Netflix is bringing you chills this Halloween with an Aileen Wuornos documentary
Halloween season on Netflix usually comes with a rush of horror films full of haunted houses and the usual dose of supernatural scares. But this year, Netflix has something else planned for its viewers.
The OTT seems to get into something even darker and far more real. On October 30th, just in time for spooky season, Netflix is bringing Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, a chilling new documentary that revisits one of America’s most infamous murder cases.
If you have ever heard the name Aileen Wuornos, it is most likely tied to Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning film Monster back in 2003. But Wuornos’ real story is far scarier than any Hollywood script. Between 1989 and 1990, she killed seven men across central Florida, a killing spree that shocked investigators not only for its brutality but also for the fact that the perpetrator was a woman.
Serial killers have long been painted with a certain profile in true crime culture. They are mostly methodical males who are detached from everything. But Wuornos did not fit. It’s like how Gen Z likes to say it: “Women in male-dominated fields”!
This new documentary is directed by Emily Turner and produced by BBC Studios in collaboration with NBC News Studios. It goes back nearly 40 years after those murders to peel back the layers of the life of Aileen Wuornos. It does not just list her crimes. It asks the bigger questions: how did a drifter living on the edges of society become a killer who shocked an entire state? Was she shaped by a lifetime of trauma and abandonment, or was she always capable of violence?
What makes Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers stand out is its accessibility. The film includes prison interviews with Wuornos herself. You will see raw, unsettling recordings that capture her voice and her perspective in a way that feels impossible to ignore. There are also powerful audio recollections from people who actually knew her, and bonus: archival footage from Dateline and veteran correspondent Michele Gillen. It feels less like a repurposing of old headlines and more like sitting in on a conversation about who she really was.
Over the years, the story of Aileen Wuornos has become shorthand in true crime stories, sparking books, films, and endless debates about her motives. Was she a cold-blooded predator or just a woman who was failed by society at every turn? The documentary does not promise easy answers, but that is exactly why it feels so haunting.
For Halloween watchers who are used to ghosts and ghouls, this documentary brings something far scarier: the reminder that real monsters sometimes look like ordinary people.
So if you are planning your Halloween binge, save room between the slasher marathons and haunted house specials. Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers might just be the darkest addition to your queue, and it is coming to Netflix on October 30th.