Right on the heels of Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which has received criticism for its less-than-accurate portrayal of the story of the siblings, Netflix has announced a new documentary about the Menendez brothers. The documentary, which will feature interviews with both Lyle and Erik Menendez, is set to be released on October 7th.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of murdering their parents Kitty and José Menendez, on August 20, 1989. In the documentary lawyers involved in the trial, journalists who covered it, jurors, family, and observers, offer insight alongside Lyle and Erik Menendez. The documentary is directed by acclaimed Argentinian director Alejandro Hartmann (Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?, The Photographer: Murder in Pinamar).
On the fictional side of things, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story portrays Lyle and Erik Menedez in a sensationalist way, with the brothers being depicted as being in an incestuous relationship, which is given as one of the motives for them to kill their parents. The show, which is also on Netflix, went so viral that the real Erik Menendez recently called out the series’ veracity via his wife Tammi’s social media account.
“It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward — back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women. Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out,” Menendez said.
You can check out the trailer for The Menendez Brothers below: