Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy

Matt Roush says...

Unlike Netflix’s repulsively lurid Monster: The Ed Gein Story, this eight-part true-crime docudrama takes a more clinical, blandly conventional, and discreet approach in depicting the mass murders of the incongruously gregarious John Wayne Gacy (Severance‘s Michael Chernus, compellingly enigmatic), who buried dozens of bodies of young men in his crawlspace. Because it downplays the shock factor, Devil in Disguise is more chilling and haunting, with an emphasis on the grieving families — Marin Ireland is a standout as a distraught mother — and on the failures of law enforcement to recognize a killer in their midst, because so many of his victims were easily dismissed as troubled truants or promiscuous gay men. Gacy’s banality is the true terror here. All episodes are available for a soul-crushing binge.

What's Worth Watching (Oct 16)