Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer (2021)

EERIE DOCU-SERIES DETAILING

THE HAVOC OF A MADMAN

The series chronicles the hunt for the madman that night-stalked around in the L.A state including the greater Area of Los Angeles and San Francisco during the mid-80s. The home invasion was his crime, and he terrorized the whole community. As he went on a killing-ramp, destroying life with serial-killing, raping, kidnapping, being a pedophile and a burglar. Richard Ramirez, who becomes identified in the final and fourth episode doesn’t show remorse as he blames on satanism beliefs.

It details thorough with the investigation, showing the perpetrator’s impact on the citizens. It features detailed and engaging interviews with the investigators like Sheriffs Gil Carrilo and Frank Salerno who were working for the Homicide Bureau in LA County Besides that, producers have a lot of other people involved to set the whole narrative of the wave of havoc and terror this madman caused.  Even if it just four episodes, it clarifies and deepens the agony further Ramirez created.

The music and the cinematography generally sweep the audience into a dark, twisted true crime as we follow the police pursuit of the killer. It truly captures the magnitude on an unprecedented scale of what Ramirez did. The crimes with graphic contents with a new fresh examination from the perspective of the investigators. However, the producers take an effort to re-stage the crime scenes in how Ramirez would have done it. It has a lot of audio effects, but I don’t distract the viewer from the content. The series has a good flow and shows the aftermath of the trial for his crimes. This odd madman shows his resentment of humankind and Netflix portrays him in that way as well through archived materials and interviews.

The narrative is good, capturing the whole spectra of the killer’s nightmarish tour around the Los Angeles County, how he stayed away from people and the story evolves organically despite the short runtime. This is appreciated and easy to follow as an avid viewer. If you as a viewer is in search of a killer-documentary, this might not be it. It has an investigative format the producers have an approach to. Not many details are further on revealed on Ramirez psyche, which is a shame beside the satanism and the pentagrams. It’s a disturbing mini-series for dedicated true crime fanatics and it keeps you engaged through the series, from beginning to end. It might only be 3 hours to watch, but it’s so worth it.