True Crime Documentaries That Are Not For the Faint of Heart
Not all documentaries are for the faint of heart. While some tell a cautionary tale, they can also leave you with an unsettling chill down your spine. But that's why we love them.
If you're true crime obsessed like us, these documentaries will have you on the edge of your seat.
Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance Of Sherri Papini
This docuseries closely examines the case of Sherri Papini—a woman who disappeared during her morning jog and suddenly resurfaced three weeks later with a crazy tale of being abducted by two random Hispanic women.
Upon her return, Papini claimed she was beaten, branded, starved, and had her hair cut off. The case garnered national attention and a full FBI investigation quickly ensued.
Years later, authorities finally got to the bottom of what really happened—and the truth sent the nation into a state of shock.
Marwar Junction, Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini
Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer
True crime fans are often fascinated by the psychology of killers—and this documentary offers insight from someone who knows them best.
Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer tells the tale of Dr. Ann Burgess, a psychiatric nurse-turned-FBI specialist who forever changed how killers are profiled and tracked down.
You’ll want to change careers after watching this one.
Campfire Studios, Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer
Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult
As TikTok slowly becomes more and more controversial, Netflix offers a hard-hitting docuseries that dives into the dark and disturbing corners of the billion-dollar app.
Dancing for the Devil tells an unsettling story about young dancer Miranda Wilking, who signed up with a management company called 7M—which turned out to be a religious cult with disturbing motives.
From coercing members to cut off family to heinous mistreatments behind the scenes, the TikTok cult leader Robert Shinn goes under the microscope with unbelievable details uncovered.
Derek Doneen, Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult
The Beauty Queen Killer: 9 Days Of Terror
In 1984, over the course of only six weeks, Chris Wilder went on a cross-country rampage, targeting aspiring models. He victimized attractive young women, most of whom he would entice by promising to take their pictures. After subduing them, he would torture them and force himself on them before horrifically ending their lives.
Out of 12 confirmed women, only four survived.
The Beauty Queen Killer focuses on the horrific experience of survivor Tina Risico, who was 16 years old at the time of her abduction and spent nine days in captivity where she witnessed and endured Wilder’s monstrous crimes firsthand.
AMPLE, The Beauty Queen Killer: 9 Days of Terror
The Jinx
This Emmy-winning docuseries features personal interviews with wealthy New York City real estate heir Robert Durst—a man accused of slaying three people, and possibly others.
During the specific interviews for this documentary, Durst makes a shocking confession. His case is reopened and reexamined, with new charges coming to light.
Nearly a decade later, HBO revisits the aftermath and shares the disturbing details of what happened next.
HBO, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
Tell Them You Love Me
Tell Them You Love Me digs deep into the controversial case of Anna Stubblefield, a former college professor who proclaimed her love for a nonverbal Black man with cerebral palsy.
The affair took a turn when the man’s mother argued he was incapable of consent, leading to a disturbing court case that landed Stubblefield behind bars—but that’s not the end of it.
The court’s decision was later reversed as startling new details emerged.
Mindhouse Productions, Tell Them You Love Me
Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV
This four-part docuseries uncovers the horrific truth behind child stardom and the Nickelodeon empire in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The film features interviews and accounts with various whistleblowers, crew members, as well as former child stars—like Drake Bell and Alexa Nicolas—who reflect on their disturbing experiences working with producer Dan Schneider.
Business Insider, Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV
The Synanon Fix
The Synanon Fix focuses on the “Church of Synanon”—a rehabilitation program established by AA member Charles “Chuck” Dederich that helps people with substance dependence.
Featuring exclusive archival footage with former members, including Dederich's own daughter, the four-part docuseries uncovers the program’s transformation into a cult-like movement that forced practices like vasectomies, abortions, divorces, and more on its members.
The Program: Cons, Cults, And Kidnapping
Released in 2024, The Program explores a disturbing rehabilitation program intended for troubled teens. It was marketed as a boarding school—but once the children were in, they could not get out.
Director Katherine Kubler, a survivor of the correctional institution, confronts her traumatizing past while she and some of her former classmates expose the wide system of corruption and mistreatment in the troubled teen industry.
Fishbowl Films, The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping
American Nightmare
American Nightmare is a three-part docuseries that focuses on the abduction case of Denise Huskins.
Huskins' boyfriend reported the implausible abduction in 2015. He quickly became the prime suspect, only to witness an incredible turn of events. Soon, the focus shifts to Huskins herself, accusing her of orchestrating a Gone Girl-style event.
This documentary dives into various though-provoking issues, such as victim blaming and the inadequacies of our criminal justice system.
Chowchilla
This 2023 documentary explores the “most bizarre mass kidnapping of all-time".
In Chowchilla, California, three masked men hijacked a bus carrying 26 school children. They then demanded a $5 million ransom before loading the kids into soundproof vans that drove them to an underground chamber.
What happens next is horrifying. This film is certainly not for the faint at heart.
#CyberSleuths: The Idaho Murders
On November 13, 2022, four University of Idaho students were found brutally slain in their off-campus residence.
An amateur TikTok sleuth team led by @chroniclesofolivia uncovers the truth as they dig through evidence, revisit the crime scene, and explore various theories and officer statements.
This group of true crime content creators is the focus of the three-part docuseries, which contemplates whether their efforts did more harm than good.
Bungalow Media + Entertainment, #Cybersleuths: The Idaho Murders
The Prison Confessions Of Gypsy Rose Blanchard
By now you may have heard of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a young woman who served eight years of her 10-year sentence behind bars for her role in the slaying of her mother.
Blanchard is a survivor of Munchausen by proxy—a mental health condition in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury in a person under their care.
Blanchard’s story has been told multiple times, but this six-part docuseries features Blanchard herself as she candidly shares her incredibly dark and disturbing story in a tell-all interview conducted before her release in 2023.
HBO, Mommy Dead and Dearest (2017)
The Curious Case Of Natalia Grace
This incredibly dark story left the world in a shocking disbelief.
It follows Michael and Kristine Barnett, the white-picket-fence couple who adopt a young Ukrainian girl with dwarfism named Natalia. They then accuse her of being an adult masquerading as a six-year-old girl—a sociopath who tried to kill them.
From legally changing her age to abandoning her and moving out of the country, the docuseries uncovers new, unsettling details in the second season (aired January 2024) as Natalia shares her harrowing experiences, and even sits down for a face-to-face confrontation with Michael.
Just as the season wraps up though, a shocking new twist is briefly mentioned by Natalia’s new adoptive parents—suggesting that, “something isn’t right with Natalia".
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace
The Matthew Shepard Story: An American Hate Crime
This two-hour documentary pays tribute to the impactful life of Matthew Shepard—the gay college student who was brutally attacked and left for dead.
This heinous act sparked a nationwide conversation about the discrimination and violence confronting many LGBTQ Americans.
Clara George, The Matthew Shepard Story: An American Hate Crime
Scout’s Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America
Scout’s Honor delves deep into the “happy camper” façade of the Boy Scouts of America, exposing the organization's history of unspeakable mistreatment of the young children in their care.
With shocking interviews from former staff members, whistleblowers, and survivors, this documentary is equally horrifying and heartbreaking.
Insight Film, Scout's Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America
Last Call: When A Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York
This gripping docuseries reflects on the terror inflicted upon LGBTQ nightlife by a serial killer in the 1990s, exposing grueling details while diving into the systemic oppression prevalent at the time of the AIDS crisis.
With various interviews and witness accounts, the documentary also touches on the efforts made by queer activists to seek justice for the victims of the heinous crimes.
HBO, Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York
Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets
This four-part docuseries explores another high-profile family you may have already heard of, the Duggars—one of reality TV’s most prominent families best known for their show 19 Kids and Counting.
The docuseries uncovers various cult-like practices of their religious organization, whilst also exposing the household’s dark and disturbing secrets—which includes various forms of carnal mistreatment, religious trauma, and other unspeakable acts involving children.
The Cinemart, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets
Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed
Menendez + Menudo focuses on the notorious case of brothers, Lyle and Erik Menendez and the popular ‘80s boy band Menudo.
The brothers were charged in the horrific slayings of their parents in 1996, after accusing their Hollywood executive father of horrifying treatment.
Now, decades later, a former member of the boy band speaks out about his traumatic encounter with the father—possibly verifying the brothers’ past allegations after all.
Richard J. Donovan, Wikimedia Commons
American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing
This 2023 docuseries takes a closer look into the domestic terror attack that left the entire country in complete shock after two brothers carefully orchestrated an explosion near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and leaving hundreds of others severely injured.
Featuring archival footage, personal accounts, and reenactments, this docuseries reveals details that will leave viewers questioning humanity.
Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal
It wasn’t until the bodies of Margaret Murdaugh and her 22-year-old son Paul were found in their hunting lodge in 2021 that their family’s history of corruption began to surface.
This 2023 docuseries focuses on the Murdaughs, South Carolina's well-known legal dynasty, whose members were tied to multiple slayings, financial fraud, and other alleged crimes.
Shortly after the series came out, one the family’s own was found guilty in Margaret and Paul’s horrific ends.
The Cinemart, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal
Waco: American Apocalypse
David Koresh, a self-proclaimed prophet, brainwashed a group of people living in Waco, Texas into believing the rapture was nearing and that they needed to ambush the U.S. government.
The group is notoriously known as the “Branch Davidians,” after their leader.
The three-part docuseries explores the events that led up to one of the most infamous police sieges in American history.
Stolen Youth: Inside The Cult At Sarah Lawrence
This incredibly dark documentary follows the disturbing case of Larry Ray—a man who lured his daughter’s college roommates into a disturbing cult that involved its members in various forms of coerced intimacy.
The film gets a closer look at the details of the cult using personal accounts and unseen footage from Ray and the survivors.
Djrobgordon, Wikimedia Commons
Madoff: The Monster Of Wall Street
This Netflix docuseries closely investigates the story behind Bernie Madoff—the man behind one of the most notorious Ponzi schemes on Wall Street, who cheated investors out of billions of dollars over a period spanning two decades.
As the mastermind of the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, Madoff got away with it for years before unintentionally admitting fault to his sons, who then turned him in to the FBI.
The series provides never-before-seen footage from interviews offering unsuspecting details of this massive organization.
I Am Vanessa Guillen
I Am Vanessa Guillen uncovers the details of Vanessa Guillen—a U.S. Army solder who was slain in 2020. Her death made national headlines after reports surfaced that she had been harassed and mistreated multiple times by a supervisor.
The documentary features interviews with Guillen’s family as they fight for answers to her untimely and horrific death, and also touches on the congressional “I am Vanessa Guillen Act,” which changed the way harassment and assault cases are investigated in the military.
Capturing The Killer Nurse
In 2003, Charles Cullen, an Intensive Care Unit nurse, confessed to killing at least 40 patients across various hospitals—and he almost got away with it.
The documentary gives an intriguing inside look at how investigators proved their case, using one of Cullen’s friends and coworkers as an undercover aid, and how—and why—many of Cullen’s employers overlooked suspicions that could have stopped him sooner.
Robin Ockleford, Capturing the Killer Nurse
Keep Sweet: Pray And Obey
This four-part docuseries chronicles the rise and fall of Warren Jeffs, the disgraced ex-president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who married as many as 78 wives, including 24 underage girls.
The polygamy-practicing group was involved in multiple disgusting crimes involving women and underage children, and overall mistreatment and brainwashing of its members.
Ark Media, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey
The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist
The Real Bling Ring highlights the infamous real-life burglaries of various celebrity homes in 2008 and 2009 by a group of privileged teens and young adults.
The film features interviews with original group members Alexis Haines and Nick Prugo as they reflect on what took them down the dark path that led them to ultimately stealing over $3 million in cash and goods, using celebrities like Paris Hilton—who was a repeat victim—as their personal ATM.
Channel 4, The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist
Ted Bundy: Falling For A Killer
This incredibly dark documentary provides a female perspective of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy’s attitude toward women.
Using archival footage, original photographs, and interviews and accounts from Bundy’s long-term girlfriend, Elizabeth Kendall, plus other survivors, this film emphasizes on the victims of Bundy’s heinous crimes.
Donn Dughi / State Archives of Florida, Wikimedia Commons
The Tinder Swindler
This 2022 docuseries tells the tale of Simon Leviev—who swindled roughly $10 million from various people around the world using the popular dating app Tinder to manipulate women into financially supporting his extravagant lifestyle.
The film uncovers how Leviev presented himself as the son of a Russian-Israeli diamond mogul to further his manipulative storyline, pretending to need the money to escape his “enemies".
Our Father
This truly shocking documentary starts with one woman’s at-home DNA test, which reveals she had multiple half-siblings—all with the same father.
We then find out that the biological “father” was former Indianapolis fertility doctor, Donald Cline, who inseminated dozens of unsuspecting patients with his own sperm, ultimately fathering over 90 children.
The film shares interviews with many of Cline’s victims, including some of the now-adult children, and the disturbing ways they found out who they were.
John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise
This docuseries offers an intriguing perspective, using John Wayne Gacy himself to tell his own horrific story of a once popular children’s party clown turned monster.
Gacy, who became known as the Killer Clown, shares grueling details about how he lured his victims to his home and convinced them to willingly put on handcuffs as a “magic trick,” and then did unspeakable things to them before burying them in his basement.
This documentary will surely send chills down your spine, and possible even make you feel sick to your stomach.
NBC, John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise
Athlete A
Athlete A uncovers the truth about former USA Gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar, who was accused of various forms of unsettling mistreatment of his clients.
The documentary focuses on survivor accounts, and how the USAG covered up Nassar’s abuse for years before it was finally uncovered.
Allen v. Farrow
Allen v. Farrow is a four-part docuseries that revisits the allegations of carnal mistreatment against American filmmaker, actor, and comedian Woody Allen, by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.
The series also documents his fallout with wife Mia Farrow, their unsettling custody trial, and his disturbing relationship with Mia’s daughter, Soon-Yi Previn—whom he married in 1997.
Colin Swan, CC BY-SA 2.0 , Wikimedia Commons
Sins Of Our Mother
Sins of Our Mother exposes the disturbing story of Lori Vallow—a once devoted mother, until she met her fifth husband Chad Daybell.
Daybell allegedly brainwashed Vallow with extreme doomsday beliefs, which ultimately led to the horrific slaying of two of Vallow’s young children.
This three-part docuseries uncovers the disturbing details leading up to the deaths, using interviews with family, friends, and personal accounts from Vallow’s surviving son.
Lightbox production, Sins of Our Mother
What Did We Miss?
With countless streaming services these days, there are dozens of documentaries that may appeal to true crime fans. We know this list doesn't include them all. Which ones did we miss?
Let us know your favorites in the comments, as we too, love to indulge in the mysterious world of true crime documentaries.
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