Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke

After watching Midnight Mass, this was the “playing next”, I was about to skip it, but when I watched the trailer of it, I need to see the whole series right away. Most of the things we see in social media are full of smokes and mirrors. Even if it started as an honest fun filled ride to do with the family, your attention slowly and eventually would go to pleasing other people instead of your family. Directed by Olly Lambert.

The Fame

Ruby Franke was your ordinary all-American mother with a husband that loves her and have 6 adorable children. For fun, she started to make videos of her life as a mom and how they were like at home. Their everyday life, routine, their ups and downs. Essentially a diary for everyone to see. It was all an innocent and fun activity that they could do as a family.

People loved her, even got dubbed as America’s mom. All this fame and fortune boosted her ego, until the videos they made were all curated and orchestrated by Ruby for the viewer’s pleasure. It’s all about the content from here on out. Some of the kids weren’t cooperative because it wasn’t fun anymore, the only reason they did this initially was because it was a fun family activity. Now it has become a job, and no normal kid would partake in this willingly and find joy in it.

The Decline

In their height of success in YouTube, Ruby posted a video regarding the punishment of her oldest son. The internet went bonkers and everyone started hating on Ruby. I think something snapped in her mind that time. The numbers were declining, the money was going down as well, until they weren’t really doing any videos anymore.

Following the decline of “8 Passengers” (YouTube channel), Ruby met this “psychologist” named Jodi Hildebrandt, because Ruby was convinced that Chad (oldest son) had problems. Mind you, Ruby was already at her tipping point now and just grabbing anything she can get her hands on. Enter, the ever so helpful Jodi. This was the beginning of the end for their family, specially for Ruby and Jodi.

Jodi was a sort of successful internet personality/psychologist with mixed reviews, but she was a great PR, and that convinced Ruby, Kevin and Chad that everything Jodi was telling them was the truth and the only truth.

Soon Jodi and Ruby started a group called ConneXions in 2022, offering relationship and parenting help. This was the first major step in solidifying their relationship. ConneXions took off and many people were joining, with Ruby and Kevin as the face of ConneXions, everyone were convinced of what they preached.

The Beginning of The End

After some time, Jodi moves in with Ruby and family then Chad was eventually gets kicked out of the house, Kevin as well. Both of them didn’t put up a fight, let alone argue with Ruby. (Shari already left for college) So the four young siblings were left with the two psychopaths.

At the start of the documentary, we see a scrawny boy knocking on neighbor’s doors, asking for help. Everything was revealed. The kids that were left with those two were treated like animals, prisoners were treated better to be honest. The boy had duct tape on his ankles and wrists, rope marks, and very thin, his bones can be seen. He told everything to the cops and that was the end of Ruby Franke and Jodi.

Kevin already said and admitted this in the documentary “I was their last line of defense”. But he didn’t do anything, he left those minors in the care of those two monsters. Either he got completely brainwashed by Jodi or he took in the phrase “Love is blind” to heart.

In my opinion, Ruby and Jodi are a lost cause. Kevin was delusional, even after everything was revealed to him, he’d still choose Ruby over his kids. Those kids, those poor kids will forever be traumatized by these events.

Production and Execution

Production-wise, “Ruby Franke” was well made. The interviews were well presented and I like that we could hear the interviewers inserting some questions every now and then. Its more natural, and the response are real, it doesn’t feel like they had time to think it through.

Conclusion

Documentaries like Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke are helpful, they bring awareness to people who might not have heard of such news. The dangers of social media. Aside from the entertainment aspect of documentaries such as this one, awareness is the most important thing that these bring to the table.