5 most disturbing documentaries on Netflix

Netflix seems to have perfected the art of making disturbing, harrowing documentaries. With ones like The Tinder Swindler to Worst Roommate Ever, the streamer has inculcated a growing interest in true crime and other scary events.

Based on various events in the world, Netflix has released several documentaries and series to uphold the cases, starting from incorporating real-life investigatory footage, interviews and more. Riveting and compelling, these documentaries also serve as an eye-opener, providing us with an insight into the perverse depravity of the human condition. 

Gruesome, abhorrent and shocking, these true-crime stories are usually unsolved and stem from the brutal acts committed by notorious serial killers. Often heartbreaking, they are inconclusive and make us think and often spiral into a realm of melancholy.

Here are the five most disturbing documentaries on Netflix:

5 most disturbing documentaries on Netflix

Our Father (Lucie Jourdan, 2022)

This harrowing documentary is pretty difficult to watch as it revolves around a woman who stumbles upon a grisly discovery. She realises her mother, and other similar women were impregnated by a fertility doctor without their knowledge or consent. The doctor inseminated them with his sperm instead of their husbands’ or chosen donors’.

The woman finds 94 other half-siblings and counting as the documentary narrates the disturbing fact that the doctor’s activities were not even considered illegal back then. It paints a devastating picture of the failure of the justice system and the oppressive violation of consent by male power structures.

Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story (Rowan Deacon, 2022)

Jimmy Savile was known to be one of the most popular TV show hosts in the UK. The comedian and TV personality was revered for his brilliant contribution to the charities. Jimmy Savile had received the knighthood. Jimmy Savile was known for his eccentricity and boisterous nature. Jimmy Savile was also known for being one of the most prolific sexual abusers and predators. 

To talk about the harrowing life events of this distinguished paedophile, Netflix exposes his predatory behaviour as Savile creepily says, “I help the lassies” and the terrifying sexual abuser he was.

Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror (Choi Jin-sung, 2022)

A devastating and horrifying digital crime that was fuelled by digital anonymity, the feature-length documentary details the infamous case of cybercrime in South Korea where police officials managed to track a network of online sexual offenders in an online chat room called “Nth Room”.

A tale of rampant coercion, non-consent and manipulation, the documentary highlights the sexual exploitation that was carried on by sex criminals under the guise of anonymity. It exposes the dark and terrifying reality one lives in and the crimes they are prone to by being active on the Internet.

Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (Mark Lewis, 2019)

The documentary entails the twisted and disturbing story of Luke Magnotta, who posts gruesome videos of him suffocating kittens which spark wild anger all over the internet. Soon enough, a horde of cyber-vigilantes set their sights on tracking him down.

Grisly yet engrossing, the documentary deals with issues ranging from homicide to animal abuse. It provides a close insight into the psyche of a deranged criminal while focusing on the various atrocious crimes that happen on the internet almost daily. Intriguing and terrifying, the docu-series may leave you cheering the Internet sleuths for their bravery that helped nab this abominable man.

The Keepers (Ryan White, 2017)

Based on the infamous and unsolved 1969 homicide case of a nun named Catherine Cesnik, the documentary helps uncover the horrifying secrets that plagued the institution and the agony that her death left behind decades later. 

This gut-wrenching documentary sheds important light on the muted child abuse that goes on behind closed doors everywhere, especially in Catholic institutions. The depravity of the human mind and the false constructs set up by religious institutions are exposed. Although the seven-part series was considered an outcry against Catholicism, White cleared all claims by saying how he wanted to use the film as means to understand the horrors of child abuse that are covered up on a daily basis.