‘Unforgettable’ true crime series leaves Netflix viewers ‘sickened’
The harrowing series continues to shock viewers, seven years after it first landed on Netflix.
True crime enthusiasts are being encouraged to watch what many are describing as the “most disturbing documentary ever”.
Don’t F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer arrived on Netflix in 2019 and documents an online manhunt.
The three-part series follows a collective of amateur internet detectives attempting to track down a man named Luka Magnotta, following his posting of a horrific video showing himself killing two animals.
After gaining infamy through the animal cruelty incident, Magnotta’s offences escalated to the murder of a Chinese student.
Using fragments of his crimes that Magnotta uploaded online, members of a Facebook group pieced together evidence against him to establish his identity, reports the Mirror.
Luka Magnotta is serving a life sentence(Image: AFP/GettyImages/Montreal Police Department)
Magnotta received a murder conviction in 2012 and is presently serving a life sentence.
The synopsis for the Netflix true crime series states: “A twisted criminal’s gruesome videos drive a group of amateur online sleuths to launch a risky manhunt that pulls them into a dark underworld.”
The distressing series prompted a significant response from audiences, with many continuing to cite it as amongst Netflix’s most unsettling true crime offerings.
One person called it a “brilliant watch, it gets more horrendous as you watch too,” while another recommended it, saying, “100% yes, but I found it disturbing, ngl.” Someone else replied: “Same. That’s the one documentary I can’t watch again. So disturbing.”
“To this day, it’s one of the best I’ve seen,” another viewer echoed, as someone else said, “This documentary is horrific. It’s stayed with me ever since I watched it.” One person left a review calling it “incredibly intense and horrific,” while another called it “unforgettable”.
Someone else said: “I was glued from beginning to end. Deanna and John did a wonderful job of describing their experience. There were many times I asked myself if this documentary was fiction cause it was so unbelievable at times. A must-watch! The ending will not disappoint. Again well done to the filmmakers!” Another praised: “Spellbinding and mesmerising and sickening but ultimately rewarding.”
After the series’ popularity, the creators behind Don’t F**k with Cats later discussed the struggle of balancing coverage of Magnotta and his crimes.
Producer Felicity Morris spoke at a Bafta session on the making of the documentary in 2020, saying: “A lot of the conversations that Mark [Lewis] and I had with them [the contributors] at the beginning were like, ‘What are we doing giving him a Netflix platform for his story?'”
After conversations with the two internet sleuths at the heart of the case, Deanna Thompson and John Green, producer Mark Lewis added, “We arrived at what we thought was a comfortable position, looking at the complicity with everyone who reads a crime story in the newspaper and who reads a crime novel.
“Crime and murder is something that we’re all fascinated in, and in a sense it was part of the story that we’re all – whether filmmakers or viewers – sort of complicit in this fascination with true crime and murder.”
