Looking for interesting and mysterious true crime documentaries? You’re in for a treat! We provide you with a list of the top 15 best true crime documentaries that every true crime fan will thoroughly enjoy. Take a look at the list below for all the gory details!
Top 15 Best True Crime Documentaries To Watch
1. Abducted in Plain Sight (2017)
- IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 65%
The 2017 film “Abducted in Plain Sight,” which was created by Skye Borgman, centers on the horrifying abductions of Jan Broberg Felt. Jan was kidnapped by her next-door neighbor Robert Berchtold twice in the 1970s. The specifics discussed in the video, which is based on Jan’s memoir “Stolen Innocence,” vary from the puzzling to the horrifying.
It’s a tale built on unwholesome obsession, deceit, and disgusting behavior that affected an entire family. The Brobergs’ naiveté astounded many viewers and observers, but like with most actual crimes, it is true – even though we wish it weren’t.
2. Mommy Dead and Dearest (2017)
- IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 86%
Since Michelle Dean wrote about Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard for BuzzFeed in 2016, the tragic tale of the couple has gained widespread attention. In their story, a kind mother cared for her sick daughter’s every need. However, when Dee Dee ended up dead from a stabbing, it was discovered that she had made up Gypsy’s various diseases, like epilepsy, paralysis, and leukemia. Gypsy was the one who organized the murder.
The killing of Dee Dee Blanchard, for which her daughter Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Gypsy’s lover Nicholas Godejohn were charged, is the subject of this American documentary film made by Erin Lee Carr.
3. Our Father (2022)
- IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 63%
The horrifying real story of Dr. Donald Cline, an Indiana-based fertility doctor who employed his own sperm to inseminate several of his patients all through the 1970s and 1980s, is told in Netflix’s Our Father. However, Cline didn’t tell any of his patients that he was their sperm donor and kept this information a secret. The horrific tale is tracked by Netflix, including the revelation by one individual that they potentially have up to 90 half-siblings.
Several of Cline’s genetically related offspring are interviewed in the movie, such as Jacoba Ballard, who had an adult DNA test and learned she had seven half-siblings. She is introduced quite early on, and as the movie progresses, her siblings become more prominent. It is discovered that there are at least 94 Cline relatives in the end. The documentary did not include Cline in any of the interviews.
4. Amanda Knox (2016)
- IMDb Rating: 6.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 71%
We can reasonably presume that the majority of viewers of “Amanda Knox” probably yelled at the screen for large periods of the film. After her roommate Meredith Kercher was killed, Amanda Knox, who was abroad studying, was held responsible. Knox’s arrest received a lot of media attention and was reported by Italian media without any context.
She had a monster-like portrayal. The documentary shows her four years in an Italian jail before the Supreme Court of Cassation cleared her of all charges. In addition to being a horrifying real account of a sad murder, it also illustrates how risky the court of public opinion can indeed be.
5. Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. (2022)
- IMDb Rating: 5.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 31%
“Bad Vegan” is a hard-to-believe but completely factual documentary series that began a long time ago with good intentions and proclaimed purity. It is a bizarre, dark narrative involving extensive cons, fraudulent identities, intricate frauds, and even a supernatural aspect. When Sarma Melngailis was in charge of Pure Food and Wine in New York City, all of the menu items were absolutely free of meat and animal products and organic. Then Melngailis married Shane Fox after falling in love with him, bringing him into the company.
He wasn’t really an inquisitive businessman with a passion for sustainable, healthy living, though. In reality, he was a con artist by the name of Anthony Strangis who, by some means, persuaded his wife to transfer millions of dollars from Pure Food and Wine’s funds into his personal accounts on the pretense that he could use the money to persuade mystical forces to grant her dog eternal life.
6. American Murder: The Family Next Door (2020)
- IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 77%
The most horrible atrocities can occasionally take place right before our eyes without us realizing it, well—not until it’s too late. The tale of the Watts family killings is revealed via the use of archival family film, text messages, and law enforcement records.
The documentary doesn’t disclose Chris Watts, the father, as having committed the killings until the second part of the movie in order to maintain a dramatic pacing. It’s a chilling look at how even in quiet suburbia, families can splinter apart and the most horrible acts may happen. The Watts narrative is presented in this movie as more than just a criminal tale. It is a well-crafted and undeniably skilled movie about marriage, the deceit of social media, and a searing analysis of domestic abuse. The documentary, however, isn’t interested in delving into Chris Watts’ persona, mythologizing him, or looking for hidden motivations behind his actions.
7. Beware the Slenderman (2016)
- IMDb Rating: 6.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 52%
The legend of Slenderman, a faceless digital age bogeyman, originated online, but the effect was felt when two 12-year-old girls led their classmate into the woods for a gruesome murder. Slenderman, who originated on several forums in the 2010s, spread like wildfire as a representation of homegrown online terror. Sadly, the tragic tale of Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser will always be entwined with his legacy. The pair stabbed their buddy Payton Leutner 19 times before abandoning her in the woods to die, as is seen in the documentary.
The two were tried and found guilty of their crimes as adults despite their young age in the documentary second half. It’s an interesting and depressing look at both the sad incident and the emergence of the Slenderman legend. The movie uses a variety of Slender Man-related YouTube videos, particularly material from Marble Hornets and Tribe Twelve. Additionally, it incorporates images from the video games Slender: The Eight Pages and Minecraft.
8. Audrie & Daisy (2016)
- IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 73%
The tragic tale of teens Daisy Coleman and Audrie Pott is told in “Audrie & Daisy.” The documentary examines the widespread cyberbullying and the abuse the girls experienced in the wake of their sexual assaults and the ensuing police investigations. “Audrie & Daisy” stands out as a vital viewing in this day and age where reports of cyberbullying, internet harassment, and doxxing are increasing in number and becoming prevalent in real life. The movie made its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, although it would have wide distribution on Netflix later that year.
9. Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story (2020)
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 50%
Cyntoia Brown was given a life sentence in 2006 after being found guilty of aggravated robbery and first-degree murder. The 16-year-old Brown who shot and killed 43-year-old Johnny Allen after he paid her $150 for sex claimed to be a victim of sex trafficking and that she had acted in self-defense. She then completed 15 years of a life sentence in jail before getting clemency in 2019.
Celebrities and activists began to take an interest in Brown’s case, with Long claiming that a life sentence was an excessive penalty for an individual who committed a crime while still a teenager and given the circumstances that Brown-Long was then going through. Celebrities like Cara Delevigne, Kim Kardashian West, Ashley Judd, and Rihanna advocated for her release in 2017. After receiving mercy from then-Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam in January 2019, Brown-Long was freed from jail in August.
10. Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes (2022)
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 83%
With this Netflix production, documentarian Joe Berlinger explores the mind of a serial murderer in an effort to learn more about how a seemingly ordinary person can carry out heinous crimes.
This project centers on Jeffrey Dahmer, a Milwaukee killer and cannibal who was apprehended in the early 1990s when a possible victim ran away and guided authorities to an apartment containing human remains.
There isn’t much anybody can do to understand Dahmer’s intentions because he was subsequently murdered in jail except than reviewing the facts and speaking with the attorneys, detectives, and journalists who investigated, uncovered, and prosecuted the Dahmer case. The system itself is also under review in “Conversations with a Killer,” which explores how Dahmer was capable of getting away with his crimes for such a long time.
11. The Girl in the Picture (2022)
- IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 82%
The real crime documentary on Netflix explores the tale of Suzanne Sevakis, a 20-year-old woman who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in 1990. The Girl in the Picture investigates the truth about Suzanne, from her kidnapping as a young girl by a wanted person to the life she was made to live afterward. The Girl in the Picture, a horrifying true story that is understandably difficult to see, seeks justice for Suzanne and her son Michael Anthony Hughes and speaks with friends and relatives about what actually transpired.
If you watch it, you will likely lose trust in humanity since it is such a horrible narrative. Nevertheless, the girl’s achievement in receiving a full scholarship to a prestigious engineering program in the face of such bullying was commendable. Society let her down. She could have been rescued if someone had stepped in at some time, interfered, asked the correct questions, and talked to the police.
12. Finding Kendrick Johnson (2021)
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 71%
In 2013, the body of Lowndes High School student Kendrick Johnson was discovered underneath a rolled-up gym mat. A sharp examination of the peculiar circumstances surrounding Kendrick’s death is provided in the documentary made by director Jason Pollock and his colleagues. It provides a vivid portrayal of Kendrick’s personality before his untimely passing through interviews with his family and friends.
The movie also depicts the ensuing cover-up, which serves as a sobering reminder of how biased and prejudiced the legal system can be. It tells the narrative of Kendrick’s family’s struggle to bring Kendrick some measure of justice, which may regrettably never happen. Although the documentary Finding Kendrick Johnson may not have the answers to why he died, it appears that its altruistic goal is to give the Johnson family some comfort in the midst of their ongoing legal nightmare.
13. Sophie: A Murder in West Cork (2021)
- IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 69%
The tragic account of French TV producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier, who was killed on December 23, 1996, in front of her holiday house in Ireland, is told in the film. This documentary reconstructs what could have occurred to the 39-year-old mother-of-one whose terrible murder rocked the neighborhood. In Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, the investigation into a terrifying homicide that has gone unsolved for a long time includes questioning potential suspects and looking into odd circumstances about the crime site.
John Dower produced this film trilogy with the support and assistance of Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s family. The movie features interviews with former inhabitants of Schull, most of whom are still living there now despite how drastically the community has changed since they left.
14. I Love You, Now Die (2019)
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 86%
The two-part documentary “I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter” focuses on Conrad Roy’s passing. The documentary, which is divided between “The Prosecution” and “The Defense,” goes into great depth regarding how Michelle Carter’s texts affected Roy’s death. The documentary never excuses Michelle’s behavior and instead provides details on her mental condition rather than completely portraying her as a monster.
Although it’s not particularly enjoyable to watch, it offers a compelling glimpse into a terrible and difficult scenario in which there were no real winners. The documentary, which is directed by Erin Lee Carr—the same person behind “Mommy Dead and Dearest”—takes no prisoners when confronting a very unpleasant issue.
15. Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist (2022)
- IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes AUDIENCE SCORE: 74%
Manti Te’o, a Hawaiian linebacker, and the catfish who endangered his reputation and NFL career are the subjects of the film ”The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist”. Te’o sadly lost both his fiancée and grandma in 2012 on the same day. But it quickly became clear that Te’o’s girlfriend was a fake. The truth is that a catfish was actually hiding behind the persona, as revealed in this compelling Netflix documentary.
