"Angel Maker: Serial Killer Queen" is a documentary about the mother of all child killers, Amelia Dyer. During the same period in British history as Jack The Ripper and Sherlock Holmes novels, Amelia disguised her sinister motives under the guise of nurturing do- gooder. She took in the infants and toddlers of destitute, and single mothers in need and set out to methodically murder each one.
"Angel Maker" is a chilling and heart-wrenching true story of a very evil and possibly criminally insane woman during a period of history that seemed ideal breeding grounds for the serial killer, insane mind. The documentary manages to tell that story with haunting, and macabre conviction to the crimes of child murdering in an emotionally effective manner. The soundtrack is an instrumental row of depressed melodies that give the piece, and especially the suffrage of these tiny victims, some real depth of sorrow. The narrator is as somber and monotone as you would expect and need to give this thing a respective, non-sensationalized level of respect. He, along with the soundtrack makes it very clear and concise that Amelia Dyer was a monster and not a legend to be held with the same macabre fascination as say Lizzie Borden.
The downside and gripe that I have with "Angel Maker: Serial Killer Queen" is the lack of actual material that surrounded her case or life. No pictures, crime scene photos, news paper stuff, nothing. The whole thing seemed filled with public domain clips from film and photographs of generic moments from the the time period. True it does set the tone and atmosphere of the society and quality of life that gave rise to this horror, but not one real, recognizable slice of Amelia Dyer or her actual life is visual in here. Strip away the material that is just about that period in history or a generalization of the people and environment and you may have 30 minutes of material. So I am on the fence. It tells Amelia's stories but no more than an audio book could do. It is like a "half-made" documentary. ( ? )
