Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers arrives on Netflix on October 30, 2025, positioning itself as more than a true crime retelling.
It’s a documentary feature that revisits one of America’s most controversial figures, Aileen Wuornos, not through sensational headlines, but through unheard audio, lost footage, and a forensic examination of the life that led to seven murders.
By framing Wuornos’s story through those who knew her and through her own words, Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers asks a deeper question: how does someone become a symbol of evil, and what is lost when we stop listening?
A Story Told in Her Own Voice
Unlike previous dramatizations and crime specials, this documentary leans heavily on first-hand archival material, including rare death row interviews and previously unaired conversations. Viewers hear Wuornos reflect on her crimes, her trauma, and her own mythology, sometimes defiant, sometimes shattered.
The result isn’t an attempt at absolution. It’s an interrogation of narrative. Was she purely predator, or also product of a brutal life? The film refuses easy answers.
Watch the Trailer
From Headlines to Human Complexity
Directed by Emily Turner, Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers is backed by powerhouse factual storytellers: BBC Studios Documentary Unit and NBC News Studios. It features footage from former Dateline correspondent Michele Gillen, whose reporting followed Wuornos closely, capturing a rawer version of the woman than courtrooms and tabloids allowed.
Rather than glorifying violence, the film traces Aileen’s trajectory, from childhood abuse to the highways of Florida, mapping how survival and destruction became indistinguishable.
A Different Kind of True Crime
In an era where true crime can drift toward entertainment, this documentary pushes in the opposite direction. It doesn’t reenact. It reconstructs. The focus stays on testimony, psychology, and the haunting space between justice and understanding.
By reclaiming Wuornos’s voice, the film challenges viewers to consider how society handles the deeply broken long before they break others.
Looking Ahead
Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers is not asking viewers to sympathize, it’s asking them to confront. As it arrives on Netflix on October 30, it invites a reckoning with how we tell the stories of those we’ve already condemned. This is Aileen’s story, perhaps for the first time, in her own terms.
Key Details – Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers
- Title: Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers
- Format: Documentary Feature
- Release Date: October 30, 2025
- Platform: Netflix
- Director: Emily Turner
- Production: BBC Studios Documentary Unit, NBC News Studios
- Executive Producers: Kirsty Cunningham, Liz Cole, Elizabeth Fischer, Andy Berg
- Editors: Jinx Godfrey, Daniel Lapira
- Source Material: Real case archives, never-before-seen footage, death row interviews
The Poster
