The opening scene of the new Netflix documentary Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers is freaky because Aileen Wuornos comes across as so personable. The film, which is available to stream now with a Netflix subscription, is just the latest serial killer-based content to drop on the streamer. Wuornos’ story is well-known, especially after Charlize Theron won an Oscar for playing the killer in 2003’s Monster. Still, I realized something I never had before about Wuornos, and it’s disturbing in a way that the other interviews with serial killers I’ve watched weren’t.
Wuornos Is So Cheery In The Interviews
Something I didn’t remember from Monster is how cheery Wuornos could be. I’ve watched a lot of the Netflix series Conversations of a Killer (probably too much), and in those interviews, it’s never hard to see through the facade that serial killers like John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and “The Son of Sam” David Berkowitz. The evil of those men is never far beneath the surface. Wuornos is different. She doesn’t seem as cold-blooded, even though she clearly was as terrible as any other serial killer. She does show that other side at times in the documentary.
Throughout the interview, she is affable, engaged and, frankly, not threatening. Perhaps it’s because she is the rare example of a female serial killer, but she doesn’t have the same menace behind her voice as her male counterparts. Theron, who is brilliant in Monster, played her with an amount of menace I didn’t get from Wuormos’ interviews in Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers. She has the same lack of remorse as other killers, but it’s presented in a totally different, less scary way, and that makes it even more disturbing to me.
Netflix Is Really Leaning Into Serial Killers
Like many people, I am fascinated by serial killers. I don’t know why I am, or why anyone is, honestly. I think in my case, it’s because the dark side of human nature is so foreign to me. I’m generally a trusting and positive person, so learning about the other side of the human psyche is interesting. Netflix has clearly recognized that people can’t get enough content about people like Wuornos.
There is the Monster drama series from Ryan Murphy that has most recently covered Ed Gein and previously covered Jeffrey Dahmer. Mindhunter, one of the best shows of the last 10 years, was a hit on Netflix as well, and the portrayals of killers like Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton) and Charles Manson (Damon Herriman) are especially chilling. Could we please get a Season 3 of Mindhunter? The aforementioned Conversations with a Killer series is both enlightening and scary.
Though some of my favorite movies on the 2025 movie schedule are horror movies, I’m not really a “horror movie guy.” I seem to prefer getting scared by real-life horrors. I don’t know what that says about me, but I’m sure I’ll keep watching shows and movies like Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers.