Television series
The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story
A cold case murder in rural Louisiana gets a second look in 2009 when witnesses claim the victim's ghost is demanding justice. This HBO series weaves a true-crime investigation with local folklore, ancestry, and community trauma, exploring how violence echoes across generations in the bayou. It's for people who love their mysteries murky and their histories haunted.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love true-crime investigations that take local folklore seriously, where the search for facts keeps brushing against something unexplained and you enjoy sitting with that unease.
Skip it if you need a clear throughline, since the material sprawls across many families, rumours and old crimes, and the mood stays bleak throughout.
What it asks of you: Three episodes of roughly 47 minutes each, unhurried and heavy with interviews, so give it your full attention rather than playing it in the background.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Making a Murderer2015
Meticulous documentary series that reopens a closed case and questions whether justice was actually served. Builds reasonable doubt through archival evidence and expert analysis, drawing you into the investigator's obsession.
But Nearly twenty hours long, and some viewers feel it editorializes too heavily in favour of the accused. Requires patience and emotional investment.
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst2015
Six-part true-crime series following a real estate heir's involvement in multiple disappearances and murders. Gripping, methodical, and features an extraordinary final episode that genuinely shocked viewers.
But Relies heavily on Durst's own interviews, which can feel manipulative. Some find the pacing slow in the middle episodes.
The Devil in the White City
Limited series about a serial killer operating during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, intercut with the fair's construction. Features the same weaving of history, architecture, and buried evil that defines your premise.
But Splits focus between the fair's grandeur and the murders, which can feel unfocused. Some find the pacing uneven between the two narratives.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer2021
A structural ancestor: both treat the supernatural as investigable fact rather than metaphor, and both ask whether the rational mind can account for what communities actually believe they've witnessed.
Obscure 1970s series about a journalist investigating the paranormal in a weekly anthology format. Each episode is a perfectly constructed mystery blending procedural investigation with genuine creepiness. Predate The X-Files and holds up remarkably.
But Seventies production values and pacing feel distant to modern viewers. No overarching mythology; each hour stands alone, so there's no binge momentum.
More like this (4)
MINDHUNTER2017
FBI agents develop criminal profiling by interviewing imprisoned serial killers. Methodical, intelligent, tense without relying on jump scares. Reveals how investigation itself shapes what we believe about crime.
But Cancelled after two seasons on a cliffhanger. Slow-burn procedural that prioritizes talk over action; not for viewers who need constant momentum.
Spotlight2015
A team of journalists methodically uncovers systemic abuse and cover-up in the Catholic Church. Elegant investigation-driven narrative that shows how the truth emerges through patience, collaboration, and buried documents.
But Quiet, deliberately paced film. Lacks dramatic confrontation or clear villains; some find it too restrained for the weight of its subject.
The Staircase2022
A man is accused of murdering his wife at the top of their staircase. HBO's limited series uses courtroom drama, forensic evidence, and family interviews to ask whether the truth can be known. Gripping and genuinely unpredictable.
But Some feel the editing favours the defendant. Later episodes shift focus in ways that derail narrative momentum.
In the Flesh2013
Both use the supernatural—restless dead, haunting—as the surface narrative for what's really a story about a community's collective crime and the impossibility of moving forward until reckoning happens.
British limited series set in a village where the undead are being rehabilitated and reintegrated. What begins as zombie-genre premise becomes a meditation on community guilt, the violence embedded in normalcy, and how the past refuses to stay buried.
But Genre trappings may feel silly if you're skeptical of the premise. Cancelled after two seasons; the ending is ambiguous and unresolved.
People
Production
- James MarshExecutive Producer
- Jonathan ChinnExecutive Producer
- Lisa HellerExecutive Producer
- Nancy AbrahamExecutive Producer
- Silvia SaccoExecutive Producer
- Simon ChinnExecutive Producer
- Suzanne LaveryExecutive Producer
- Tina NguyenExecutive Producer