A Dama do Silêncio: La Mataviejitas

Netflix goes back to its documentary drawing board, venturing out of the United States in search of riveting serial killer cases. This time, the setting is Mexico, and several elderly women are being strangled to death between the period of 1998 - 2006. The case presents its interesting details - the killer could be a woman? There's also the timely bias in the perception of transvestites and homosexuals. Even with multiple officers assigned to the cases, multiple composites to go by, and even a 3D bust of the killer shown extensively in news media and public spaces, the incompetence of the local police force to connect the dots and capture the killer is clearly evident. The government came up with silly solutions like the additional door lock and so on.

A couple of suspects are interrogated and even sentenced for the killings with no conclusive evidence. The actual killer is revealed only in the final 45 minutes. The story then takes a decisive turn, diving into the reasonings and the methods of execution. The killer profiling was correct, and the composites did look quite similar to the real person, yet how she got away with so many murders over the years while living a regular life with her family is shocking, to say the least. The piece could have easily been a bit crisper; however, due time is given to the victims' acquaintances and kin. That's always an appreciable aspect when it comes to documentaries like these. A suspect wrongly accused of the murders is still in jail - another confusing aspect overall (even if she was a burglar). The crime scene recreation (and capture of the suspect) are done with finesse, though the soundtrack could've been better.

Not bad very straight forward! Crazy on the motive tho she probly had it tough growing up wish they had more details about her younger years

Very sad for the loss of their grandmothers the years and amount of people that were killed were crazy.

Mexico had never seen a serial killer before, that topic was new to the authorities at the time made it very challenging to them to capture her.

Conclusion very good doc kept me very interested from the get go never was I drifted attention from it kept on getting more and more interested, I don't get the bad reviews this doc is better than 80% of the garbage that is shown on net !

I'm so sorry to the people who have lost loved ones and have to watch this "documentary" set to this terrible Agatha Christie movie-of-the-week score. Such a disrespectful treatment of your pain.

I gave it three stars SOLELY because giving it only one felt like it might be another slap in the face to the victims, somehow.

I gave up in under ten minutes. Another reviewer called in "pensive" and I have to respectful disagree. I think I'd go with "carnival style", myself.

Very interesting and well produced documentary. Although I agree that the background music can be annoying at times, this does not affect the final quality. The reproductions of the crime scenes and especially the capture of the killer were done with great finesse. Finally, I have seen other documentaries that deal with real crimes in Mexico and what stands out is the completely flawed justice system, it is not a Democratic State of Law, with respect to fundamental guarantees, which is regrettable. The duration is also a positive point, as there were no uninteresting parallel narratives, really focusing on what mattered, including in a very artistic way.

La Dama Del Silencio. El Caso Mataviejitas (or The Lady Of Silence for the English title) is a Spanish spoken documentary about one of the most famous female serial killers in Mexico. It's well made and informative so I don't get the one star reviews and ratings but everybody is entitled to their opinion. Like always with serial killers cases it's astonishing what kind of mistakes the police forces and investigators made. When you see that innocent people (well at least they're not murderers) are still rotting in jail you can only be ashamed that something like this is still possible in this era. Well it's Mexico so nothing surprises me from a country known for its corruption. Funny (that's sarcastically said) to hear a police officer say that they were surprised to have a serial killer in their country. Let's not forget Mexico is ranked thirteenth in the world for murder rate per capita. So allow me to feel slightly amused to hear such nonsense from a government official. Anyway, I thought this documentary was easy to follow and entertaining if you like true crime documentaries about serial killers.