Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers

From the opening scenes to the closing credits I couldn't help thinking to myself 'What is the Point?".

Netflix continues it's marathon of releasing exploitive documentaries on well known, primarily American Serial Killers, adding little to no information that wasn't readily available to the general public in the first place. It gives Netflix it's high viewing ratings and they will not stop anytime soon.

But heres my problem with Aileen: Queen of the serial killers. There is no actual point to this or any benefit. Is it better than 45 minute episodes you get on most true crime series, arguably so, only because they rush over every detail. But this is a documentary where your hearing words from a disillusioned woman who will literally say anything as long as your listening. And she's talking to reporters and interviewers who feed that ego because it feeds their egos of filling a headline regardless of any truth.

Aileen's motives are well known in modern age, but your never going to hear that from her mouth, why because she's a evil serial killer. As per Netflix docs the victims are nothing but numbers. The documentary almost forgets they were in fact human men, husbands and sons. The producers of this care more about her lesbian relationship than they do the men she killed.

If your watching to learn anything about the psyche of Aileen, then don't bother. If anything, watch the Nick broomfield documentaries on her, at least he asked her relevant questions instead of letting her go off on a tandem at every given chance.

If you are a fan of true crime, it may be worth a watch just to see clips that you possibly never have seen before including her initial arrest. I myself, have not seen a lot of these clips they aired so maybe possibly they have previously been withheld.

The doc does bring up at least one relevant question pertaining to a fair trial and why the criminal history of one of her victims was not deemed relevant in court. As evil as she is, I still agree everyone should have a fair trial. However, the documentary doesn't lean too much on facts, and the smallest bit of research tells you she committed crimes, not because she was a victim but likely for financial gain.

But end of the day, it's just netflix again making money from the perpetrators of horric crimes adding nothing new of substance.

One of America's most unique serial killers, Aileen Wuornos, has been the subject of several documentaries, but this one's a little bit different.

I've seen a few documentaries made about Aileen, and this one tells her story from an entirely different point of view. I enjoyed it; it's very interesting, and you'll hear some fascinating input, particularly the judge's story, which was shocking.

Aileen clearly had an incredibly tough early life; it's apparent that she had mental health issues, very likely as a result of years of abuse. One thing I have to highlight is that we're given an almost sympathetic viewpoint of Aileen.

For most of this documentary, we're led to believe that Aileen was justified in killing those seven men; it's only in the latter stages that she admits what had actually happened.

I'm not quite sure the loved ones of the murder victims would look upon her with such a sympathetic eye; she murdered seven people, and there's no justification for that.

Just remember, a filmmaker is giving you their take on Aileen's story.

7/10.

Pull up her Wikipedia page while watching this documentary, and you'll see how wickedly one sided it is. Whilst it's a strong champion against violence against women - it becomes painfully clear halfway through that this documentary was never meant to unveil the fair truth.

There is a reason they only focus one the first murder, and never talk about her youth (which included dozens of cases of assault, on her husband and innocent bystanders) car theft and so much more.

Not to mention the other murders which seem to be quite cold blooded, with a former child abuse investigator shot dead and another whose body was never found.

The documentary fails to explore both sides of the story, which would've made for a much better story to be honest. Her character and backstory is so fascinating that it's almost insulting the documentary fails to tell it properly.

From a technical level, the story is told through old footage and interviews which do give a nice candid glimpse into the 90s.

4/10.

To be sure, this isn't the most Earth-shatrering documentary. Much of the footage is derived from previously-aired interviews and news specials on the eponymous convicted killer created several years ago (think 90's and early 2000's). Moreover, much of the "home movie" footage contained therein is similarly lackluster in that very little of it seems to be of Aileen and/or her family, (but of unrelated people and places splashed across the screen during voice-over sequences instead).

No, there's not much new here for the eyes. The film's novelty pertains more to its themes surrounding the additive, compounding effects of trauma and abuse, as well as the narratives and injustices only visible after 3+ decades of retrospective analysis. Such important, highly relevant themes may be hard for victims of crime to stomach. Still, their lessons must be shared. Until we create more inclusive, compassionate, and egalitarian social conditions, such gut-churning, difficult-to-understand personalities will surely be created again, and we'll be forced to ask ourselves once more: Does capital punishment really help anyone?

This is an art project. It has some great old footage but so disjointed it's hard to follow at times. Doesn't distinguish between actual footage and just filler. For example there's videos of a child whilst talking about Aileen but doesn't say if her but didn't look like child in photo that was her. Half of this is about the film maker. Just came across as very pretentious insertion of themselves. It's an important aspect of Aileen that gets lost but it's so one sided it ends up doing her a disservice. It's not objective, it is one woman's subjective view and experience with Aileen. Maybe if marketed differently this wouldn't have bugged so much.