If this isn’t one of the most disturbing true crime narratives to date, I don’t know what is. In 2020, police pulled over Reagan Simmons-Hancock for erratic driving, and what they saw was horror: Reagan in a state of distress, a fetus in her lap, umbilical cord attached. The truth starts to eke out at the hospital when we learn the baby was dead, followed by a scene in which an examining doctor unequivocally states that Reagan absolutely did not give birth to that child. The rest of the film details the story of a woman who charmed a lot of people, including her new boyfriend, making everyone believe she not only inherited millions of dollars, but that she was pregnant. Reagan’s elaborate ruse involved significant gaslighting, bomb threats, arson and, eventually, murder. Why? We can only guess.

Read More about Maternal Instinct

Watch Maternal Instinct on netflix

Enough to make you flinch at ducklip selfies even more than you already do, this story of a social media-obsessed teenager’s role in the auto-accident death of her boyfriend and a third passenger in her car prompts us to ponder the possibilities of sociopathy and questionable parenting. Mackenzie Shirilla was driving her Toyota at nearly 100 mph when she slammed into a brick wall — and ended up in prison for murder, after she soaked up all the attention and sympathy from the many people who assumed it was an accident, that nobody would ever do something so recklessly awful on purpose. Her mom and dad come off clueless; the doc leans heavy on Mackenzie’s social media posts as evidence of a narcissistic personality; and of course, whammo, there she is in the third act, being interviewed in prison, proclaiming her innocence. 

Read more about The crash

Watch The Crash on Netflix

Another day, another Craigslist-based nightmare. (Is “Craigslist crime” a tag yet?) In this case, it involved siccing a rape fetishist on a woman who absolutely did not share in the same sexufal fantasy. There are so many whopper twists in this saga of allegedly hateful exes concocting tangled schemes, it’ll make your head spin right off your neck bones, and summarizing them all here will bust my word count. Suffice to say, this is one of the rare true crimers that doesn’t need to manipulate the narrative, and just lets the story play out in its own distinctly bizarre linear fashion, with multiple not-right people playing the manipulation game via phony internet posts and another fake pregnancy. The yikes moments really start to pile up in this one.

Read more About A Toxic Love Story

Watch A Toxic Love Story on Netflix

Alex was two years old when his mother Rachel was murdered. He also was the only witness to the brutal stabbing and sexual assault. And what unfolds here is a saga of police being so desperate to get the guy who did it, they didn’t bother to ask if it was the right guy. This all happened in the early 1990s, when psychological profiling was the “hot” method of nailing murderers and serial killers, and the doc does the usual true crime thing and tries to blindside us with surprise third-act interviews that aren’t that surprising — but are still juicy enough to fascinate genre devotees.

Read more about The Murder of Rachel Nickell

Watch The Murder of Rachel Nickell on Netflix

Missing White Woman Syndrome: It was a thing in the pre-social media era, when cable news ruled the roost and offered nigh-endless coverage of crimes against Caucasian females — the upsetting implication being, of course, that crimes perpetrated against other demographics weren’t as sensational, ratings-worthy or, you know, important. This doc details one of the highest-profile missing persons cases in recent memory, with Smart herself sharing the harrowing story of how a self-proclaimed religious prophet and his wife abducted her, raping her and psychologically abusing her for months — and of course, saying his god told him to do it. She was 14 at the time, and the only witness to the kidnapping was Smart’s nine-year-old sister, who ultimately helped break open the case.

Read more about Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart

Watch Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart on Netflix

A whole pile of docs about Letby — a British neonatal nurse convicted of killing seven newborns — have been made, but this one stands out for controversially using AI to render some talking heads anonymous. Because blurring out faces and distorting voices apparently is too old school? We’re left wondering if the makers made this “creative decision” so their film could stand out and generate enough conversation to draw in viewers. Well, it worked, and the doc is among Netflix’s most-watched true crime movies of 2026. 

Watch the investigation of lucy letby on netflix

Utah’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the setting for the nasty story of Hildebrandt, who partnered with Ruby Franke on a YouTube channel offering therapy and counseling to the Mormon community. Well, they ended up shaming and isolating Franke’s husband, and torturing the Frankes’ two children for months, resulting in prison sentences and so many head-shaking utterances of the word “why.” This doc doesn’t get deep into the whys. but it has sex, religion, brainwashing, violence and all the icky stuff that audiences can’t look away from.

Read more about evil influencer: the jodi hildebrandt story

Watch evil influencer: the jodi hildebrandt story on netflix

That question mark in the title does some Hulkworthy heavy lifting, doesn’t it? The story of musician and former Empire actor Smollett was EVERYWHERE in 2019. He was attacked on the street during one cold Chicago night, and the politically- and racially-charged incident was the subject of rampant speculation as to whether he staged the incident as a publicity stunt. He was convicted of filing a false report, although that conviction was overturned on a technicality. The doc trots out police investigators who are convinced the incident was faked; it also sits Smollett down for his first interview since that crazy day, and he sticks to the story of him being a victim (and he also isn’t shy about trying to relaunch his derailed career). The truth remains elusive. To quote my own review: “Nothing is clear; everything is mud; perception is reality; everything is politics.”

read more about the truth about jussie smollett?

Watch the truth about jussie smollett on netflix

Police bodycams and interrogation-room cameras are the primary source of footage in this sad, sad story about the 2022 slaying of Akija Owens at the hands of her neighbor Susan Lorincz. This film, by Geeta Gandbhir, significantly transcends the usual chintzy exploitation of so many Netflix true crime documentaries with its journalistic rigor and distinct point-of-view, which essentially tells a tragic story through the lens of Florida’s controversial stand-your-ground law. The film was powerful enough to land an Oscar nomination for best documentary, and is easily the strongest true crime film in recent memory.

read more about the perfect neighbor

Watch The Perfect Neighbor on Netflix

In the summer of 2025, you couldn’t queue up for a latte without someone talking about the facepalming, head-shaking, deep-sighing blue whale of a third-act twist this doc drops. No spoilers, but, you know, WORST. MOTHER. EVER. Of course, this one was about as manipulative and sensationalist as this stuff gets. But Netflix surely loved all the water-cooler chatter it inspired — and the uber-mega-numbers it tallied, enough to nudge KPop Demon Hunters out of the spotlight for a week or two, a truly Herculean feat.

Read More about Unknown Number: The High School Catfish

Watch unknown number: the high school catfish on netflix

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.