I don’t normally cover documentaries in Netflix Dumpster Dive. Usually I tend toward horror because they have the most potential for a decent popcorn flick. However, seeing as I’ve been away for almost a year, I figured it was time for an outlier on this series.

Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer (or just Night Stalker) is a four-part docuseries on Netflix following the rise, investigation, and arrest of Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker. Now, murder documentaries are a dime a dozen. There are TV channels devoted entirely to low-budget killer shows. What sets Night Stalker apart is it frames the narrative in a solid, entertaining format, and relies on the testimonies of the interviewees rather than droll commentary by the interview team.

Usually, I would cover acting and writing in a Dumpster Dive, but that’s obviously not as relevant to a documentary. What I can say is that Gil Carillo and Frank Salerno are both incredibly well-spoken and tell their stories in an evocative way, capturing both the facts and feelings of the investigation well. If they were not so charismatic, I don’t think this series would have been nearly as gripping.

It’s important to keep in mind this is a very real story, and graphic details are given and shown. This isn’t dramatization, this is something that happened, and it won’t be comfortable for some viewers to watch. If you want to learn this story in the best way possible from firsthand accounts, this docuseries is absolutely the way to go.

Thank you for tuning in, this was a shorter one as I’m getting back into the swing of things. In other good news, my fourth book and the final installment of Reyairan Spirits, The Blood of Greenwood, is now available on Kindle. You can find links to the series over in the Books page on this site. More Netflix Dumpster Dive and other content coming very soon.

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