I’ve never been into “True Crime.” The overly dramatic music, deadpan interviews with detectives, and voice-over descriptions of various events never caught my interest. Then I saw my favorite speedster/American Horror Story boy, Evan Peters, starring in a Netflix show called “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” I’ll admit, if it stars an actor I like, I’ll probably watch it even if it isn’t my usual thing. I knew virtually nothing about the notorious serial killer/people-eater Dahmer before watching the series. It hooked me immediately with how unlike a “True Crime” documentary it was.
There are now three of these series, with a fourth about Lizzie Borden on the way, and they each tell their stories in a different fashion than most of the “True Crime” genre. The show creators dramatize events, present alleged events alongside factual ones (with no warning), and take enormous creative liberties. Monster(s) departs from traditional, documentary-style storytelling to craft a more immersive, compelling, and unnerving story.
Gein: Schizophrenia
The newest and shortest of the three series has us constantly diverting away from our killer—Ed Gein—to look at the people who inspired him and those his heinous acts inspired. There’s an entire arc about Alfred Hitchcock and the creation of Psycho. It includes another arc about the “transexual, lesbian, cannibal” Leatherface of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre compared to Gein’s similar, chainsaw-wielding, skin-mask-wearing alter ego. We also get cameos, both real and dreamed up, of other killers such as Jerry Brudos (Shoe Fetish Slayer), Richard Speck (The Birdman), and Charles Manson.
Strangely, this series seems to lack content despite Ed Gein being so influential to the horror genre and to the killers that would succeed him. We sit and watch as the show creators spend an uncomfortable amount of time humanizing one of the most twisted people in existence. Tons of gore, unmentionable acts involving corpses, and murderous daydreaming break up this humanization. If you find yourself disturbed by series like these, then be careful when viewing. I felt schizophrenic watching this series (and it rocked).
Menendez: Perception
The most tame of the three—visually—is also the most reckless. The Menendez Brothers are still alive and, under new California law, could potentially be eligible for parole. Making a partially fictional series about their crime and ensuing court cases is irresponsible, but also ironic.
The public perception of this series now taints future court proceedings involving the brothers. Millions of people have now based their judgments on a retelling that features story bits from Reddit armchair psychologists. That isn’t hyperbole; Reddit threads speculating the father was closeted drove multiple scenes involving the brother’s father engaging in Roman-inspired acts of homosexuality.
The ironic bit is that the series itself highlights how factors other than the facts heavily influence high-profile cases. The Menendez Brothers highlights how perception can become reality.
Dahmer: Blame
Dahmer’s hidden message is about how to assign blame when inhuman acts take place in our midst. Nature or Nurture? Satan or Systemic Racism? Stag films or Horror movies? The answer is never easy, because it’s never one, easily assignable source. Dahmer is my favorite of the three, but I may be biased by Evan Peters. For a show about a man who poured acid into other boys’ brains and then ate them, there’s not much to say about it other than; It’s unique.
Ban Everything
Monster feels like a series the creators crafted just for me: a fictionalized accounting of some of the most demented human beings to walk the earth. Their crimes against humanity are so absurd that we would consider them “unrealistic” as characters. Do I believe shows like these exist to tickle the secret monster within us all? Not really. Should good society shun shows that feature shocking content lest we inspire a new round of serial killers? Also no, but not just because I want to see Lizzie Borden commit patricide with an axe.
The series clearly wants to include shocking bits to push the envelope, but they are each incredibly well-written, masterfully cinematic, and beautifully acted pieces of content that I think any horror fan should watch, even if you aren’t into “True Crime.”
