- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: Jan 13, 2021
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Critic Reviews
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Ramirez’s crimes were narrated confusingly. There was too much about the hunters not enough about the hunted.
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Except for a curiously brief mention of an abusive childhood and an almost rhetorical question about the nature of evil, Night Stalker dispenses with any deeper study of Ramirez. By doing so, it also misses out on the chance to make a more memorable study of an unforgettable series of crimes.
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Where the series goes horribly, offensively awry is in the lurid packaging of the very solid interviews with the police, journalists, surviving victims, and families. Real crime-scene photos are used throughout the series, a choice that is profoundly upsetting but necessary to illustrate the animalistic horror.
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Night Stalker’s fundamental flaw is a lack of purpose. It’s too meretricious to qualify as a “serious” documentary – it doesn’t tell you all that much that a trawl through Wikipedia could not – but its subject matter is too dark and depraved to qualify as light entertainment. Leave aside the sinister tone and genre cliches, and you’re left with not all that much: no exploration of evil, just a rote itinerising of it.
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As an analysis of social madness, “Night Stalker,” directed by Tiller Russell, makes some interesting points; those, though, tend to be studded within a project that gives itself away to mania more frequently. Clogged with high-gloss but somewhat ludicrous footage, “Night Stalker” knows it’s about the deaths of innocents only inasmuch as that makes for a riveting story, but it lacks the seriousness of purpose to tell its story well. ... “Night Stalker” seeks to re-create a climate of nasty fear for no ultimate higher purpose than four hours of thrills and chills.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 17
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Mixed: 4 out of 17
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Negative: 1 out of 17
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Feb 7, 2022
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Nov 20, 2021Read the book after watching this documentary bare in mind it’s very graphic and shocking. RIP victims
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Feb 24, 2021