3 True-Crime Netflix Flicks for the "Making a Murderer" Junkie

Any true-crime fan worth his or her salt has seen “Making a Murderer” on Netflix. This attention-grabbing docuseries about Steven Avery. A man wrongfully convicted for rape and left to rot in prison for nearly 20 years. After finally being exonerated and released due to DNA evidence, just two short years later he was accused, arrested and eventually convicted for the murder of a freelance photographer, even though the evidence seems to suggest he might not be guilty of that crime, either.

Since the release of “Making a Murderer”, true-crime series and/or films are again finding themselves to be extremely popular. Always a bankable genre, this list is short but solid, and one is quite unimaginable, bizarre, and alien… literally.

Amanda Knox

This 2016 documentary tells the story of Knox, a young American college student accused of murdering her roommate in Italy. Convicted twice with then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, Knox continued to fight to prove her innocence amidst an international media frenzy. In the documentary, we see interviews with Knox telling her side of the events, along with Sollecito, prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, and others. Knox and Sollecito were definitively exonerated for the crime in 2015 after years of wild allegations and enduring years of being labelled “sexual deviant murderers.” This doc is powerful and affecting, and a case of government overreach, a searing indictment of media culture, and a tale of triumph against the odds.

Devil’s Knot

Based on true events, and a book by Mara Leveritt, this is the story of the infamous West Memphis Three, accused of killing three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas. Reese Witherspoon gives a heartbreaking performance as Pamela Hobbs, the mother of one of the victims. Colin Firth plays Ron Lax, the defense team investigator who strongly believes the teenagers who were charged with the murders were innocent. The casting is brilliant. You can feel all of the heartbreak, turmoil, and questions that all of the people involved in this case went through. It truly makes you question whether our society is so focused on just putting someone/anyone behind bars, that they don’t even care if the confession matches the evidence. Such a travesty.

Abducted in Plain Sight

This 2017 documentary is absolutely disturbing, and quite frankly it will probably make you angry in some parts. Jan Broberg is a child who was kidnapped, not once, but twice in the 1970’s. Yes, twice. By the same person. The entire story is horrible and mystifying. An adult Jan and her family take us through the entire heartbreaking ordeal, especially Jan’s account of her experiences with the kidnapper, and her parents’ complete inability to keep her away from him. It is easier to be less critical of Jan’s position because she was twelve and fourteen when she was kidnapped. Her parents on the other hand, that’s another story. Kidnapping, adultery, and pedophilia all factor in, with three members of the same family and one perpetrator, making this one of the strangest and most disturbing kidnapping documentaries you’ll ever see.