HBO Max wants to give you your true crime fix this winter
Hot on the heels of The Vow comes two new true crime documentaries from HBO Max, who appear to grasp just how comforting stories of real-life brutality are for a spiraling populace.
Alex Gibney, who dropped COVID documentary Totally Under Control earlier this month, will release Crazy, Not Insane in mid-November. The documentary, narrated by Laura Dern, explores the psychology of murder via psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, who spoke with and studied serial killers like Ted Bundy in an effort to answer that age-old question: What makes killers kill?
Watch the trailer below:
Premiering just a few days before it is Murder On Middle Beach, a four-part series in which young filmmaker Madison Hamburg tries to peel back the mysteries of his own mother’s murder. In the process, he speaks with members of his shaken family, unpacks a mysterious pyramid scheme, and apparently wears a wire.
Watch the trailer below:
Murder On Middle Beach drops its first episode on November 15. Crazy, Not Insane arrives a few days later on November 18.
HBO’s got more crime-focused documentaries on the way, too. Beginning with Crazy, Not Insane, HBO will release a new documentary every Wednesday for five weeks. Topics touch snake handlers, a monstrous fertility doctor, and the enduring oddity that is the case of hijacker DB Cooper.
Check out the official synopses and release dates for each of the films below:
The Mystery Of DB Cooper (November 25), directed by John Dower, explores the only unsolved airplane hijacking in U.S. history, which continues to inspire wild speculation about the identity of the hijacker almost fifty years later. This investigative film explores the many different theories surrounding the case, bringing to life the stories of four people believed by their family and friends to be “DB Cooper,” the man who hijacked a 727, jumped from the plane over Washington State with a parachute and $200,000, never to be heard from again.
Baby God (December 2), directed by Hannah Olson and executive produced by Academy Award nominees Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, is a shocking examination into Las Vegas fertility specialist, Dr. Quincy Fortier, who assisted hundreds of couples struggling with conceiving. Decades later, many children born from his interventions discover through DNA and genealogical websites, that Dr. Fortier had used his own sperm to impregnate their mothers without their knowledge or consent, provoking a troubling reckoning with the nature of genetic inheritance, the meaning of family and the dilemma of revealing painful secrets. An official selection of SXSW 2020.
Alabama Snake (December 9), produced and directed by Theo Love, produced by Bryan Storkel and written by Theo Love and Bryan Storkel, explores the story of Glenn Summerford, a Pentecostal minister, accused of attempting to murder his wife with a rattlesnake in the sleepy town of Scottsboro, Alabama. The details of the investigation and the trial that followed has haunted his family and community for decades. The documentary features local Appalachian historian and folklorist, Dr. Thomas Burton, who has spent his life studying the culture, beliefs, and folklore of Pentecostal snake handlers, painting a Southern Gothic portrait of Glenn Summerford and his tale of demon possession.
The Art Of Political Murder (December 16), is directed by Paul Taylor, produced by Teddy Leifer and Regina K. Scully and executive produced by Academy Award winners George Clooney and Grant Heslov and is based on Francisco Goldman’s award-winning book of the same name. The film tells the story of the 1998 murder of Guatemalan human rights activist Bishop Juan Gerardi, which stunned a country ravaged by decades of political violence. The documentary highlights the team of young investigators who take on the case and begin to unearth a web of conspiracy and corruption, entangling the highest levels of government in their pursuit of the truth.