For those repulsed by Monster: The Ed Gein Story‘s silly attempt to make people understand, sympathize with, and even care for the notorious serial killer, Netflix has a far superior alternative this Halloween season. From executive producer James Wan (Saw), True Haunting is a five-part anthology series that chronicles real-life supernatural encounters with harrowing documentary interviews combined with dramatic reenactments.
Between the veracity of the interviewees recounting their horrific experiences and the unsettling atmospherics of the reenactments, the series does a fairly effective job of putting viewers in the subject’s shoes and transporting them to an infamous haunt. Unlike the absurd irresponsibility of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, True Haunting makes viewers root for the victims, not the perpetrators. While far from perfect, horror fans would be wise to skip Monster and cue up True Haunting.
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‘True Haunting’ Presents Two Real-Life Paranormal Encounters
Released on Netflix on October 7, 2025, True Haunting is a horror anthology series that blends compelling documentary interviews with well-crafted dramatic reenactments. With horror maestro James Wan overseeing the project, the show remains focused on chronicling two distinct instances of paranormal activity. The first takes viewers to the State University of New York at Geneseo in the fall of 1984, where an avid jogger named Chris DiCesare resides in the ominously-named Erie Hall dormitory.
When Chris begins experiencing haunting visions and waking nightmares, he is afraid to tell anyone but his closest friends. The documentary immerses viewers in Chris’s harrowing account by talking to his old friends in the present day. Far from just anecdotal evidence, Chris’s friend Jeff Ungar was an avid photographer in college and captured terrifying pictures in the 1980s to support their stories. As the real-life subjects recount their experiences in words in a classic interview format, the series depicts what they describe through vivid, well-made visual reenactments with actors.
While some have claimed the reenactments are too drawn out, they become scarier and more believable as they progress. The “Erie Hall” encounter lasts three episodes, with the finale earning the highest IMDb rating (7.8) as it reveals a shocking connection to Chris’s ancestors that is hard to deny.
The second case (final two episodes), “This House Murdered Me,” traces the young pregnant couple, April and Matt, moving into an idyllic Victorian mansion, where their child’s innocent imaginary friend turns out to be a haunting apparition. Without spoiling the ending of each case, True Haunting is a much more absorbing, unsettling, and ideal TV series to watch this Halloween than Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
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‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ Continues Netflix’s Disturbing Trend
Ever since David Fincher made Mindhunter for Netflix, there has been a disturbing trend to get inside the minds of the world’s most notorious, vile serial killers to find out what makes them tick. Under the guise of establishing the FBI’s criminal profiling in the 1970s, Season 1 made viewers spend way too much time with the odious Ed Kemper, a serial murderer who does not warrant a lick of sympathy or understanding. Not just Kemper, but also the BTK Killer (Dennis Rader), Richard Speck, Jerry Brudos, Montie Rissell, and other evil monsters who do not warrant anyone’s attention in the 21st century.
Yet, the more these types of shows are produced, the more effort is made to justify the unfathomable, explain the unthinkable, and make viewers care more about the criminals than their victims. These shows sensationalize and often glorify the actions of real-life killers in some impossible effort to make viewers grasp the why of it all. Of course, nobody can ever understand what goes through the diseased mind of a killer, nor should they want to, and it’s high time TV shows stop playing armchair psychologist.
When David Fincher made the excellent Zodiac, he did not make the audience identify with the real-life Zodiac killer. He focused on the dogged investigation that led to the exposure of key suspects. When Spike Lee made the underrated Summer of Sam, he didn’t attempt to understand David Berkowitz’s ungraspable motives; he focused on the atmosphere of fear and paranoia that defined the summer of 1977. Yet, with Mindhunter and now Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the disturbing trend of making viewers side with or sympathize with the killers has gone too far.
As such, it’s no surprise that critics eviscerated The Ed Gein Story. After spotlighting Jeffrey Dahmer in Season 1 (57% RT rating) and the Menendez brothers in Season 2 (45% RT rating), the third season holds a pathetic 20% Rotten Tomatoes rating, despite being the most-watched TV show in the U.S. With such popularity, the trend isn’t ending anytime soon, with Season 4 reported to spotlight Lizzie Borden.
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Why You Should Skip ‘Monster’ and Watch ‘True Haunting’ Instead
For hardcore horror fans looking for a spooky endeavor this Halloween season, bypass Monster: The Ed Gein Story and give True Haunting a chance. The combination of real-life accounts from the victims in 2025 and the immersive reenactments set in the past to illustrate their supernatural encounters is truly effective and unnerving. In addition to Wan, credit goes to director Neil Rawles (“Erie Hall”), who has been mastering the docudrama format for years in TV series such as American Monster, Paranormal Witness, and several others.
As for “This House Murdered Me,” director Luke Watson uses experience on The Swarm, Midsomer Murders, and Ripper Street to bring April and Matt’s terrifying tale to life. Thanks to the high production values and solid performances by the young, relatively unknown cast, the horror anthology reenactments are far scarier than anything The Ed Gein Story has to offer. The physical evidence provided by the key witnesses from the past only makes their stories more believable.
Moreover, “Erie Hall” and “This House Murdered Me” make viewers care for, sympathize with, and feel genuine compassion for the real-life victims, rather than understanding the incomprehensible motives of the perpetrators. It scares audiences for the right reasons, allowing them to experience and appreciate the frightening ordeal that Chris, April, and Matt went through.
It’s also worth showing patience with True Haunting. Many of the poor user reviews come from viewers who turned off “Erie Hall” before it was finished, claiming it was too protracted. However, everything comes together in the third episode, with bizarre coincidences tracing back to Chris’s family tree in ways sure to tingle spines and cause goose bumps. True Haunting is available to stream on Netflix.
- Release Date
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October 7, 2025
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Neil Rawles
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Wyatt Dorion
Chris DiCesare
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Liz Rockwell Chartrand
Maude
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Rhys Alexander Phillips
Jeff Ungar
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Makenna Pickersgill
Linda
