John Wayne Gacy: Autoportrait d'un tueur

A concise and well put together documentary on John Gacy, focusing on the investigators and putting a positive highlight on the victims. The interviews were relevant and good use of archival footage.

I'm extremely tired of Netflix documentaries being edited like thriller movies, while basically leaving out just how horrible the actions and consequences of the scumbags committing them are. More focus on the mythic characters of the killers than anything else. Not much about the true sickening impact it has had on people.

This was a good exception. Great interviews with people involved, well edited (even the time jumping), probably as detailed as it can get in this format, and a lot of focus on the victims. Gacy is not painted as the mythic clown (pun intended) people see him as, he is just documented as the peace of garbage that he was. This is probably the best John Wayne Gacy documentary i've seen. Well done!

Joe Berlinger's back with yet another serial killer documentary, this time centered around the ruthless John Wayne Gacy. I was afraid he'd waste time focusing on Gacy being a "killer clown" when, in fact, he wasn't - he simply was evil personified! The manner in which he elaborates how he treated his victims and the horrifying aura of feeling powerful from doing such acts is something that's really tough to digest as a viewer. The second episode considerably slows things down, with too many back-and-forth jumps in timelines. However, the third and final episode wraps things up nicely, and seeing the victims' pictures will make any viewer feel a lump in their throat. This is especially the case when you hear Gacy's voiceover proclaiming that society can kill him only once when he's killed 33 times, followed by laughter that sends chills down your spine.

I'm a true crime junkie and of course have seen most documentaries on Gacy. This one though, I hadn't heard any of these audio clips before and it really shows the evil of the man. In most footage and interviews Gacy had a mask on. These tapes are something else though. There is one point in episode three where he laughs and if it doesn't send a chill up your spine, nothing will. Probably the best Netflix documentary series I've watched so far.

The coverage was great and the events reconstructed in depth but I feel it wasn't as shocking as it should've been. I've watched the episodes about Ted Bundy from the same creators and I remember feeling disgusted and upset about the way he killed and tortured his victims. Now, I know there are certain things you can't say on tv but in a 3 hours documentary not once it was mentioned (they never dared to even say the word) what he did to his victims before he killed them. There were really slight allusions to tortures in the last minutes but overall it made it seem like he "just" killed his underage victims and it's just not acceptable that a documentary about a "man" like Gacy tries to sugarcoat his crimes. I'm not saying it should've contained gory descriptions and details to the point it becomes morbid and in no way I am one of those sickos who like hearing about stuff like that, but to me these documentaries should be about raising awareness and turning the general public's interest away from this type of individuals; they're doing the opposite, and if Netflix wants to turn serial killers into easily digestible mass-consumable entertainment it should stick to its shows about imaginary ones.