Never have I ever watched a documentary and found it hokey. Yet, The Beauty Queen Killer: 9 Days of Terror, oddly enough, takes the cake. The new 3-part Hulu series follows the reign of terror of 1980s serial killer Christopher Wilder and many of his victims, including Tina Marie Risico, who was held with Wilder during a cross country road trip for nine days.
Now, when it comes to the actual content of the documentary, you know what you’re getting. As true-crime continues to be a rather morbid fascination with the world, this documentary series adds to the wealth of extended stories discussing various gut-wrenching cases. Wilder is no different, with his consistent sexual assault, torture, and murder as he made his way across the United States. It will leave viewers disturbed, queasy, and heart-broken.
As a rule, I’m not someone who seeks out the genre. Unless the story is told from a new viewpoint with a deep concern for those affected, it always feels a bit glorified. “Can you believe all the people this man killed? And no one got to him in time? Crazy!” When I turned on this new Hulu series, the first thought wasn’t the possible glorification as much as it was trying to be an episode of VH1’s I Love the 80s.
Everywhere within the three episodes, the documentary wants to hammer home that it was the 1980s. Remember the 80s?! We were so young and naive then! OMG roller skates, am I right? Mall fun! Mall so fun and big! TV static! Grainy fonts! 1980s were past and 80s great! [one eye twitches] They wanted to stylize the documentary in such a way that it felt the makers of the series were patting themselves on the back with their “creation”, but not actually caring about the content.
That brings me to the actual storytelling, which can’t decide what story it wants to tell. This is Tina Marie Risico’s first time speaking out on the matter, which is completely understandable. It’s hard to fully comprehend the traumatic experience and how to be able to cope with that for a lifetime. Yet, as the series progresses, the makers begin to show her in a more negative light. At times, she’s reading documents from the case or remembering facts that she doesn’t want to recollect (again, fully understandable) and they are shown as if the audience should be mad at her.
The blame game begins to come into effect near the tail-end of the series, beginning to shroud her in a shadow of misdirection. Yet, with about twenty minutes left of the series, details about Risico’s life are shared as if to say “Psyche! Gotcha!” It just left a very bad taste in my mouth, as if this woman who wanted to finally share about the tragedy in her life still can’t be comfortable in telling her own story.
With the media being described as both helpful to start, then turning on Risico during her nine-day kidnapping with Wilder (in the 1980s!!!), it’s as if the makers of the series aren’t taking these teachable moments to heart during their own storytelling.
The Beauty Killer Queen: 9 Days of Terror is now streaming on Hulu.