Hungry for Monsters

Filmmaker George Paul Csicsery's chilling documentary tells the story of Rick and Renee Althaus, a normal middle-class couple raising two children in Mt. Lebanon, PA. In 1990, at the age of 15, naïve, impressionable Nicole Althaus fell under the spell of high school teacher Priscilla Zappa, who convinced her that her parents had sexually abused her in grotesque ways. Eventually, with the help of psychiatrist Judith Cohen, Nicole came to believe that her father forced her to have sex with him and many other men, she had become pregnant three times, and had given birth by Caesarian section. In addition, Nicole claimed that knives had been stuck down her throat, her body had been doused with lighter fluid and set on fire, and that she had witnessed several murders. Despite the implausibility of these increasingly bizarre stories--Nicole was a medical virgin with no incision scar on her stomach--Nicole's teacher, her therapist, the police, the prosecuting attorney, and the media all believed her. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, thousands of such cases involving so-called "repressed memories" of sexual abuse destroyed lives and families. Remarkably, Nicole came back to her family and realized that her fantasies were untrue, but she takes virtually no responsibility for what happened (she is perhaps the most frightening character in this fascinating story; in fact, Nicole won a $58,000 judgment against Dr. Cohen, while her parents received nothing). Featuring compelling interviews with the Althauses, attorneys, police, and psychiatrists, this portrait of a legal and mental health system gone mad in the late 20th century is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (M. Pendergrast)