For those who get a thrill from seeing blood-stained sheets and gruesome crime scenes based on true events on screen, OTT platforms have a lot to offer

Varun Das

Family members of men slain and butchered by Jeffrey Dahmer are coming out of the woodwork to slam Netflix over its new series on the Milwaukee Cannibal. Even the serial killer’s own father—Lionel Dahmer, now an octogenarian, is reportedly planning to sue the streaming giant for ‘glamorising’ his son’s murders.

The Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story series on the man whose name has become synonymous with vomit-inducing words like ‘cannibal’ and ‘necrophiliac’, will make you squirm in your seat as Dahmer (played by Evan Peters) fondles the motionless body of a victim. It will make you tear up as Jeffrey’s father Lionel (played by Richard Jenkins) feels a crushing pang of guilt as he comes to terms with what his son has done. And you will feel a sense of sympathy or schadenfreude as Dahmer finally gets bludgeoned to death by a fellow inmate, depending on how you see the serial killer—as a mentally sick man who just needed professional help or as a depraved man who did not deserve deliverance from his sins.

But Dahmer is far from being the only series in recent times that has grabbed eyeballs. Here is a look at some more series which have sparked or renewed curiosity among viewers about some high-profile real-life crime stories.

Law and disorder

Netflix series Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom revisits the unprecedented 2004 courtroom killing of Akku Yadav, a hardened criminal. Yadav was brought to the District Sessions Court in Nagpur when a baying mob of Kasturba Nagar locals, armed with weapons, stormed into the courtroom and did Yadav to death. The docu-series highlights how the cops were hand in glove with the dreaded criminal. Let down by the legal system, the local residents ultimately took the matter into their hands.

Family that died together

The House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths, a Netflix docu-series, transports you to the bylanes of Burari. It explores the mysterious 2018 mass suicide case of the Chundawat family, which had raised a billion eyebrows. Ten members of the family were found hanging from an iron grill in the ceiling like the prop roots of an old banyan tree, and another family member was found strangled to death. Rooted in some superstitions, the family members used to perform some bizarre rituals. It was one such ritual, the Badh pooja, which eventually may have claimed their lives.

A match made in hell

The four-part Amazon Prime documentary, Lorena, follows the story of American couple— John and Lorena Bobbitt—who first made international headlines in 1993 when Lorena chopped off her husband’s manhood in a fit of rage while he was asleep one night. To make things worse, she then drove off with his severed member and threw it away. The graphic details of this case are enough to make one flinch with horror. “What did he do to make her do something like that?” is the question that this documentary focuses on.

Like a vegan

Netflix docu-series Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. follows the story of New York City-based restaurateur Sarma Melngailis. In this classic tale of fall from grace, Sarma goes from being a ‘raw vegan queen’, who used to appear in glossy magazines, to being a fugitive. It all starts when Melngailis chances upon a con-man online, who goes by the name Shane Fox. She falls in love with Fox, and they end up getting married. Taken in by this shady man’s bizarre promise to make her pet dog Leon immortal, she starts siphoning funds from her restaurant to her husband. Needless to say, it does not end well for the couple.

Nobody killed Sophie

When it comes to true crime, one always wonders if the culprit actually gets caught in the end, or if he goes scot-free. Sophie: A Murder in West Cork on Netflix revolves around the 1996 cold-blooded killing of French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier in a secluded area in the idyllic Irish countryside. From the investigators’ missteps to a dramatic courtroom exchange, the series dwells on the investigation into the murder and the quest for justice that follows.

Missing Madeleine

When three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from a resort in Portugal in 2007, leaving behind a trail of questions, it prompted a never-ending search. The eight-part Netflix series, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, covers how local residents and holiday-makers joined hands to search for the missing girl, how suspicion later fell on her own parents, and how some people are still hoping against hope that she would be found alive and well one day.