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It might seem contradictory that the rise of short video clip popularity coincided with the popularity of long form journalism, but Netflix may be the common factor. The streaming network didn’t invent true crime documentation, but it helped shape the style, and keeps a vast repository of the hottest cold cases.

Real-life crime stories are riveting, whether the watcher is concerned about avoiding such events or solving them. There is something for every taste, from feature-length documentaries to full series. Not all crimes are equal under the laws of public opinion, but these are some of the most dangerously addictive true crime offerings currently available on Netflix.

Making a Murderer (2015)

Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi’s 10-part documentary on Steven Avery catapulted Netflix to the top of the True Crime streaming game. Making a Murderer spurred the fascination with the genre more than any other series. Avery served 18 years...

Would you believe someone if they confessed to over 600 murders? Netflix is back with its true-crime content, this time taking on the very curious case of convicted murderer Henry Lee Lucas in the docuseries The Confession Killer. During his longest stint in prison, Lucas confessed to hundreds of murders, which, ironically, brought him preferential treatment in jail. But obviously, there have been reasonable doubts over Lucas's grand claims. So, how many people did history's allegedly most prolific murderer actually kill? The answer is probably much less.

Let's rewind to Lucas's first known murder. In 1960, Lucas, just 23 at the time, was arrested for killing his abusive mother during an argument. Despite claiming self-defense, he faced a 20- to 40-year sentence at Michigan State Penitentiary. In 1970, he was released from jail on parole due to prison overcrowding. Lucas returned to prison in Texas during the '80s after confessing to the murders...

Tony Sokol May 16, 2019

Joe Berlinger speaks about the human story behind his Ted Bundy feature Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile.

Ted Bundy was 32­ years ­old when he was sentenced to death in 1979 for the brutal murders of two Florida State Chi Omega sorority sisters, Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, as well as three attempted murder charges for Kathy Kleiner, Karen Chandler, and Cheryl Thomas. The trial marked the first time in American history cameras were allowed in a courtroom, and Bundy used that to orchestrate a media circus. Serving as his own counsel, Bundy charmed veteran judge Edward D. Cowart, who called the defendant “a bright young man” with the makings of “a good lawyer.” The judge changed his tune on sentencing, classifying Bundy's crimes as "extremely wicked, shockingly evil, and vile."

Director Joe Berlinger borrowed that classification for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which we caught up...

Zac Efron‘s take on serial killer Ted Bundy is likely heading to Netflix.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming service is “closing in” on a deal to buy Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, a drama film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and stars Efron, 31, as the notorious serial killer. A source told the outlet that the deal could be worth $9 million.

Though an official release date has not been announced, THR added that Netflix is looking at giving the film a theatrical release in the fall, in order to spur its Oscar chances.

Extremely Wicked,...

"Why didn't he kill her?" When it comes to Ted Bundy, you can ask that horrifying question when it comes to three women.  Netflix's new docuseries Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes provides viewers with intimate and chilling conversations between the infamous serial killer and journalists Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, who visited Ted in jail and recorded more than 150 hours of their taped interviews.  During their conversations, Ted, who still maintained his innocence at the time the interviews were recorded in 1989, often reflected on his past relationships and history with women. "It wasn't that I disliked women or were afraid of them,"...

Director Joe Berlinger hopes viewers have one take-away from his new Ted Bundy film, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile: that killers are not guys who come out of the shadows with long teeth and blood dripping off their chins; they are three-dimensional human beings. Whether his film sends that message is the cause of debate out of Sundance.

We sat down with Berlinger to discuss his psychological well-being after spending years with Bundy and his crimes, both for the film and his Netflix show Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. We also discussed why Bundy’s double life included going to law school and how the killer kicked off the era of dubious men using mass media to build fanatical supporters.

The Film Stage: What do you think it’s done to your own psyche to spend this many years with Ted Bundy and his crimes?...

“I’m not an animal. I’m not crazy. I’m just a normal individual,” Ted Bundy says in a snippet of an interview at the beginning of the new Netflix documentary series Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. Of course, as one of the most notorious serial rapists and killers in U.S. history, Bundy’s self-assessment is beyond suspect. But these sorts of statements make for fascinating television, even when it seems like every channel that used to survive off sappy movies or reality TV is...

The title “Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,” Netflix’s new four-part documentary series launching Jan. 24, is slightly misleading. Not about its subject, Bundy, the infamous serial killer who finally confessed to some 30 murders before his 1989 death in the electric chair. The misnomer is “Conversations.” While we hear Bundy’s voice on tape, it’s narrating a looping mélange of hypothetical reality and fact, pseudo-philosophy and angry denial. His conversation partners can hardly get through to a man so lost inside his own mind. That fundamental fact — the degree to which Bundy is at best an unpleasant companion through four long episodes, and at worst repellent — makes “Conversations With a Killer” a must only for true-crime completists.

There’s an achievement here, if a dubious one: The series surfaces tapes not previously heard by the public, a sample of some 100 hours of interviews conducted by two journalists working together on a book.

Thirty years after his death, Ted Bundy is telling his story. In Netflix's Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, viewers will get new insight to the psyche of the notorious serial killer thanks to interviews. Directed and executive produced by Joe Berlinger, the four-part series is inspired by the book of the same name (written by Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth) and utilizes more than 100 hours of exclusive audio interviews the two writers conducted with Bundy on death row in 1980. See the trailer below. "Murder leaving a person of this type hungry…unfulfilled…would also leave him with the obviously irrational belief that the next time he did it, he would be...