

“I think it was always important to Jeff and I to tell the story from point of view,” Welsh notes, “We never really leave her point of view in the movie. Of course, along with this focus on the survivor’s truth comes a focus on her as a real human being. “I think their names are more important in some ways,” considers Welsh, “So I think for us, keeping it in their point of view, what they experienced, what their story is, you know, their truth coming out, I think is very important.” We all recognize the names of real-life murderers, but rarely do we know the women and men who survived. “I think that’s what really got people, was the genuine emotional response to this story,” agrees the film’s writer, Christina Welsh, “I did not expect it to explode three years later.” With both Believe Me: The Story of Lisa McVey and their newest project, Left for Dead: The Ashley Reeves Story, the films focus not on the killers (or would-be killers), but on the survivors, which is an important perspective to share in the realm of true crime. “It was young women who were really responding to it,” Vanderwal continues, “Young women who were relating to the message and then sharing it and talking about it, and sharing what Lisa goes through, finding her experience real and relatable, and it grew from there.”
Believe me the abduction of lisa mcvey movie#
“It was very much this sort of grassroots thing, of people finding the movie and having a reaction and telling their friends,” explains Believe Me’s producer, Jeff Vanderwal, “And it just sort of grew and grew and grew and surprised all of us.” Though the made-for-TV movie was first released in 2018 and was quite popular in Canada (earning it the Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing and Best TV Movie), its recent addition in Netflix’s library has opened it up to a whole new audience. The response has been staggering - reaction videos have gone viral on Tik Tok, with some earning millions of views. The cinematic dramatization of her story - the aforementioned Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey, starring Katie Douglas as McVey and Rossif Sutherland as Long - was released on Showcase (Canada) and Lifetime in 2018, but has recently landed on Netflix. Through her quick thinking and incredible attention and retention of detail, she saved not only her own life, but also the potential lives of even more women, had Long continued his reign of terror. McVey was miraculously able to talk Long out of killing her, and after her escape she went to the police with memorized details about Long’s car, his apartment, and the route he drove during her abduction.

Long - who assaulted and murdered at least 10 women - had held McVey captive for 26 hours, raping her repeatedly and holding her at gunpoint. McVey - believing she was going to die - made a concentrated effort to leave as much physical evidence as she could to help ensure that Long would be proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was by her sheer wits and tenacity that she was able to not only escape with her life, but in the process she mentally gathered and retained enough information to help catch Long and lock him away for good.
Believe me the abduction of lisa mcvey serial#
At age 17, McVey was abducted by Bobby Joe Long, a serial killer and rapist that terrorized the Tampa Bay area in 1984. Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey is appropriately named, because Lisa McVey’s story is almost unbelievable.
