Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan

I haven't finished this series yet but it must be said... I'm DISTRACTED from the story being told by whomever is the locations manager for the interviews. These places are tight and off putting. I'm not interested in what's being said because I'm trying to understand who put this attorney in a bank vault? Or these doctors in RANDOM jail cell settings? Or a Church!? You're taken away from the story and distracted by the settings because of 1. The actual setting itself and horrible lighting 2. The way in which a camera is allowed to setup in that right setting. One doctor looked as though she was a hundred feet away stuffed between two grills!?! It's insane and TERRIBLE!

The story of Billy Milligan is fascinating, a serial rapist and habitual criminal, who had a unique defence, multiple personality disorder. The story is fascinating, if you have an interest in psychology, or indeed in films such as Split, there really is a fascinating story here.

My advice however would be to read the various texts published, as this production isn't good. This is the most over produced documentary series that you will ever see, the cutaways, made up footage, and interviews are all over the place, it is a jumbled mess.

Too many people are interviewed, and the information is all too sporadic, too chaotic, it makes it so difficult to follow and engage in.

There are some fascinating accounts, Billy's siblings are fascinating to hear, unfortunately the camera is zooming all over the place, and the music overtakes, which is a real shame.

A fascinating story, unfortunately it's an over produced mess, which is two episodes too long, 5/10.

Netflix trying to make a series out of a story that could be told in one episode.

The story of Billy Milligan was very interesting but horribly edited and over-edited. I thought this series spent too much time running the same clips over and over (the scene of Billy's Mother for example). The series, especially the last couple episodes, were too dragged out and the series could have easily been a lot shorter. I thought this series could have easily been wrapped up better in less episodes.

I'll put it this way - if someone was interested in Billy Milligan I would perhaps recommend them doing some research or watching some videos online before I would recommend this overproduced documentary.

Director Olivier Megaton, known for his overly stylistic film-making, offers a tiring, troublesome, and nauseating take on infamous criminal Billy Milligan, who was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. The material could have been a lot crisper - at most, a two-part documentary instead of four. There are too many interviews taking place at weird locations, a lot of shaky cam, flashy cuts, and a background score that rarely appears aligned with the stuff we're watching. I was left weary by the time the series ended, not caring what anybody had to say about Milligan - he could've been suffering from DID. Still, he committed some very heinous crimes (including rape and murder) that the justice system at the time was willing to be lenient on.

The first couple of episodes carry all the informational weight; the rest feel like random people giving random opinions on Milligan's cases and their aftermath. The interviews with Billy's siblings were clearly the most eye-opening amongst the lot. All the journalists, cops, attorneys, and mental health specialists seemed to take way too much time trying to opine what they believed in. This, in turn, sensationalized Billy's life and, in turn, lessened that of his victims' - the self-centered, narcissistic Billy (now dead) would have loved seeing this documentary himself. The popularity this guy got to the point of James Cameron deciding to make a film on him, alongside his escapades in Hollywood and Las Vegas, are downright ludicrous.

Director Megaton isn't the best choice for a subject like this. His is a very rapid, too-much-happening, cue-glitchy-transitions style of making that felt out of place. He seems fixated on how offbeat he can make the film look, much less on its core emotions. I had to take pauses while watching this - either the material became almost filler-like, or the horrible editing left my eyes sore. Netflix usually does a good-to-great job in the department of true crime content, but Monsters Inside isn't something that I'd recommend to anyone.