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Ever since its inception, Netflix has given the time period “binge” a complete new that means thanks, partly, to its unwavering run of wonderful true-crime content material. From fictionalized recreations like Mindhunter and Dirty John to hard-hitting scandals like Dirty Money, Rotten, Catching Killers, and even an Unsolved Mysteries reboot, it is clear Netflix has gone all in on the true-crime bandwagon.
A big portion of the true-crime content material on Netflix consists of true-crime documentaries. These eye-opening Netflix exposés have gone on to dominate the popular culture lexicon upon their launch, offering an inside look into a few of society’s most thrilling and distinctive crimes. Here’s a take a look at among the platform’s finest true-crime documentaries. Oh, and don’t fret — there’s excess of homicide afoot!
Updated on December sixteenth, 2023 by Amanda Minchin: This article has been up to date with extra content material to maintain the dialogue contemporary and related with much more data and new entries.
24 Mumbai Mafia: Police vs. Underworld (2023)
Ask anyone who lived in Mumbai, India throughout the ’90s, and so they’ll have a narrative to inform in regards to the notorious 1993 Bombay serial bomb blasts. Referred to as “India’s 9/11,” the assaults had been orchestrated by infamous gangster Dawood Ibrahim. This act of violence shocked each the nation and the world, shaking the whole metropolis as households feared for his or her lives. People had been afraid to stroll the town streets. Families stayed indoors to maintain their family members protected.
Mumbai Mafia: Police vs. Underworld unveils the story behind considered one of India’s deadliest terrorist assaults. Produced by Morgan Matthews and Sophie Jones, and co-directed by Raaghav Dar and Francis Longhurst, the documentary was launched on Netflix in English and Hindi in January 2023. This riveting documentary navigates the Mumbai underworld and the gangsters that formed the fabled Indian metropolis throughout the ’90s.
A Mumbai True Crime Case
This is a front-row seat into the internal workings of crime and corruption on the unforgiving and tough streets of Mumbai metropolis throughout that period. It additionally sheds mild on distinguished gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his crime syndicate, D-Company, whereas exploring how the Mumbai police countered Ibrahim and his affiliate’s threats to make Mumbai’s streets protected as soon as extra. From “encounters” to investigations, and even kill counts, this documentary moreover displays on the ways the Mumbai police had been pressured to resort to with the intention to deliver Ibrahim and his syndicate to justice.
At the identical time, it additionally displays the consensus of public opinion at the moment. This all culminates in an eye-opening documentary that delves into one of the crucial elusive and lethal Indian mob bosses’ legal exploits and the battle for supremacy in Mumbai, and serves as a refined reminder of the worldwide mob scene.
23 Capturing the Killer Nurse (2022)
Based on the 2013 e-book by Charles Graeber, Capturing the Killer Nurse follows the string of dying and destruction by former ICU Nurse and serial killer Charles Cullen, who is assumed to have murdered a minimum of 40 folks. Cullen dedicated his crimes within the New York tri-State area, an space bursting on the seams with hospital conglomerates attempting to at least one up one another. This made his long-term killing spree all the simpler. In an space infamous for long-distance commutes, he was capable of silently journey backwards and forwards from care residence to hospital to rehab for years earlier than he was ultimately caught.
A Film About Charles Cullen
This movie, which was directed by Tim Travers Hawkins, highlights each affected person’s (and their household’s) worst fears. To undergo a grueling well being scare and are available out the opposite finish of issues good as new… solely to be struck down by the very well being care supplier who has sworn an oath to not hurt you. Perhaps simply as sickening, nonetheless, is the extent of bureaucratic idiocy that saved his dealings shoved below the rug for years. The occasions of Capturing the Killer Nurse would also be reimagined in The Good Nurse, a Netflix movie which options Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne.
22 Murder Among the Mormons (2021)
Murder Among the Mormons could learn like one thing out of a dramatic motion flick starring Harrison Ford within the title position. Unfortunately, this story is all too actual. It begins out with a case of three mysterious explosions that take the lives of Mormon neighborhood members Steven Christensen and Kathleen Sheets. From there, the story unfolds into considered one of non secular intrigue, uncovering a long-standing forgery scandal from proper inside the partitions of the Mormon church.
Murder, Mormons, and Measom
Morality and faith typically go hand in hand in tales like this, making them completely rife for the true-crime fanatic. The order for this sequence was decreased from six episodes to a few when it reached Netflix. While audiences would probably have appreciated extra time sitting with this unbelievable story, the condensed runtime makes it straightforward sufficient to understand, even below the guise of this specific restriction. The sequence can be notable for being created by Jared Hess and Tyler Measom, with the previous beforehand directing Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre.
21 Crime Scene: The Vanishing on the Cecil Hotel (2021)
The disappearance of Elisa Lam on the Cecil Hotel, nicknamed “Hotel Death”, is among the extra mysterious and disturbing tales in Netflix’s catalog. The four-episode docuseries Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel tells the historical past of considered one of America’s deadliest motels, the individuals who have come and gone there, and the viral disappearance that made it a nationwide sensation. The sequence covers interviews with the case’s primary operators, like regulation enforcement and Amy Price, a former Cecil Hotel supervisor, trying deep into Lam’s life earlier than she migrated to Los Angeles.
The Disappearance of Elisa Lam
This case ignited an web sensation, with lots of of web sleuths weighing in on the trigger. This movie combines their efforts, alongside these of regulation enforcement, in a novel step-by-step take a look at simply what Lam may have been as much as throughout her brief time within the United States, starting from conspiracy theories to the potential position psychological well being performed in her dying. With unexplained safety footage and the remainder of America chiming in on the investigation by way of social media, the eventual conclusion of this story makes for spine-tingling storytelling. It’s tales like this that’ll make you think twice about staying in a hotel.
20 Room 2806: The Accusation (2020)
Room 2806 is the story of a French politician and former director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and the sexual assault allegation that pressured his resignation. Before this, he was one of many world’s strongest folks. Strauss-Kahn’s scandal was damaged down by those that had been instantly concerned. For occasion, filmmaker Jalil Lespert sits down with Nafissatou Diallo, the lodge housekeeper who was assaulted by Strauss-Kahn. Throughout its course, she unveils her harrowing account of the traumatic incident. Dating again to 2011, the 4 episodes on this sequence discover each twist and switch of the scandal, a narrative that not solely had main ramifications but additionally led to the start of detrimental authorities conspiracies within the course of.
Room 2806 is a Geopolitical True Crime Story
With discussions about each sexual assault consciousness and corruption in politics, this sequence packs a punch. It takes a few of society’s most taboo topics, together with sexual assault, politics, and corruption, and blends them right into a fast-paced, binge-able docuseries. After all, who would not love documentaries about controversial scandals?
19 Amanda Knox (2016)
The title Amanda Knox sends whispers and questions on homicide down the backbone. The true story, nonetheless, just isn’t practically so easy. Twice convicted and later acquitted for the 2007 homicide of roommate Meredith Kercher whereas finding out overseas, Amanda Knox deftly considers the position the media performed in her trial whereas additionally highlighting her time spent behind bars and past.
A Condensed Amanda Knox Case
With a lot content material on the market about this case and its individuals, it could be close to inconceivable to squeeze each final conjecture right into a handy hour and a half runtime. While certainly not a whole image of occasions, this film captures the sense of competing shops of data that had been practically as divisive as they had been decisive in sealing this younger girl’s destiny for years.
18 The Keepers (2017)
One of this listing’s most provocative documentaries, The Keepers, tells the story of Sister Catherine Cesnik, a nun who was murdered over 50 years in the past. Sister Catherine was a highschool trainer who on the time suspected a priest on the college of partaking in sexual activity with underage college students. Her homicide occurred lengthy earlier than widespread allegations took the nation by storm years later.
The Keepers Has a Shocking Story to Tell
Just just like the courageous journalists and filmmakers who’ve confronted the Catholic Church previously, this seven-episode docuseries takes a deep dive into the clergymen and ladies who fought to maintain this story below wraps for thus lengthy. It places main establishments just like the Church within the scorching seat, calling for some accountability from these in energy. Putting all of the questions that the documentary raises apart, it’s an attractive and surprising story that belongs on this listing due to the magnitude of against the law over 50 years within the making.
13 Best True Crime Movies, Ranked
There are so many true crime films, however listed here are the very best of the very best.
17 Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. (2022)
Netflix is not any stranger to tales about good old style swindles and cons. This is considered one of them, albeit with a bizarre true-crime story to inform.
Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. follows the recipe for catastrophe that was the connection between well-known vegan restaurateur Sarma Melngailis after which husband Anthony Strangis, which led to Melngailis stealing cash from her personal restaurant with the intention to pay a deity for immortality. Spoiler alert: issues did not work out as deliberate.
Plenty of Beef in Bad Vegan
This four-part docuseries by director Chris Smith reveals what lengths persons are prepared to go to get every thing they need, together with an extension on life… regardless of how inconceivable it appears. This tonally pushed sequence retains audiences at the hours of darkness, piecing collectively the state of affairs very like these concerned had been pressured to do. Fans of Bad Vegan may additionally get pleasure from Rotten, which covers the generally seedy sides of the meals business.
16 Killer Inside: The Mind Of Aaron Hernandez (2020)
Killer Inside: The Mind Of Aaron Hernandez breaks the story of former Super Bowl champion, Aaron Hernandez, and the a number of murders he was concerned in. The sequence dives deep into Hernandez’s life each earlier than his incarceration and after his sudden dying. Journalists sat down with among the individuals who had been closest to him all through the years, together with his former highschool, school, {and professional} soccer teammates.
A Look at Aaron Hernandez
Not solely is that this a three-episode saga of one of many NFL’s most expert tight ends, however it’s a narrative that America was on the sting of its seats ready to get the total scoop on. This is a multi-layered story that covers each the details and the speculations behind Hernandez’s homicide accusations. It additionally highlights his life and the struggles he carried with him all through his whole soccer profession. This is a much-needed, all-encompassing take a look at a sophisticated story, one that’s executed to perfection by journalist Kevin Armstrong.
15 The Tinder Swindler (2022)
The Tinder Swindler chronicles the acts and schemes executed by Israeli Simon Leviev, who allegedly conned a whopping $10 million from his victims over two years. This juicy and addictive British true-crime documentary showcases Leviev’s despicable actions. Born Shimon Hayut, he posed as a Russian-Israeli diamond mogul who used the favored courting app Tinder to trick girls into lending him cash. He would then wine and dine the women on a non-public jet he borrowed from considered one of his different victims.
The Tinder Swindler Will Steal Your Attention
One of the best documentaries of 2022, this Felicity Morris-directed movie delves into Leviev’s strategies of acquiring illicit funds, together with claiming he was the goal of enemies, sending cast financial institution paperwork, and even outright threats. This startling and heartbreaking documentary showcases his victims as they labored collectively to deliver this conman to justice.
14 Killer Sally (2022)
Killer Sally reads just like the John and Lorena Bobbitt trial on steroids … maybe actually. Former marine and rising skilled bodybuilder Sally McNeil is on the peak of her profession when she’s convicted of murdering her husband Ray, who was additionally a bodybuilder and within the marines. Was this an open and shut case of marital discord turned awry? Or one thing far more insidious? This documentary options Sally recounting the time main as much as the trial, in addition to her adventures on the opposite aspect.
Killer Sally Mixes Bodybuilding with Murder
Gender roles arguably play an enormous half on this narrative. In one other time, one other place, it is doable that Sally’s crime would have been seen for what it was — a basic case of self-defense in opposition to an abusive husband. Or, maybe not. Instead, jurors turned to the VHS tapes of Sally exhibiting off her expertise, those that arguably paid the payments and had been a few of her bestsellers, with the intention to make a last judgment.
13 Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist (2018)
While docs like Making A Murderer paved the best way for these which are thriving at this time, the 2018 Netflix docuseries Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist is arguably the height of the true-crime style on the subject of over-the-top tales. Evil Genius follows Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong’s involvement in a lethal financial institution heist in Erie, Pennsylvania, identified additionally because the “pizza bomber” case, an incident that was televised all too properly on the time.
Evil Genius Tells a Shocking Story
By breaking the story down into 4 episodes, filmmaker Trey Borzillieri can cowl nearly each side associated to the case. Each episode explores a serious incident from the case in depth, whereas additionally exhibiting how the residents of a small Pennsylvania city made headline information. Easily considered one of Netflix’s best-told tales, this trustworthy look into the lives of unusual folks on the floor and monsters on the within is bound to entertain.
12 Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019)
The Ted Bundy Tapes was the documentary America wanted, lastly hitting streaming after thirty lengthy years. It follows Ted Bundy, one of many despicable males who helped coin the time period serial killer. This documentary explores the thoughts of Bundy, the person behind over 20 homicides within the Nineteen Seventies. Everything is captured due to audio and video recordings taken of Bundy earlier than his execution in 1989. It is right here that we see Bundy as transparently as doable, by his very personal phrases. Law enforcement and psychological well being professionals had been additionally launched to assist break down the footage.
The Ted Bundy Tapes is Comprehensive
Paving the best way for future documentaries prefer it, The Ted Bundy Tapes is undoubtedly among the best real-life examinations of a serial killer, as advised in his personal phrases, ever. Being in the identical room as Ted Bundy whereas nonetheless tucked away safely within the privateness of your individual house is one thing that is simply too onerous to cross up. Plus, while you’re carried out with this one, there are much more insights into other serial killers, together with John Wayne Gacy, all through this sequence.
11 Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal (2021)
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal is a movie/documentary hybrid that serves as an intriguing matter of debate for fogeys and kids in regards to the prospect of upper training in America. Directed by Chris Smith, this documentary explores how the deeply-flawed greater training system within the US created a “side door” for the kids of rich households by a mixture of live-action footage and recreated scenes. The plot of this documentary follows the 2019 Varsity Blues scandal involving Rick Singer, a person who facilitated admission for youths from over 750 households all through his tenure. To achieve this, he accepted unlawful bribes within the tens of millions below the guise of tutoring.
Operation Varsity Blues is Eye-Opening
The truth that folks who had been prepared and capable of pay for illicit test-taking and counterfeit paperwork to safe their kids’s admission into the nation’s prime schools is atrocious. Rick Singer, the mastermind, is performed by Matthew Modine within the movie. His reenactment of Singer’s conversations with dad and mom, exhibiting how he may exploit them to perfection, is eye-opening. The movie additionally reinforces the benefit with which he was capable of function for years due to the for-profit school system.
10 Don’t F**ok with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (2019)
The gripping 2019 true crime docuseries Don’t F**ok with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer is a must-watch on Netflix not only for the title. This twisted program unveils the trouble web sleuths and animal lovers will go to for justice. After witnessing a horrific viral video through which a person suffocates two kittens in a vacuum seal bag, Las Vegas knowledge analyst Deanna Thompson and Los Angeles resident Tom John Green be part of forces to create a Facebook group to determine the perpetrator.
Don’t F**ok with Cats Is Not for the Faint of Heart
The plot appears easy sufficient… at first. The preliminary campaign is noble. In the tip, it’s partially profitable, saving some lives whereas subsequently ruining others, generally making John Wick seem like a teddy bear by comparability. Far extra revealing than surprising, this sequence is, shock, a profile of a vicious serial killer within the making. Considering the content material of their burgeoning crimes, it is a minor miracle they had been caught after they had been.
9 American Murder: The Family Next Door (2020)
Filmmaker Jenny Popplewell reopened an notorious case in 2020’s American Murder: The Family Next Door, which is one most true-crime followers know by coronary heart. The movie investigates the murders of Shanann Watts, who was pregnant on the time of her dying, alongside together with her two kids, Bella and Celeste. The movie takes us by the disappearance of the 4 victims, a household tragedy that the world watched unfold due to residence safety cameras and social media.
American Murder Features the Chris Watts Case
Filled with interrogation footage of the homicide’s prime suspect within the type of Shanann’s husband, Chris, this movie is a roller-coaster experience of the case’s most surprising revelations. It examines archival footage from Shanann’s Facebook web page, in addition to interviews with those that knew the household most. The now-convicted assassin is analyzed from starting to finish, and audiences are left questioning the perpetrator proper up till the ultimate sequences of the movie. This tragic story is Netflix’s bread and butter, and delivers an attractive movie that matches completely into the style.
8 Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019)
fyre
- Release Date
- January 16, 2019
The crimes within the subsequent documentary on our listing might not be practically as grotesque as those we have talked about to date, however the degree of incompetence and deception featured is indescribable. Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened tells the story of the failed 2017 Fyre Festival, which was coordinated by its founder, Billy McFarland, alongside a whole crew of pros whose plans simply by no means got here to fruition. Filled with depictions of greed, deception, and jaw-dropping moments that dominated the web upon its launch, this documentary contains actual tales from individuals who attended, together with occasion producer Andy King’s meme-worthy testimonials.
Fyre Fest Was Fully Fraudlent
So what launches this into true-crime territory? In a phrase, fraud. Promoting the competition with the assistance of a few of social media’s greatest influencers, from Kendall Jenner to Bella Hadid, this very actual thought unapologetically imploded on each the coordinators and attendees because the date of the occasion approached. People arrived having paid hundreds for subpar situations, having to sleep in unabashed FEMA catastrophe tents whereas preventing over scarce provides of water and meals. Watching filmmaker Chris Smith’s documentary Fyre, you’ll be able to see in real-time simply how Billy McFarland scammed his approach into infamy on this bonkers documentary about utter chaos. It’s a great film for aspiring entrepreneurs, if you wish to keep away from the same catastrophe sooner or later.
7 Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (2022)
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey is a deep dive into the criminal nature of extreme religious groups. This inside look into the insidious nature of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) could have the viewer’s pores and skin crawling. The title alone comes from a phrase coined by Leader Rulon Jeffs, which was used to explain how girls ought to behave in direction of their husbands. Co-directed by Rachel Dretzin and Grace McNally, the sequence loosely follows the rise and fall of the following chief, the overbearing Warren Jeffs, i.e. “The Prophet.” On the lam for years, he was discovered to have had non-consensual intercourse with underage ladies, even going as far as to take a number of of them on as wives in illicit marriage ceremonies.
Pray and Obey is a Christian True Crime Story
This movie serves to border the true story, which is that of the survivors, lots of whom had been interviewed for this venture. Though tales of weird organizations and malicious cults are a dime-a-dozen these days, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey‘s topic and the quite a few views offered — each from members of the cult and people exterior of it — give it a novel edge over its contemporaries. With solely 4 episodes, it is a sequence that you may rapidly watch in as little as a day.
6 Don’t Pick Up The Phone (2022)
Long touted as a basic demonstration of when obedience in direction of figures of authority goes improper, Don’t Pick Up The Phone highlights a rampant sequence of hoax calls that plagued fast-food eating places everywhere in the US within the late 90s and early 2000s. Spanning from Massachusetts to Kentucky, a large number of workers at chains from McDonald’s to Pizza Hut to Applebees had been affected. The caller would insist {that a} workers member at their location had dedicated against the law and wanted to be detained till police arrived. What typically adopted was an intensive and violating search of the “offending” worker. Floored by the sheer variety of reported and underreported cases, investigators struggled to attach the dots to a single individual or location.
Don’t Pick Up The Phone is Incredibly Psychological
What elevated these hoax calls was their capability to trigger in any other case well-meaning workers to commit egregious acts of violence towards their coworkers. What makes this story even worse is the shortage of correspondence not simply between victims and police, but additionally inside these well-established franchises. Not solely did they know this was occurring, however they did little if something to stop it from persevering with. The end result of occasions on this mind-boggling story will show riveting for viewers who admire a bit psychological intrigue with their true-crime machinations.
5 Icarus (2017)
Sometimes an excellent story simply falls proper into your lap. Such was the case for Bryan Fogel’s Icarus. While investigating unlawful doping in sports activities, Icarus director Bryan Fogel meets Grigory Rodchenkov, who seems to be the director of Russia’s nationwide anti-doping laboratory. The two quickly grew to become quick mates, and it’s by this friendship that Fogel uncovers Rodchenkov’s involvement in Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program. It seems Rodchenkov not solely is aware of about it — he oversees it.
Rodchenkov goes on the document, stating that he and his staff had been pressured to swap the Russian Olympic staff’s steroid-containing urine samples for clear ones forward of the 2014 Winter Olympics. After appreciable media upheaval and publicity, Fogel winds up flying Rodchenkov right down to Los Angeles to make sure his security. All the whereas, the menace that he’d be without end silenced by the Russian authorities is all too actual.
Icarus is an Incredible Story
This documentary is as partaking as it’s revelatory, plunging viewers headlong down the rabbit gap of doping in sports activities. The movie gained an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature on the ninetieth Academy Awards, with reward being directed at Rodchenkov for his bravery within the face of unbelievable hazard. The investigation spurred by this documentary, amongst others, would have an unbelievable real-world influence, resulting in the creation of the Olympic Athletes from Russia designation for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
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