Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer on Netflix has viewers horrified

This one gave viewers “Night” terrors.

Audiences were undoubtedly anticipating some on-screen blood when Netflix announced it was making a docuseries on serial killer Richard Ramirez, who stalked Los Angeles in the 1980s. However, the content depicted in the Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer was so graphic that even seasoned true-crime fans had to shut it off.

The harrowing four-part show, which dropped earlier today, details the life of Ramirez, who was convicted of 13 murders, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries in 1989.
 

Despite its disturbing subject matter, social-media watchdogs were nonetheless shocked at the grisly crime scene photos and bloody re-enactments that included a close-up shot of a knife sticking out of a body, and blood falling in slow motion.

“Watching the new Netflix Night Stalker series. No need for them to include the victim crime scene photos, and slo-mo blood splatter shots, it’s not necessary,” wrote one appalled viewer of the docuseries’ lurid imagery.

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Another tweeted, “Not sure if I can get through all of #NightStalker on Netflix. This is tough viewing.”

Even calloused viewers found the gore a bit gratuitous. One commented that even though they “don’t scare easily,” they wouldn’t recommend the police procedural “unless you have a very thick skin for true crime”.

Other Twitter users thought the series glorified Ramirez without honouring the victims (a common critique of how killers are covered in the media).

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In media circles, Medium writer Eric Langberg thought the visuals amounted to violence porn while Indiewire writer Ann Donahue deemed the re-enactments “cheesy B-movie grade visuals” that undercut the serious subject matter.

Despite the goresploitative depictions, some viewers couldn’t look away.

“I love True Crime docs but even I’m finding this one extremely dark & twisted,” wrote one. “Impossible to stop watching though!”

This article originally appeared on Page Six and was reproduced with permission