Normally I write about issues related to the video game industry in particular, but with the clout and spectacle that is Devin Faraci I’m making an exception to that.

What people know about Devin Faraci is that he’s a highly known figure in the Film Critic community, and he was the voice of Badass Digest and Birth.Movies.Death since it was first established. If a movie had come out, you could be damn sure that Devin would find something to say about it. He published hundreds of film reviews, and was also a source of news and rumors or Hollywood gossip. His opinionated nature was best seen in his “Devin’s Advocate” series, which was a podium for his thoughts and opinions on current event matters. Devin Faraci thought he knew better than everyone else, and that confidence in himself was what people gravitated to the most. But it also made for a long list of enemies and rivals in his field of work.

Having over a decades worth of thoughts written on the internet is hard to keep track of. Such a balancing act is hard to maintain. Devin had shifted his outlook over that time — going from a verbose aficionado of cinema and provocative statements, to someone that was more progressive and mainstream in his beliefs. Same amount of enthusiasm. But still the same amount of leaving a poor taste in people’s mouths because of that.

For that reason, he was his own worst enemy. One day, these scales he worked hard to keep in check were tipped too far.

The spark that lit this powderkeg went off on October 9th at about 11:00 AM. Twitter user named @spacecrone asked Devin Faraci if he had remembered grabbing her “by the pussy and bragging to our friends about it, telling them to smell your fingers?” according to her tweet.

I followed up with Ms. Spacecrone and asked her for a recollection of that night.

“We were at a bar, dancing, and he repeatedly stuck his hand down my pants. I told him to stop, he kept grabbing. I actually let it go at the time but YEARS later I brought it up, he claimed he didn’t remember, but some mutual friends who were there told me he’d bragged about ‘fingerbanging me’ all night. There was no penetration that i remembered, just grabbing my vagina repeatedly even when I told him to stop.”

Faraci didn’t outright deny the claim in his reply. “I do not remember this. I can only believe you and beg forgiveness for having been so vile,” he stated.

The spectacle caught the attention of Alamo Drafthouse’s Tim League, who reached out to spacecrone stating “I take this seriously and have taken Devin offline until we sort through this,” in response to the allegations.

Devin Faraci had then stepped down from his position as Editor-in-chief of Birth.Movies.Death. The move was formally announced in a statement obtained by Variety on October 11th.

“This weekend allegations were made about my past behavior. Because I take these types of claims seriously I feel my only honorable course of action is to step down from my position as Editor-in-Chief of Birth.Movies.Death. I will use the coming weeks and months to work on becoming a better person who is, I hope, worthy of the trust and loyalty of my friends and readers.”

This latest high profile scandal with Faraci had a ripple effect across the Internet, causing people who had past experiences with Devin to share their perspectives on the matter.

A second woman targeted by Devin Faraci was Julie Lauren Vick. She gave me permission to reference her tweets and talk about her story. Julie was apparently a close friend of Faraci for years, and had to suffer his bitter nature because she refused to have a romantic relationship with him.

(Click here to see her story, and additional tweets, in an image format)

this dude used to be a good friend of mine. we stopped being friends when he crossed some serious boundaries with me. he became enraged with me because i wouldn’t reciprocate his romantic feelings for me- one minute telling me he was in love with me and the next going out of his way to hurt me, humiliate me, spread gossip about my close friends, slut-shame me for the men i would sleep with when i wouldn’t sleep with a “nice guy” like him. classic behavior from dudes like him- basically every woman has a similar story about some dude throwing a tantrum when she wouldn’t submit to his will. i found out he had repeatedly lied about the nature of our relationship, boasting in crude and dehumanizing terms to our mutual friends that we were sexual partners (we weren’t). i had trusted him as someone i could let stay over at my place after a long night of talking about movies and drinking many times. i loved our long conversations and truly thought he respected me as a human being (lol). this was over a decade ago but i remember the hurt and humiliation like it was yesterday. i had always assumed everyone knew he had serious woman issues- as EVERYONE I KNOW WHO KNEW HIM KNEW THIS, but apparently he went on to thrive in the film criticism world with a “woke feminist” persona. the hubris of it all is thrilling. dudes- watch your ass because you can’t hide anymore. your employers can’t feign ignorance anymore. your friends can’t pretend they’re shocked anymore. if you’re a shithead it will come out. eta: please use this opportunity to discuss ways to make communities safe, inclusive, and representative. The attitudes about women devin internalized and acted on harm us all- regardless of gender. If he is truly attempting to get better, be accountable, make amends as he now claims I only wish him luck on that journey. The only thing we can do in this world is keep trying to be better, and the only thing served by treating him like an outlier is patriarchal business as usual.

Another person saw the news and took the time to speak up about their own situation with Faraci. Her name is Kat Arnett, and she had a brush-in with Faraci back in 2010. Living up in Vancouver, B.C. (Canada), she’s a freelance writer and columnist with an extensive career history in photography. Devin was visiting her city for a set visit and wanted to have Arnett show him around the area. In his attempt of arranging this to happen, he had made it clear that he had ulterior motives of a sexual kind.

(Click here to see her story as an image)

I really hope there isn’t an outlet left willing to work with Devin Faraci. I don’t care how many blue checkmark friends he has. Not just writers, he said disgusting things to me trying to get me to meet him during a set visit to my city. Because of it, and his treatment of female writers, I stopped supporting almost all film criticism. I know some horror stories, but the women are still too afraid to come forward. That doesn’t even include the low key mansplaining and general dismissal of opinions. Or fan harassment. I’ve never forgotten what he said to me, or what he did to my friend. And we aren’t even the ones who spoke up. He tried to get me to show him around my city & said he couldn’t stop himself from fucking me. Among other unsolicited comments about my body. I refused to meet him. Then he turned rude & mean. I didn’t even know him. And had never ever EVER indicated I was interested.

So here we are at not 1, not 2, but 3 known stories of brush-ins with Devin Faraci that have some sort horror element to them.

Devin seems to agree there’s something wrong with that.

Devin Faraci is a man with authority who is able to efficiently articulate media criticism and arguments. Yet his words in a particular piece might not be consistent over longer periods of time, nor do they always line up with his actions. On the topic of women, Faraci was praised for his ways of pushing forward a progressive point of view. But as seen in the case of @spacecrone, he appears to have not always practiced what he preached. While he may have climbed to fame in the Film Critic community as a prolific writer, the dark side of how he interacted with others as surfaced this past week. We need to come to terms with the horrible reality of the controversy-laden past of Faraci himself.