If you like Making a Murderer, try these. . .
Five true-crime documentaries to devour now that the Netflix original has made you hungry for more
The success of Netflix’s new documentary series Making a Murderer, along with the similar reception given to American podcast Serial, has raised the profile of the true crime genre to new heights. If you’ve enjoyed either or both of those and you’re looking to continue down the same road, here are five other incredible true crime documentaries you need to see. 1. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst Unlike Making a Murderer and its 10 episodes, this HBO documentary series has just six. But director Andrew Jarecki didn’t need more than a half-dozen episodes to stun audiences and help renew interest in true crime on TV. All he needed was an unforgettably eccentric, bitter multimillionaire suspected of multiple murders, the heinous effect of money on the law and a series ending that will astonish even the most veteran true crime observers. When they say truth is stranger than fiction, The Jinx is what they’re talking about.
Available on: HBO on demand
2. The Central Park Five This 2012 documentary examines the infamous, brutal rape and assault of a female jogger in New York City’s Central Park, and five young men who were charged with and convicted of the 1989 crime. Made by Sarah Burns (daughter of documentary icon Ken Burns) and David McMahon, it is a story of racial tensions, class, coerced confession and justice system sinkholes.
Oh and Donald Trump plays a notable, shameful role. Timely for many reasons.
Available on: Netflix 3. The Paradise Lost trilogy In 1993, directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky began chronicling the tragic murders of three prepubescent boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, and the arrests of three teenage boys in connection with the case.
Over the next eight years, they made three films for HBO — Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills; Paradise Lost 2: Revelations; and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory — that paint an utterly disturbing picture of mob mentality, media firestorms and the wrongfully convicted.
There’s more than one parallel to Making a Murderer here and you’ll be just as troubled by all of them.
Available on: iTunes 4. Deliver Us From Evil Made in 2006 by director/producer Amy Berg, this is the story of Catholic priest Oliver O’Grady, who raped and sexually assaulted children in numerous American parishes throughout the 1970s. Rather than being charged for his crimes, O’Grady was transferred around the country by a church hierarchy that knew something was terribly wrong and refused to address it. O’Grady and his victims are interviewed by Berg, who leaves viewers saddened and outraged at our collective tolerance and wilful ignorance of monsters not that long ago.
Available on: iTunes 5. The Staircase Academy Award-winning documentarian Jean-Xavier de Lestrade made this hugely compelling, eight-part series in 2004, focusing on North Carolina newspaper columnist and novelist Michael Peterson, whose wife Kathleen died under mysterious circumstances in 2001at the bottom of a set of stairs in their home.
Michael claimed Kathleen fell, yet he was convicted of her murder in 2003. However, that wasn’t the story’s end.
Aslew of startling revelations about Michael Peterson are woven into the film and, even if you’d firmly decided who to believe by the end of it, de Lestrade furthers the debate with a 2012 sequel ( The Staircase 2: The Last Chance) that you’ll want to check out. A third is reportedly in the works too.
Available on: For rent, 2Q Video (936 St. Clair Ave. W.); for purchase, amazon.ca