The harrowing retelling of infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer through Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has captured the eyes and ears of many people throughout the United States. In the ten-episode limited series, which began streaming on September 21, 2022, viewers follow along as Dahmer slowly falls into a corrupt and twisted persona, shaping him into a cold and calculated murderous madman. Just like how the real-life events unfolded, Prospect Films (the makers behind Scream Queens and The Politician) thankfully brings the dramatized saga to the same conclusion. Dahmer’s sinister actions finally catch up to him, and he is ultimately detained by police officers.
The series instantly became a massive success, with Monster entering the top ten of most streamed programs in a single week ever recorded by Nielsen TV ratings. Not only that, but the episodic production soon became the second most-watched English language series of all time on Netflix. On November 7, two more Monster seasons were announced, with each one highlighting a different societal menace. With the criminal exploitation subgenre exploding in popularity all due to this overnight success on Netflix, it seems HBO Max has decided to join in on the fun with their own unique documentary that puts the spotlight on evil in our society.
On November 3, 2022, a three-part crime documentary series called Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty premiered on the streaming platform. As the name suggests, the in-depth explorative trilogy explores the real-life, high-profile Murdaugh family that resides in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina.
The Murdaughs' Deadly Boat Incident
Among other upstanding achievements that seem to place them on the right side of the law publicly, three individuals from the family had the generational privilege of being able to hold the seat of district attorney for the five-county district in which they reside. Not only that, but the Murdaughs also founded a national civil litigation law firm that specializes in personal injury.
As anyone can see, the family’s first and foremost responsibility was always to hold their place in communal rankings. But as the documentary shows, beneath all the seemingly good-willed control and influence that naturally comes with being in such a position, the Murdaugh family has also been taking advantage of this power and using it for their own selfish means.
But what begins as a late-night boating escapade between Paul Murdaugh and friends and their respective girlfriends turns into a drunk and deadly scene as the underage, intoxicated Paul chaotically speeds the boat straight into one of the underlying columns of Archers Creek Bridge. This boating accident cost friend Anthony Cook’s girlfriend, Mallory Beach, her life as she went missing that night. They finally found the deceased Beach the following month, five miles from the scene of the accident, and Paul Murdaugh came out of the investigation with little to no legal punishment.
Not Loyal to the Lowcountry
The Lowcountry documentary sets off to drive a fine-toothed comb through this singular incident as well as other surrounding criminal-related events that propel the once well-respected and sometimes feared Murdaugh family into their final demise. In no specific order, these include an arranged suicide plot to obtain a massive amount of insurance money, stealing from the deceased, very gruesome killings of additional Murdaugh family members, and, to top it all off, a mystery regarding a dead body that was discovered in the middle of the road in the same county in which the Murdaughs reside.
Using both candid interviews from friends of the Murdaughs and from the families that were directly involved with the numerous police investigations, as well as surveillance camera footage and recorded emergency calls, all the aforementioned criminal events are intelligently explained and connected, thus linking them all back to the simple financial unraveling from the 2019 boating incident.
The three-piece saga about the Murdaugh family, which is filled with twists and turns until the very end, was created by Campfire Studios. This premier production company is based out of Los Angeles, California. With over 15 years in the entertainment industry and overseeing the progress of over forty different documentary-style series, president and CEO Ross M. Dinerstein has helped to bring numerous titles to release, like Scream: The True Story, which is now streaming on Discovery Plus and the explosive WeWork: Or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn which was released on Hulu in April 2021.
For those hardcore fans of the documentary genre that are looking for a classic, Campfire Studios also hosts Jiro Dreams of Sushi. This fan-favorite film explores an older gentleman’s love for crafting the perfect fish delicacy.
If you have HBO Max and are looking for your next real-life crime anthology fix after binge-watching all of the Jeffrey Dahmer series on Netflix, look no further than Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty. In this story, the monster is not just one person but an entire family.