Netflix
John McAfee became unbelievably wealthy by protecting others’ computers, and yet at a certain point in his life, the notorious antivirus software pioneer decided that the only means of protecting himself was to move overseas, arm himself to the teeth, ingest tons of drugs and booze, and routinely flee from law enforcement and shadowy forces that he saw lurking around every corner. Charlie Russell’s Netflix documentary Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee is culled from footage of McAfee during the last decade of his life, when he hop-scotched between tropical islands, Miami, and Central America. What it boasts in up-close-and-personal chaos, however, it lacks in revealing coherence.
Following the type of brief table-setting montage that has become de rigueur on Netflix and its streaming brethren, Running with the Devil (Aug. 24) picks up with reporter Rocco Castoro and cameraman Robert King in December 2012. On assignment for Vice, the duo board a plane for Belize to join up with McAfee, a millionaire who’s been living in the Central American country for years, and is presently accompanied by his girlfriend Sam. McAfee is, at this juncture, in hiding from Belizean authorities who he thinks are going to kill him because they blame him for the death of his neighbor, 52-year-old Florida native Gregory Faull, who was shot once in the back of the head mere days after the two had sparred over McAfee’s dogs and their intimidating conduct toward Faull’s beloved parrot. Local reporter Jose Sanchez states outright that there’s “a high probability” that McAfee had something to do with Faull’s execution-style murder, and when Castoro and King meet McAfee, he claims that he’s wanted by Belize’s prime minister, who has placed a $150,000 dead-or-alive bounty on his head.
To add to this scene’s craziness, once ushered into an airport SUV, Castoro and King are greeted by a weathered, goateed McAfee munching on rose petals and rehearsing a, let’s say, politically incorrect disabled-man routine that he thinks will help him evade detection.