Recent years have seen Netflix diving deep into the world of true crime documentaries, with the streaming service having released the trailer for their latest series, The Confession Killer, chronicling Henry Lee Lucas. The serial killer is one of the most deadly in American history, claiming to have murdered hundreds of people, with the murderer’s story inspiring the film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, starring Michael Rooker. While a figure like Ted Bundy was known for using his looks to seduce and murder young women and John Wayne Gacy is famous for dressing up like a clown for his community, all while amassing victims that he would bury in his basement, Lucas’ claim to fame is merely the brutality of his crimes and staggering number of kills.
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During the early ’80s, Henry Lee Lucas confessed to hundreds of murders, bringing closure to unsolved cases and grieving families. Even with no direct evidence linking Lucas to the crime scenes, he stunned authorities with his ability to sketch victims’ portraits while citing brutal details of each attack. Yet journalists and attorneys found impossibilities in Lucas’ timeline, and DNA testing started to contradict his internationally-reported claims. The Confession Killer, a riveting five-part docuseries, explores how the man once called America’s most prolific serial killer was really a complex figure entangled with a flawed justice system. Directed by Oscar nominee Robert Kenner (FOOD, INC.) and Taki Oldham.
One of Netflix’s breakout hits in the realm of true crime came in 2015 with Making a Murderer, which explored the case of Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, who were jailed for the murder of Theresa Halbach. With this incarceration coming after Avery had already been jailed for 18 years for a crime he was proven not guilty of, the series didn’t merely claim to depict Avery and Dassey as being innocent of the murder, but rather explored the complications and shortcomings of our legal system.
In 2018, Netflix debuted The Staircase, depicting Michael Peterson’s trial for the murder of his wife, a series which first debuted in 2004 with the streaming service delivering audiences three new episodes about the event. This series also explored the failings of our legal system.
Earlier this year, Netflix delivered Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, a series utilizing actual recordings of Bundy, while also delivering us Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, a fictionalized depiction of Bundy’s crimes.
Check out The Confession Killer on Netflix on December 6th.
Will you be checking out the series? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
