10 Upsetting Documentaries About Families More Messed Up Than Yours
Families are complicated. Family is possibly the only thing no one makes it out of without a few battle scars and some major psychic damage. Many of us are still discovering triggers while looking for healthier coping mechanisms. However, some of us are lucky enough to find a way to maintain a healthy and distant relationship with some of the family members we like. Unfortunately, not all families reach that tentative truce. Some families are so messed up, that it results in headlines that leave the rest of us sad, shocked, and stunned. This is why we have so many documentaries on the usual streamers focused on some seriously fucked up families.
I have watched Mommy Dead and Dearest four times and leave more enraged every time. It follows one of the worst documented cases of Munchausen by proxy with a living victim. The atrocities that Gypsy Rose Blanchard endured were not given enough weight in her trial. Her fight for survival was lost in the judicial system. Sadly because the judicial system, and her family, failed her too many times, she is now in prison for committing matricide. This poor woman should be getting help to overcome the trauma she has experienced, but America failed her as it does most children.
Also Read: 10 Disturbing Documentaries Streaming For Free
Abducted In Plain Sight is another one that makes you question why some people even have kids. Listening to how Jan Broberg Felt’s parents rationalized letting the same man take their child twice and why they hesitated on getting the cops involved sends me. Hearing her recount what happened on both occasions is heartbreaking. Sometimes that gets lost in the way this unbelievable story is sensationalized. Yes, it is bonkers. However, the innocent child being abused, and how we prevent that from happening again, is what the major takeaway should be. Hopefully, seeing who she became and learning a bit about her journey to healing will help other survivors.
Here are 10 upsetting documentaries about families more messed up than yours:
1. Abducted In Plain Sight (Netflix, Plex, and Pluto TV)
2. Capturing the Friedmans (HBOMax)
3. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, and Tubi)
4. The Family I Had (Amazon Prime)
5. Mommy Dead and Dearest (HBOMax)
6. Stories We Tell (Amazon Prime, The Roku Channel, and Youtube)
7. Tell Me Who I Am (Netflix)
8. There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane (HBOMax)
9. The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez (Netflix)
10. The Wolfpack (Plex, Pluto TV, Tubi, and Youtube)
Content Warning: Most of these documentaries discuss child sexual abuse, child abuse, or filicide.
If you want something jaw-dropping that is not quite as heavy as the other documentaries on the list, check out Stories We Tell. Sarah Polley directs this documentary that allows her to shed light on how she discovered the man who raised her is not her biological dad. It’s still a sad story, but it benefits from her having time to deal with and heal before diving into it. It also highlights that family is not necessarily the people who share our DNA.
Let me know if you’ve seen any of these at @misssharai.
