This one isn’t for the faint of heart.
In 2017, a horrendous murder trial dominated the airwaves. Swedish journalist Kim Wall went missing after riding in a homemade submarine with Danish inventor Peter Madsen. While Madsen initially claimed to have dropped her off the day before. But as the investigation unfolded and the months passed, it was revealed that Wall wasn’t just murdered. She was tortured, raped, murdered, and dismembered by Madsen. Now, Netflix has released a new documentary by Emma Sullivan called Into the Deep which chronicles these harrowing events from an incredibly unique perspective.
Let’s take it back to 2016, when Sullivan first learned of Madsen as simply an inventor who founded Rocket Madsen Space Lab and wanted to build a full spacecraft. But first, he wanted to make a submarine, for reasons that would later make themselves known. But, before the horrific events of 2017, Madsen was another eccentric inventor with a big dream. So, Sullivan contacted him and began filming the work done by him and his team of interns and volunteers at the Danish lab.
Little did Sullivan know that this documentary would take a very dark and sharp turn just a year after she started filming. She unknowingly captures a true crime story in the making as she films her and his team’s reactions in real time to the realization that Madsen is a monster. This is truly what makes Into The Deep such a gut punch. We watch as a group’s understanding of a close friend and mentor quickly evaporates as his crimes are revealed. With each new detail, from Madsen disclosing Wall actually died on board to him revealing he did in fact dismember her but he didn’t kill her. Sullivan documents the journey she and the crew experience as they learn new terrifying things about the case.
Sullivan doesn’t structure Into The Deep as a straightforward narrative that starts in 2016 and ends in the present. Instead, she weaves together footage from before and after Wall’s murder to create a more complex tapestry of who Madsen was, or at least who he portrayed himself to be. All of his statements in the past are given much darker context knowing what he would do to Wall in just a few months. There’s a particularly shocking moment where he talks about psychopaths and how he may just be one.
The story that unfolds is full of horrific realizations that this may have been Madsen’s plan all along. This wasn’t about scientific discovery, but about the ability to not only commit murder but cause pain. The investigation revealed that Madsen had a hard drive full of snuff films and he was planning on making his own. On the day of Wall’s death, he had googled words like “beheading”, “dismemberment”, and “agony”. Without anyone’s knowledge, he brought torture implements like saws onto the vessel. On top of that, a subject in the documentary, one of Madsens’ colleagues, explains how he sent strange texts about taking her out in the sub and slitting her throat. What she had initially dismissed as bizarre flirting became evidence that Madsen had been planning something like this for some time.
That is perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of this film. This woman, whose face is digitally replaced to protect her identity, is shown slowly realizing that she was on the list of possible victims for Madsen. She could have suffered a similar fate to Wall. On camera, she realizes she needs to call the police and disclose everything. It leaves a pit in your stomach to watch this happen in almost real-time.
There was quite a bit of controversy surrounding Into The Deep around its initial release at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020. Since the documentary Sullivan set out to make and the one she ended up making were so drastically different, some interview subjects requested to be removed. So, for the Netflix version, Sullivan made a lot of cuts to ensure subject privacy. Also, to note, none of Wall’s family is involved in this documentary.
While Into The Deep doesn’t offer a definitive answer here, the evidence captured both on camera and revealed in court show that Madsen may have just made this submarine with the intent to kill. This wasn’t about scientific discovery, but about exerting power and pain over women. Madsen most likely used the free labor from his volunteers and interns to make a floating torture chamber. And what’s even scarier was he had everyone fooled. So if you want to take a stroll through the darker sides of humanity, check this one out on Netflix now.
