Documentaries have a unique ability for horror that often outperforms that of conventional horror films. Their groundedness in reality adds a disturbing degree of authenticity, making audiences intensely aware of the possibility of such real-world events unfolding before them, heightening the effect. Throughout history, civilizations have been fascinated by the morbid, exploring mortality via diverse cultural representations such as memento mori. Documentary filmmaking is a modern embodiment of this curiosity, expertly navigating the complexities of the human condition.
Renowned documentary filmmakers Werner Herzog and Errol Morris investigate this tendency, choosing themes that shed light on humanity’s buried shadows. Documentaries accentuate the dread by recording these unpleasant storylines within the context of truth, appealing to our collective need for darker topics. In this way, documentary filmmaking is similar to the popularity and profitability of the horror genre, providing a compelling investigation of the human psyche and its capacity for both intrigue and dread.
From Milwaukee to Infamy: Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffery Dahmer, a serial killer and sexual offender, killed seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991. In 1992, one of his fellow prisoners killed him.
Who was Jeffery Dahmer?
Jeffery Dahmer was an American serial killer who killed 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991 over 13 years. Dahmer searches for his victims, mostly black guys, at malls, bus stops, and gay bars. He invites them home with promises of sex and money and gives them alcohol-containing drugs before choking them to death. He would then get involved in sex acts with the dead bodies before disposing of them; he often kept body parts as souvenirs. He also took pictures of his victims at different moments of the murder process so he could recall each act afterward. He was captured in 1991 and sentenced to 16 life terms by one of his fellow prisoners (Christopher Scarver) in 1994.
Quick Facts
- Full name: Jeffery Dahmer
- Birthplace: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Born: May 21, 1960
- Died: November 28, 1994
- Astrological sign: Gemini
- Height: 6’0
Following Dahmer’s death in 1996, a group of Milwaukee businessmen collected more than $400,000 to buy the equipment that he used to commit murderous acts, such as knives, saws, handcuffs, and a refrigerator to store body parts. In August 2012, nearly two decades after his death, it was revealed that Dahmer’s childhood home in Bath, Ohio, where he committed his first murder in 1978 and dumped his victim’s remains, was for sale. Its proprietor, musician Chris Butler, stated that the property would make a terrific home if the buyer could “get over the horror factor.” Butler is assumed to still possess the house as of 2022 after it was pulled from the market.
Javed Iqbal: Pakistan’s Notorious Serial Killer
Javed Iqbal was a Pakistani serial killer who killed 100 boys. This case enticed international attention not only because he was one of the most brutal serial killers in history but also because, upon his sentence, he was sentenced to die just as he had tortured and killed his victims. Javed Iqbal’s early life is little known. Although charges of sodomy were filed against him in 1985 and 1990, he was never sentenced to any of the charges. He surrendered himself to Pakistani authorities in 1999 and confessed to 100 murders, which he did in six months.
According to this confession, he had lured the boys, mostly street children and beggars who were between the ages of 6 and 16, to his home in Lahore, where he sexually assaulted them and choked them to death, disassembling their bodies and put the pieces of the body in drums of acid. He claimed that these crimes were undertaken as an act of revenge against the Pakistani police, who, as he said, assaulted him following an arrest.
He kept the details of records of the victims he murdered, including their ages, names, and photographs. Even though he denied his guilt, Iqbal was given 100 death sentences. The Pakistan’s court also ordered that he should be executed with the same chain that he used to strangle his victims and that his body be cut into 100 pieces and dissolved in acid. Before the execution could take place, Iqbal and his crime partner were found dead in the prison cell. Their deaths were officially ruled suicides.
Quick Facts
- Full name: Javed Iqbal
- Birthplace: Lahore, Pakistan
- Born: ?, 1961
- Died: October 8, 2001 (aged 40)
- Height: 5’6
- Father: Muhammad Ali Mughal
The Horrors of Auschwitz Camp
In 1940, the Nazis founded Auschwitz in the Polish suburbs of Oswiecim, creating a complex of camps that became vital to Hitler’s pursuit of a “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” At Auschwitz, Nazis slaughtered between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people, including over one million Jews, as well as Roma, homosexuals, political dissidents, and other groups.
As inmates arrived, young children, the elderly, and the infirm were separated and immediately taken to take “showers,” which pumped lethal Zyklon-B poison gas into the cells. Daily mass executions, malnutrition, sickness, and torture made Auschwitz one of World War II’s most lethal and horrifying concentration and extermination camps.
My Story
Walking through the gates of Auschwitz was one of the most terrible experiences I’ve ever had. Above the gates to Auschwitz, I saw the words “Arbeit macht frei,” which means “Work sets you free.” It was not the case. The vast majority of those sent to Auschwitz died within six months. Many died within the first month or two, and those who survived were selected and transported to the gas chambers or forced labor. Walking beneath these historic gates, knowing what had happened, was a profoundly depressing experience.
The Tour of Auschwitz I featured a room filled with two tonnes of hair from Jews who were slain at the camp, which represented only a tiny percentage of the seven tonnes discovered by the Soviets after liberation. The Nazis used the victims’ hair to make boots and equipment, which dehumanized them. Another chamber held a collection of hair brushes with strands of various colors, which served as a remembrance of the lives lost. Each strand of hair symbolized someone slain because of their beliefs or ancestry, not because they did anything wrong.
This experience helped the visitor grasp the entire scope of the Holocaust’s 1.1 million deaths and the need to remember each life lost. Seeing the victims’ remains at Auschwitz, including their hair and other relics, gave us a more visceral and intimate knowledge of the crimes performed at the time. It served as a sharp reminder of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust, as well as the importance of remembering and honoring those killed. The visit to Auschwitz was devastating, showing the reality of the Holocaust beyond numbers and statistics and emphasizing the significance of preserving the victims’ memories.
House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths
The Burari deaths case was a horrifying incident that happened back in 2018 when 11 members of a family in a place called Burari, Delhi, killed themselves. While very little is known about the case, the majority of people call it to be a case of mass suicide. Most of the information pictured by television media is baseless or unreasonable. A family with a deep inside story was shown to the world much better because of the Netflix documentary by Leena Yadav titled “House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths.“
On July 1, 2018, when the neighbors, Gurcharan Singh, Kuldeep Singh, and Pritpal Kaur, went to check on the Bhatia family (originally Chundawat), who owned a grocery shop and had not opened it in the morning (which used to open at 5:30 a.m.) nor collected milk from the daily milkman and were not responding to the neighbors’ calls, they discovered the main door open because it was not locked from inside. As they climbed upstairs, they were astonished to see nine family members hanging from an iron grill on the roof’s ceiling in a circle pattern.
The tenth member, a lady, was hanging directly opposite them while their mother lay on the floor in the other room near her bed. The family members were blindfolded, with their hands and feet bound, as they hung themselves. The family’s dog, the only member still alive, was chained to the roof and was claimed to be barking constantly. The family-owned a general store, while Lalit, the younger son, ran a plywood business. Neighbors said that the family was doing well in both of their companies. Neighbors, relatives, and colleagues who claimed to be religious reported that the 11-member family consisted of lovely, generous, and harmonic people who never fought with one another or others.
While the children in the family were intelligent, academically successful, and exhibited respectable manners, the other members were willing to assist their relatives and friends whenever they were in need. When asked about her family, Sujata Nagpal, the surviving sister, and Dinesh, her eldest brother, concurred with the neighbors’ opinions. None of the family members were willing to acknowledge that the 11-member daily had attempted mass suicide. This was primarily due to the family throwing a lavish celebration for one of their daughters, Priyanka’s engagement, which occurred exactly 14 days before the incident.
