When we look back, the period where reality TV really began to dominate the airwaves says something about our changing culture. Whether it was the curiosity of wives switching households, cops on patrol, American hunting wanted fugitives, weekly news magazines, or the rise of competition shows, reality dominated in the early 2000s.

Chief among those shows that captured national attention was To Catch a Predator, a spin-off of Dateline NBC starring Chris Hansen. The premise was simple, they would entrap potential child predators online, set up in person meetings, and film the trap. And audiences ate it up for years. It made Hansen a household name and left a legacy—not all of it positive.

Last year we got the documentary Predators, which was an unflinching look behind-the-scenes. It posed a lot of hard questions. Now, documentarian Lance Oppenheim is pointing his camera at a scripted version of the story in Primetime, which is now playing nationwide.

The film focuses on Hansen (Robert Pattinson) as he plies his craft. He’s aided by his producer, Andie (Merritt Weaver) and his hunter Xavier (Matthew Maher), who finds these predators online and traps them through a series of chats. They rent houses, set up dates, and spring the trap. As the film opens, we see him spring the trap on a newly divorced former Marine who thought he was about to fulfill a fantasy with a 13-year-old girl.

It’s dramatic. It’s salacious. And it’s wildly popular. It’s so popular, in fact, that NBC promotes the series to Primetime to go against LOST on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Hansen is thrilled but begins to feel the pressure to deliver some bigger whales on the series. That pushes the team to go further.

Into the fray comes Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo), a new decoy. He dreams of being an actor and sees this as a chance to earn his SAG card. But he’s in for more than he expected as this new assignment challenges him and his view of the world.

I remember watching the documentary last year and having mixed feelings. It’s hard to feel empathy for men who would seek to prey on children, and yet some of the tactics used by the show are grim. There was one case in particular in Texas that was particularly challenging. It’s clear that Oppenheim felt the same, as that case is something of the centerpiece of the final act of this film.

And it is similarly haunting, especially the way it all comes to a conclusion. There is a tag added at the end that I felt was unnecessary because of how powerful that concluding segment is. There is no question this is a well-crafted film. The film stock and the way it’s shot looks like an early 2000s news magazine, which adds to the feeling of the film.

And the performances are stirring. Pattinson does a nice job in the lead role as he channels Hansen and the way this obsession and mission weighs on him along with the crumbling of his life away from the camera. Weaver is captivating in her role, even the way she chews gum adds to the anxiety and tension. And Gisondo is somewhat the point-of-view character into the world and into the internal struggle between stardom, mission, and the reality of what the series is doing to people’s lives.

It’s all quite compelling. And yet, there is something off-putting about the whole thing. The story is grim. It’s unsettling. And the clever choice by Oppenheim to shoot the film in the most uncomfortable way possible, often with hyper-close shots on mouths and faces, can’t help but make you squirm. So, it’s a good film that’s well made, but it’s deeply uncomfortable and can be a difficult watch. It certainly won’t be for everyone.

Primetime is now playing nationwide.

Matthew Fox is a graduate of the Radio, Television and Film program at Biola University, and a giant nerd. He spends his free time watching movies, TV, and obsessing about football. He is a member of the FSWA. You can find him @knighthawk7734 on Twitter and as co-host of the Fantasy Football Roundtable Podcast.