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The 2020s are going to end soon, and much has been written about the isolation wrought upon the average city dweller by the digital world, where people don’t know their neighbors anymore and kids rarely play on playgrounds. But after watching ‘Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story‘, a Netflix true-crime documentary that revisits an infamous serial killing case that came to light in 1994, it seems that “knowing your neighbor” didn’t amount to much. For years, Fred West murdered several innocent young girls without anybody seemingly getting a whiff of it. And while some were aware of dubious activities in the Wests’ lodgings, they chose to “mind their own business.”
Directed by Daniel Dewsbury, ‘Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story‘ is divided into three clear chapters: Fred, Rose, and the trial, and incorporates police recordings that only became accessible recently. In what might seem incredulous, the Wests, who lived in Gloucester, England, came under the police radar in 1994 after some of their children told social workers that the couple would joke about their sister Heather being under the patio. The girl had vanished several years ago, and the parents never even filed a missing person report. So the police decided to dig up the patio, an action that led to a series of shocking findings that shook the UK and invited a media frenzy. There were a staggering number of victims, and their house in Gloucester was a true “house of horror.”
The case is infuriatingly sordid, spanning several years and multiple victims, including their own children, with telltale signs that were completely ignored by many. Most Netflix documentaries are longer than necessary, and while ‘Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story‘ isn’t short either, it fails to provide proper insights into several aspects of the case. I had to look up the case online to fill in several gaps, such as what really happened to Fred’s first wife and children. And even though the second episode is titled “Rose,” that section of the documentary largely keeps its focus on Fred. The “trial” episode is haphazardly executed. While you would expect a chronological explanation of what transpired during the trial, with interviews of legal experts, an oddly timed segment with a victim’s relative (whose interview was already featured in the second episode) randomly disrupts the courtroom narration.
While the whole point of the documentary was the never-heard-before police recordings of Fred West, the creators give the criminal too much space. Some more perspective from police officers, journalists, and surviving members of the West family would have made this a more compelling investigative documentary. If you don’t know anything about the case, this might interest you.
Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story is on Netflix.
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