![]() Ten years after being imprisoned, he became a Christian and has become an international evangelist from his cell. ![]() One of the most notable things about Berkowitz is his conversion story. ![]() It relies on these cheap tricks so heavily that it neglects the genuinely interesting parts of the story. This type of entertainment fear mongering is meant to trick the viewer into being frightened, as though the story isn’t interesting enough on its own. What’s more, this city-wide condition is smoothed away after the Son of Sam was arrested, as if the arrest of this one man solved most of the city’s problems. It just isn’t fair to the viewers to cherry-pick the scariest details from this time. This wasn’t a documentary about a city’s complex history, so it’s understandable they didn’t include the ways New York thrived. This period of time was also one of the greatest eras in New York City’s art and literature world, the home of Andy Warhol, Susan Sontag, Annie Leibovitz and others. While it’s true that New York was in one of its most difficult eras, plagued by a recession, elevated crime and a blackout, it’s obviously more complex than just those things. It begins with an extremely reductionist scene-setting in 1970s New York, called “Fear City” for its crime rates and the possibility of looting or other danger. The documentary falls prey to the specific brand of cheap storytelling that has infiltrated true crime entertainment. ![]() (Not to mention the fact that many claim Terry formed several of his theories on misinformation about satanism and The Process Church of the Final Judgement.) The book may be a thrill to read - particularly as it fed into the “satanic panic” of the 1980s - but it’s ultimately convoluted and, for the most part, purely speculative. When he died in 2015, the documentary says, he was still hoping to expose the truth. His book “The Ultimate Evil,” published in 1988, describes all of his theories in full, hoping to expose an entire network of sexually deviant and criminal satanic cult worshipers. He insisted that the satanism Berkowitz took part in linked him to pagan worshipers across the country, even claiming the Son of Sam murders were connected to Charles Manson and “The Family.” His neighbors, John and Michael Carr, were suspected by Terry and implicated by Berkowitz, but both died before they were fully investigated.īut Terry’s theory goes beyond that. Berkowitz’s story has shifted some over the years - he initially claimed that his neighbors’ dog was possessed by Satan and commanded him to kill - but he’s admitted that he and others were involved in a satanic cult. To be clear, there’s little doubt that others were involved. After Berkowitz had confessed to these crimes and was imprisoned in 1978, writer Maury Terry believed he saw clues the NYPD was missing - clues that pointed to the involvement of others in these murders. It begins with the year-long shooting spree of the Son of Sam, which resulted in the deaths of six. Underneath that, it at least offers an interesting new angle on a familiar case. The documentary is difficult to watch, packed to the brim with convoluted tangents, cliché scares and an unsympathetic main character. The streaming platform’s latest stab at true crime content comes in a four-part documentary series about notorious New York serial killer David Berkowitz, known as “Son of Sam,” told from the perspective of a fanatic journalist who became obsessed with proving that the case was connected to an elaborate satanic cult. (REVIEW) Feeling a little low on cult conspiracy entertainment lately? Netflix’s “The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness” is the place to turn.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |