Netflix's Monsters is "killer porn" at its worst. It comes at a cost to real victims

Are we products of nature or nurture?

That’s the age-old question at the heart of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s new Netflix release, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story. The show focuses on the 1989 murders of José and Kitty Menéndez by their sons Erik and Lyle.

The prosecution convinced the jury that the two brothers were cold-blooded killers, driven by a desire to gain access to their parents’ wealth. The brothers, meanwhile, say they were victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents – and say the killings were therefore in self-defense.

What is the truth? Maybe both.

Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny play the roles of the parents, José and Kitty. Netflix

Create the image of a “monster”

The details of the case are well known. In fact, I taught this case to my own criminology students as an example of the overlap between victim and offender, because it is clear that these brothers existed in a very dysfunctional family.

On August 20, 1989, brothers Lyle (then 21) and Erik (then 18) shot their parents to death in their Beverly Hills mansion. They faced two trials. The first, in 1993, saw the brothers tried separately and ended in two hung juries and a mistrial.

In the second trial, which began in 1995, the two men were tried together. In 1996, they were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Interestingly, the prosecution raised further objections to the admission of a large amount of exculpatory evidence during the second trial, so the judge consequently excluded much of the abuse evidence.

This essentially destroyed the brothers’ entire defense, which rested on the fact that they killed their parents out of fear, after threatening to report their father for severe and prolonged physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

At their second trial, Erik and Lyle were convicted of murdering their parents and sentenced to life without parole. Netflix

The Netflix series has sparked significant controversy. It documents one version of the events leading up to the murders, including detailed stories of Lyle and Erik’s sexual abuse, as well as the crimes themselves and subsequent trials.

In the series, the brothers are depicted in a homoerotic and incestuous manner. For context, in 1995, Lyle testified that he had sexually offended Erik, but this was in the context of alleged sexual abuse by their father.

Monsters, on the other hand, shows the brothers having an incestuous relationship as adults. The brothers deny this and there is little evidence to support it.

While the couple is sometimes painted in a sympathetic light, at other times the viewer is left wondering if greed was their true motivation.

Erik Menéndez criticized the series, saying it revisits decades of understanding of the devastating impacts of sexual abuse on male victims.

I have to agree.

The brothers didn’t just kill their parents and end their activities. These murders were incredibly brutal. As a criminologist, I felt like they were trying to to erase their parents.

José was shot in the back of the head, execution style, while Kitty was shot ten times in total, including one shot directly in the face. Such crimes are generally not motivated by money; they tend to be motivated by something much deeper.

After their parents died, the Menéndez brothers appeared to spend their inheritance extravagantly – a point that later helped bolster the prosecutor’s case against them. Netflix

The worst murder porn

This case can be seen through the grisly eyes of “murder porn.” The first trial, televised in 1993, went viral on TikTok in 2021, engaging a new generation of fans.

Looking back at footage from the 1990s, some of us will remember the legions of screaming girls who welcomed handsome brothers to court. It looked more like a scene from a boy band concert than a brutal double murder trial.

Whether you think the brothers are cold-blooded, opportunistic killers, or victims of serious child abuse, will influence your views on continued interest in the case and representation in Monsters.

Ari Graynor plays Leslie Abramson, the lawyer who represented Erik in both trials. Netflix

Monsters isn’t the first example of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan cheapening real tragedies by turning them into voyeuristic, fictionalized television.

The first installment of the same series focused on Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer and sex offender who killed 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Dahmer also indulged in necrophilia and cannibalism, so his brutal crimes were constituted rich fodder for Netflix.

Dahmer’s victims have been openly critical, saying that telling the offender’s story eased the suffering of their loved ones and revictimized them by opening old wounds.

Regardless, Dahmer has received critical acclaim with 13 nominations for the 2023 Emmy Awards, no doubt sparking excitement among creators to further develop the franchise.

The way forward

The path to a true ethical portrayal of crime is to establish the facts and move away from the embellishment or glorification of the criminal or his crimes.

Ideally, true crime should be victim-focused and serve a purpose beyond entertainment. We have much to learn from criminal histories, but these stories should be told in an educational way that respects and honors the lives of victims.

While the real Menéndez family was dysfunctional, their portrayal in Monsters can only be considered sensational. Netflix

We each have a responsibility to consume ethically produced true crime. Whether it’s TV series, films, podcasts or books, we vote for what we want through our engagement. My maxim is to choose content that reflects how I would like my story to be told, if I ever became the center of a real crime production.

If you’re curious to know more about the story of the Menéndez brothers, a new Netflix documentary called The Menéndez Brothers is set to be released on October 7. Both Erik and Lyle contributed to it through phone interviews conducted from prison — and they say there’s a lot that hasn’t been said.