The Greatest Menendez Brothers Documentaries To Watch After Netflix’s Monsters

This text accommodates discussions of sexual assault.

Ryan Murphy’s newest entry in his “Monsters” anthology sequence, “The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” — a sequence which started in 2022 with Evan Peters as notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer — focuses on Erik and Lyle Menendez (Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez), two brothers accused and subsequently convicted of killing their mother and father José and Kitty Menendez (Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny) within the late Eighties. Unsurprisingly, it is already courting controversy the best way Murphy portrays the siblings and their household dynamic. 

This occurred with the “Monster” season specializing in Dahmer as effectively, with family members of the real-life killer’s victims saying the sequence “retraumatized” them and kind of glamorized Dahmer himself, so it isn’t totally stunning that Murphy’s usually sensational method to actual tales is making waves once more. Adapting a real crime story is completely a tough factor to do, however nonetheless, audiences who watched “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” would possibly need to look into the actual story and watch a extra grounded model of this actually astounding story.

Fortunately, there are a handful of documentaries that characteristic interviews with individuals near the Menendez household — and even one which options Erik himself –  that pair completely with “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” Listed below are three you must try, however remember that they are fairly disturbing.

“Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” a three-part docuseries that launched on Peacock in 2023, provides extraordinarily disturbing new data to the Menendez case which hyperlinks on to the boy band Menudo (the Puerto Rican boy band that shaped in 1977). Within the real-life case, each Menendez brothers claimed that their mother and father sexually and bodily abused them, which might clarify why they killed José and Kitty, and on this docuseries, one other sufferer alleges that José was a predator.

Roy Rosselló, who was part of the boy band Menudo from 1983 to 1986, claims within the documentary that he was sexually assaulted by each José and the group’s supervisor Edgardo Díaz, even alleging that there was some form of deal between Díaz and the Menendez patriarch that allowed each of them to abuse him. Rosselló additional claims that José assaulted him within the Menendez household residence, which, if true, would lend credence to the abuse allegations that Erik and Lyle have at all times offered to defend their actions.

There isn’t any query that “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” provides a brand new and horrifying layer to this complete story, and it additionally presents damning data concerning Díaz. As Chris Vognar wrote in his overview for Rolling Stone, “‘Menendez + Menudo’ works greatest as a damning temporary towards Díaz and a tradition of complicity.” The docuseries is offered on Peacock.

Initially broadcast on ABC, “Reality and Lies: The Menendez Brothers” options an entire host of interviews with individuals near the actual Menendez household, together with neighbors and mates, and it additionally makes use of residence movies and pictures to attempt to uncover the total story. Moreover, the documentary provides audiences the possibility to listen to from the brothers themselves, and as yet one more warning about content material, each brothers say that they have been repeatedly sexually abused by their mother and father — and Lyle additionally says that he absed Erik in flip.

Alongside the brothers, childhood mates of Lyle and Erik share upsetting reminiscences — together with Erik’s childhood pal Craig Cignarelli, who says that Erik as soon as penned a screenplay a couple of boy murdering his mother and father to gather insurance coverage cash — and Kitty Menendez’s brother Brian Anderson, who strenuously denies among the boys’ claims about sexual abuse. “Reality and Lies: The Menendez Brothers” does admittedly characteristic a number of conflicting accounts about what actually occurred, however the truth that it speaks to individuals who knew the Menendez household does provide some perception, and it is obtainable to observe on AppleTV+.

In 2017, A&E launched a docuseries titled “The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All,” which took a really totally different and particular method to the Menendez case: It put Erik heart stage, giving him an opportunity to inform his personal story and clarify why he and his brother killed their mother and father. The youthful of the 2 brothers, who was simply 18 when he dedicated the crime, goes into severe and horrifying element concerning the abuse he says he suffered by the hands of his mother and father, significantly his father José, and says that his mom was experiencing a psychological decline that allowed José to abuse each of his sons below her nostril.

“The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All” additionally speaks to household mates, family members, and regulation enforcement officers, however it’s fascinating to present Erik the principle viewpoint on this documentary and listen to from the younger killer in his personal phrases. (Once more, Erik does not mince phrases concerning the specifics of his abuse, so if you happen to’re delicate to the subject, this explicit doc is a really, very tough watch.) “The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All” is offered to observe on Amazon Prime, and it spans 5 episodes in whole.

For those who or anybody you understand has been a sufferer of sexual assault, assist is offered. Go to the Rape, Abuse & Incest Nationwide Community web site or contact RAINN’s Nationwide Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).