Directed by Patricia E. Gillespie
Runtime: 94 min
In theaters, October 21

by Mathilda Hallstrom, Staff Writer

The story of Judy Malinowski, as delineated in MTV’s upcoming documentary The Fire That Took Her, is not just about Judy. A daughter, a sister, and a mother of two, Judy was doused in gasoline and lit on fire with a cigarette lighter by her boyfriend, Michael Slager, on August 2, 2015. Given just hours to live with an estimated 95% of her body burned, Judy survived a seven-month coma and nearly two years in the hospital—just long enough to become the first American to testify at the trial for her own murder. 

But from the beginning, The Fire That Took Her presents a devastating display of the punishing ripple effects of domestic abuse. Judy’s story isn’t told solely by detectives and prosecutors; it’s about more than the cold, hard facts of a single moment in time. We see Bonnie Bowes, Judy’s impassioned mother, dedicating her life to seek retribution for the life of her daughter; we see her sister, Danielle Gorman, struggling with whether or not to keep Judy alive through her excruciating pain. At times, the family is divided: they process their grief in different ways, and as such, seek different outcomes. 

The story is not told chronologically, with good reason: director Patricia E. Gillespie slowly pulls back the curtain to reveal an entanglement of systems which perpetuated years of domestic abuse and violence at the hands of Slager. After surviving ovarian cancer, Judy’s insurance ran out, and without access to pain medication, Slager regularly brought her heroin — while remaining sober himself. Judy’s family recounts, in hindsight, an evident and auspicious scheme of dependence executed by Slager and enabled by the ignorance of law enforcement. 

Although a compelling and effective achievement overall, The Fire That Took Her is obstructed only by a series of curious editing choices, with a number of strange cuts that dampen an otherwise competent pacing of the story. 

All in all, this documentary is hard to watch — and it should be. Judy’s case serves as a harrowing reveal of how domestic abuse is facilitated by myriad systems, and the ways in which domestic abuse survivors must fight to tell their stories. Judy survived those two years in a hospital bed with the express purpose of giving her testimony and ensuring that she fought for her own redemption; Gillespie’s portrayal of her life is a beautiful, reverent tribute to Judy’s strength.