True-crime documentaries and series make for some of the scariest documentaries on Netflix. Crime is one of the most popular genres on the streaming platform. This genre has an audience that has only been growing over time. Crime documentaries dig deeper into the headspace of criminals in the world. Some of these people have committed the most brutal crimes the world has seen. Scary documentaries on Netflix include a wide range of such movies and shows.
Serial killer documentaries make for some of the eeriest content across the globe, while other less gory documentaries that follow the ways of cults and swindlers are now growing in popularity. Tinder Swindler and Wild Wild Country are some distant studies on crime, while Unsolved Mysteries and Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel are two from the list of scariest documentaries on Netflix.
Girl in the Picture
Girl in the Picture tells a strange tale of a young woman, Tonya, who died in a road accident. Her son was soon abducted after her death. This created suspicions and triggered an in-depth investigation. The investigation soon uncovered that the woman was Sharon Marshall, whose parents believed she had been dead for years now. A much larger truth about a federal fugitive made things even more interesting.
Girl in the Picture was released on Netflix on July 6, 2022.
Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries doesn’t limit itself to crime specifically but yet makes it into the list of scary documentaries on Netflix merely because of the uncanny nature of events that it covers. From the grief of separation to the horrors of the other world, the show explores all kinds of stories that remain unexplained and mysterious. The series also asks some important questions that leave viewers pondering after every episode.
Unsolved Mysteries was released on Netflix in 2020.
American Murder: The Family Next Door
What makes American Murder: The Family Next Door as scary as it is, is the possibility of crime finding its way into any family. The film tells the story of the Watts Family Murders, a case that shook the country. It is a found-footage style documentary. This keeps the suspense up and creates an eerie atmosphere that is sure to creep viewers out. Unlike most scary documentaries on Netflix, the film only reveals details of the case as the crime progresses and is frightening in both plot and narrative.
The documentary was released on Netflix in September 2020.
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
The first season of Crime Scene explores the circumstances surrounding the death of Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel. Although several critics commented that the documentary sensationalizes a tragic true story, The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel manages to remain one of the most popular and scary docuseries on the platform. It dramatizes the events preceding and following the crime and still remains true to its genre of a docuseries.
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel comprises 4 episodes and was released on Netflix in February 2021.
The Ripper
Jack the Ripper is arguably one of the most prolific serial killers in the world and also one of the earliest. This also made Jack the Ripper’s copycats widely common, with Peter Sutcliffe being one of them. Sutcliffe murdered 13 women between 1975 and 1985. He was then named the Yorkshire Ripper and was sentenced to twenty consecutive terms of lifetime imprisonment.
The Ripper documents the details of Sutcliffe’s crimes and the investigation that followed. The documentary was released on Netflix in December 2020.
