co.nz/assets/sm/upload/qp/py/vb/wi/NZIFF%202025%20NI%20programme.pdf?k=91525df51d)
10. [Predators movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/predators-documentary-film-review-2025)
11. [Primetime: What's Real and What's Not in Robert Pattinson's To Catch a Predator Movie, Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/story/primetime-to-catch-a-predator-movie-true-story)
12. [Why Did We Ever Watch To Catch a Predator?, The Atlantic, December 24, 2025](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/12/predators-documentary-dateline-to-catch-a-predator-review/685421/)
13. [Predators, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/predators/2060187794/)
14. [Movie Review: In 'Primetime,' a sinister shift in media, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/a6d6a9b30da63dc8ffc572080d0a4831)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Individual documentary feature films › True crime and justice documentaries*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license