Customer Reviews

America's Serial Killers: Portraits in Evil

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

...and it was worth every penny. You only get what you pay for, right?

The 5-star reviews and the 1-star reviews for those are both a joke, it's not terrible and it's CERTAINLY not perfect. You just kind of have to ask yourself why you plan on watching this. If you're looking for new insight into the mind of serial killers, there is nothing new to see or hear here. If you're looking for plenty of videos of the killers being interviewed or appearances in court or old news reels or whatever... well, there's SOME of that, but for the most part it's mainly clips that are available on youtube with narration over top. If you're looking for a look at a lot of obscure killers and not just the big names, well, honestly there are a few here or there that I was surprised about (I rarely see Albert Fish get mentioned elsewhere, and there were a few killer couples on the "buddies" segment that hardly ever get talked about).

If you're looking for high production values, sorry! While everything is competently-filmed and -edited, the creators of this made the mistake of interviewing the same 2 or 3 people for the entire 7 1/2 hours. So, if you don't like 1 of them (or all of them), you're out of luck... get used to seeing 'em over and over again! Also, if you're looking for something comprehensive, forget it. Did it even MENTION the Manson Family killing Sharon Tate?! Either I fell asleep for that brief part or they just skimmed right over it and started talking about the media's role in the Manson case.

The narration is great; don't let the other reviewers fool you, and the narrator himself doesn't do the voices of the killers, they have separate people doing the voices, and it works just fine. The soundtrack is amazing if you care about that when watching a documentary. The whole thing held my interest with no problem, even though I knew all of this stuff. There actually were a few tidbits here or there that I'd never heard before, and I've read plenty of true crime books and watch truTV/CourtTV religiously.

One nitpick: Every single disc starts with the same 3 minute "title sequence", with a reenactment of a fat cowboy getting shot and clips of Hitler and such. The same exact 3 minute title sequence. While it's easy to skip past, it was extremely annoying. Oh, and as for "showing clips of old movies", yeah, they do that on the first couple of segments, but it's not like they could have shown ACTUAL CLIPS from the late 1800s, now could they?

I enjoyed this thing for what it is, and I think it actually probably would be a good introduction to people just getting into serial killers, especially for $5. I will say, disc 2 is WAY better than disc 1. So, 5 stars for the price if you can get it cheap, 2 stars of the production values, 3 stars of the content... 3 stars overall.

Yes, I bought it at Walmart for five bucks too. Which I thought was a bargain price even if it didn't turn out to be all that good. I was wrong. This collection is not even worth that much.

I literally cried through the whole thing. Either because the voice-over was so terribly hilarious, or because of all the innacuracies that were presented as utter truth. This whole DVD comes off as something smashed together by someone who has only done the slightest bit of surface research on the subject matter and then padded the whole thing with vaguely related clips. Such was the case with H. H. Holmes. The only media to be found are some pictures and news-clippings, no movie was made about his killings. So what is used when focusing on him? Clips from an old movie that might have been what meeting the man was like?

Skip this one. It's not a good introduction to the subject matter, it's not a good representation of the history of it. You're better off keeping that 8 or 5 bucks and treating yourself to lunch.

I did not get it from Walmart, I actually got it from Best Buy for about twice as much, and I regret each of those nine hundred and ninety nine cents. Two stars may be a bit too much for this "production".

First, this is a very very repetitive, having an almost five minutes introduction, identical on each of the episodes, what, made more concise, would have made its running time already an episode shorter. After that, the narrative is terribly repetitive, gets to similar simplistic conclusions for each of the serial killers they "analyze", goes on and on over pointless arguments, making forced pauses that make it feel very sensationalist.

With all the repetition on it, it really does not tell you much about the individuals they analyze, even referring to their victims as "the less dead" because they were in marginal parts of society, and thus, they were "less alive" before they were killed. When they talk about the "buddy serial killers", they say that "the partners turn on each other, like the animals they were", or that "this or that other serial killer was bad from the beginning", and similar statements that try to drive the attention away from the lack of substance to the sensationalized gruesomeness of their crimes.

Finally, there are gross inaccuracies on the contents of this "documentary". I have to admit, serial killers is one of those topics I like to study as a hobby, and I have read over a dozen books on the topic, and watch many more documentaries that are in general consistent with each other and refute some minor and not so minor points exposed here.

My advise, don't waste your money on this.

i agree with adam this is a good buy at wal mart out ofthe five dollar bin but the amazon price isnt bad bad for the length of this 2 disc set. this is all info you probably already have if youre into true crime but still not a bad buy. i would have to say for the earlier featured kilers they used too much of related movie footage for filler. the interviews and narration are done well with the exception of when the narrator reads letters from the killers in their voices. this is so terrible its funny. at times i was convinced i was listening to richard dreyfuss until i heard those awful voices. buy this if you like this kind of thing. for under ten dollars you get 7 hrs of info and footage of over 20 cases. and interviews with some of the minds who have studied the subject extensively. even dr jack levin of MSNBC crime documentary fame gets in on the action. the price makes this worth it.

i bought this in best buy for $10 it was enjoyable and not the worst or best i have ever seen. I really wanted to add that since it was called AMERICAN serial killers was it necessary to add jack the ripper. A quick reference would be sufficient but an entire episode is dedicated solely to the the ripper. Other Killers in the series have to split screen time and share episodes like gacy and dahmer. Also not one mention of Edmund Kemper?? come on really?? An hour on the jack the ripper and nothing on kemper in that sense it was a total rip off. Also some of the reenactments were hoakey. A more comprehensive set on serial killers would be nice to see but i guess you get what you pay for.
P.S. im glad this set doesn't glorify killers but tries to take an academic approach on the subject Kudos

I picked this up from Wal Mart in the $5 DVD bin. I figured it was a good deal, 7 hours of content on the cheap. I bought it expecting an A&E or History Channel documentary, but it ended up being a fairly amateurish, low budget affair. The narrator is fairly competent until he tries to give a voice to the killers, which he often does. Most of the footage is from old movies and there's very little in terms of actual pictures or accounts from the actual murders.

It's a decent time killer, interesting enough to keep me watching, but far from the portrait it advertises itself as.

3 stars, if you can pick it up on the cheap.

I, too, got this at Wal-Mart for $5. The 1st episode played fine (yes, the intro is over the top & it feels silly based on the title to start with a British serial killer but whatever), but the 2nd episode started hanging & eventually froze completely. None of the other shows would play, & disc 2 was the same way.

I took it back to Wal-Mart to exchange, & the new set won't play, either disc. I've successfully ripped the 1st disc to my hard drive but the 2nd has unrecoverable errors, so I will take THIS one back as well and try for a 3rd set to get a readable 2nd disc.

If I ever get a copy that will play, I will review the content. This is ridiculous! I'm a bit surprised nobody's mentioned issues with trying to get the discs to play. Am I just really unlucky?

Hopefully the 3rd time's the charm...

I pre-ordered this DVD set believing to finally have a comprehensive study of the nature of criminality pertaining to serial killing. What I found was a rather farcical and puerile rendition of a "documentary".
The narration is very annoying (lousy and childish voice impressions of the serial killers themselves interspersed throughout), some of the criminology experts exhibit an air of pomp and grandiosity (the guy from Rhode Island University was very full of himself), and the overall content is not featured in an objective fashion (very annoying-I do not like for others to make up my mind for me). The section on Jack the Ripper was a joke (since when did feature films from the 1940's stand for documented fact)?
I bought this set expecting a very academic and detailed study of the hows and whys of a serial killer's nature; instead, I find simple name-calling and criticism of the serial killers' acts by the narrator and the panel of experts, stupid music, and the same lame intro with the fat cowboy and Romulus killing Remus over and over again! I did find the section on H H Holmes interesting-hence the two stars.

When I found this new item set for release in January '09 I thought perhaps -- just perhaps -- there might be current, up-to-date insight and information. At a minimum, I expected some commentary by multiple discipline-leading experts, or even statements by people directly impacted by the actions of serial killers. Shoot, even some actual news clips would have been nice. After watching the first 5 minutes (and witnessing the hilarious death of the fat cowboy, hehe), I had to triple-check the release date on the box & on Amazon's page to make sure it truly read "2009" instead of "1989." The acting is poor, 95% of the material is outdated filler, and the narrator is horrible at best (he's proudly vapid at times, such as when tele-channeling the Zodiac Killer on the phone). If you get beyond all of that, you'll then notice that much of the information about the murders is inaccurate (i.e. Charles Manson). Lastly, as your mind and eyes start to wander, you'll see the black sheet hanging behind the interviewees is not even ironed ..... those wrinkles and creases summarily symbolize the sloppy production values throughout.

This 2-disc set had so much potential, considering the producers bravely selected a few killers who are no longer well known, like William Heirens (The Lipstick Killer) and Jane Toppan. But, in the end, this is NOT for anyone interested in a mature and accurate historical account (maybe hysterical). In a way this whole thing is sad because the makers of this DVD-set don't seem to realize just how bad it is (on NO level does Gein's murder of his brother have anything to do with Cain & Abel -- what a crazy stretch!).

The poor gals & blokes wasted their money by making this "documentary." To prevent a second crime, do not buy this item. Save your money and look elsewhere, wise buyers ... look elsewhere (and don't spend more than $5 if you really want to buy it). On the other hand, If you wish to view a clever and unique perspective on how and why we kill, there's not much better than Dr. Michael Stone's "Most Evil" 3-disc DVD series.

This is called American Serial Killers, yet spends over an hour discussing Jack the Ripper. It's understandable to want to open with Ripper, but analyzing Hollywood film footage for over an hour is just too long off topic and not the kind of analysis I was looking for. The Ted Bundy story was glossed over and none of the extremely creepy crap he did with his dead "souvenirs" revealed. If the narrator is going to over emphasize the word "gay" serial killer as though the sexuality some how makes the crime more chilling then "hetero" serial killer should be equally dramatized repeatedly. Finally Eileen Wuornos was not made into an antihero in the film Monster. It's just she's not a sexual predator. She did not kill for the joy of killing nor did she kill or torture for sexual gratification. She doesn't decapitate heads of men and skull fvk them long after they've decomposed. If you want a history of Jack the Ripper films, very little truth about Ted Bundy and trust an analysis who doesn't understand the difference between serial killing and sexual predatory serial killing this film is for you.