Nerdly » ‘Aileen Wournos: American Boogeywoman’ Review (Netflix)

02nd Feb2022

‘Aileen Wournos: American Boogeywoman’ Review (Netflix)

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Peyton List, Tobin Bell, Lydia Hearst, Swen Temmel, Andrew Biernat, Nick Vallelonga, Ashley Atwood, Christa Collins, Christopher Corbin, Joseph Schwartz, Hamish Sturgeon | Written and Directed by Daniel Farrands

In recent years writer/director Daniel Farrands, who penned 1995’s Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (still a personal favourite in the franchise) has turned his hand to creating films about some of America’s most notorious serial killers – starting with 2018’s The Amityville Murders, following that up with writing and directing The Haunting of Sharon Tate in 2019 and directing The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson the same year. I’m not sure what Farrands’ obsession with such infamous cases is but it has resulted in films of varying quality, with the most-recent Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman easily the best of the bunch – mainly because Farrands told the story of Bundy as a literal boogeyman, playing up the horror elements of the story and using the tropes of the genre to make this one stand out from the crowd. Now here comes the follow-up to Farrands’ Bundy film, Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman, which has surprisingly popped up on Netflix; no doubt because it features Peyton List, one of the stars of the streaming service’s hottest show Cobra Kai, in the title role – playing a young Aileen back in 1976.

Now to be fair, I think I was the only person to actually enjoy Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman, most people tore apart the film’s many inaccuracies and the fact Farrands positioned Bundy as some sort of human Michael Myers. I dug the total exploitative take on the serial killer – after all, we’ve already had a myriad of films that told the true story, so why not go for total exploitation? The same applies to Aileen Wournos: American Boogeywoman, which tells the story of a short period in Wouronos’ life during which she married Commodore Lewis Fell, which was – according to reports – 13 years before her first murder.

The film opens in 2002 with Wournos, played by Ashley Atwood in some stunning man-up, in jail and sitting down to talk to a documentary filmmaker, played by Hamish Sturgeon, who is obviously a take on documentarian Nick Broomfield, who really did sit down with Wournos and ended up making two very famous, or should that be infamous, documentaries on her. Apart from that sequence the rest of Aileen Wournos: American Boogeywoman is complete balderdash; the entire thing made up from start to finish – apparently. I say apparently as I’m not a serial killer scholar and don’t purport to know anything about Wournos, much like I knew nothing about Bundy outside of the films I’d seen. Even Sturgeon’s filmmaker character doesn’t believe the validity of in-film Wournos’ story… And even points out actual inconsistencies in her story – especially in regards to Wournos’ brother Keith.

It turns out that the whole film is essentially the fever dream of a psychopath, adding to her resume of violence and trying to justify her actions in later life perhaps? After all, THIS version of Wournos is subjected to terrible treatment at the hands of men pretty much every five minutes… It does not exonerate her here and didn’t exonerate her when she was caught and tried in real life. Speaking of Wournos, Cobra Kai star Peyton List channels the same anger and rage she has in that show to her portrayal of Wournos; and she’s good. Really good. List is certainly a young actress who can play hard-done-by, chip-on-their-shoulder characters with aplomb – s she’s shown in Cobra Kai and as she shows here. Though at least her Cobra Kai character hasn’t killed anyone. Yet.

There’s one thing that sullies this film… the fact that the end of Aileen Wournos: American Boogeyman sees the adult Wournos ranting and raving about how embellishing the truth is what sells, what creates sensation and notoriety, is something of an odd pill to swallow – especially when this very film does exactly that – as much like Farrands’ take on Bundy, this is more of an exploitation movie than fact-filled film!

If you’re a “true crime” buff then your enjoyment of Aileen Wournos: American Boogeyman may vary (well, I say vary but you’ll probably spend all your time screaming at the screen about the inaccuracies). However, for those out there who just want to see a film about a psychopathic killer, who don’t want to subject themselves to the kind of ridiculous, saccharine nature of a Lifetime TV movie – for that’s what this film shares a lot in common with – then Aileen Wournos: American Boogeywoman is well worth your time. Not as horror-orientated as Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman but still another great entry into Daniel Farrands’ oeuvre of “American psychos” cinema.