Menendez Family Alleges ‘Monsters’ Depiction of Sexual Abuse Is the ‘Height of Pure Evil’
Another “Monster” installment, another allegation of re-traumatizing victims.
After “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” debuted on Netflix September 19, the real-life Menendez family members are slamming the series on Facebook.
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The Ryan Murphy-created anthology series centers on Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch) Menendez who were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, Mary Louise “Kitty” (Chlo? Sevigny) and José Menendez (Javier Bardem) in 1989. The brothers alleged that they were the victims of sexual abuse; the prosecutors argued that the duo wanted to inherit their parents’ wealth upon their deaths. The brothers were aged 21 and 18, respectively, at the time of the killings. Both siblings alleged that their father José had molested them starting at age 6.
Now, relatives of the brothers are calling the “Monsters” depiction of the duo “pure evil.”
“Ep. 1: no resemblance to reality whatsoever,” a post claimed. “Ep. 2: other than the utter incompetence of the police, very little was accurate.”
As the series continues, scenes such as Kitty walking in on Lyle and Erik showering together, plus the brothers kissing, has implied incestuous abuse. The Facebook page, which is credited to Lyle, has deemed the depicted relationship between the brothers to be “absurd.”
A post stated, “So, these ‘writers/creators’ got up in the morning, ate their cornflakes, and went to an office where they decided to lie about rape survivors who have suffered every single day of their life. The professionals did this for money. How ironic. Never forget: There was more evidence of abuse in the first trial than there is in most successful child abuse prosecutions.”
Another post reads, “They had a plethora of material to draw from, and this is what they chose to do????? It’s laughable. It’s pathetic. And it is re-victimizing. It is imaginary. It is fiction. And to put out into the world the absurd notion that the brothers were lovers is the height of pure evil. How convenient that the new evidence was never brought up! The truth is that I have no idea what I just watched because it bears no resemblance to reality or the human beings I know. […] Why don’t male sexual assault victims come forward? Because they are afraid to run into the likes of the people who created this trash.”
And even if Netflix added a disclaimer that the show was fiction instead of true crime, the page stated that the series would “still be awful.”
A statement from Erik, also shared to the page, said the series was “rooted in horrible and blatant lies” and that both brothers have been depicted in “vile and appalling” ways.
According to the Menendez social media page, the purpose of the platform is to “provide a safe place for people to talk about their similar experiences and find comfort in others who have suffered in silence in the same way.”
The first “Monster” installment, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” similarly received backlash from families of victims. Eric Perry, a cousin of Jeffrey Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, spoke out on Twitter to deem the series “cruel.”
“Recreating my cousin having an emotional breakdown in court in the face of the man who tortured and murdered her brother is WILD,” Perry wrote, adding that “Monster” producers did not contact his family to adapt Lindsey’s story. “When they say they’re doing this ‘with respect to the victims’ or ‘honoring the dignity of the families,’ no one contacts them. My cousins wake up every few months at this point with a bunch of calls and messages and they know there’s another Dahmer show. It’s cruel.”
Series creator Murphy said at an NYC premiere screening of “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” that the second installment differs from “Dahmer.” However, both seasons were created after “years” of research from Murphy’s team to make the series as “true” as possible.
“When you make a show like our first season ‘Dahmer,’ which was so unexpectedly successful, the thing that was our way in … was really about looking at who gets justice and different forms of social injustice,” Murphy said. “And I felt the same way about this season. This season was about abuse, who is believed, who’s not believed. … All the stuff in here, by the way, is true. We spent many, many, many years researching this. Things you really can’t make up, but the thing that I was struck by when Ian and I were working on it was … [the show is] really more interested in talking about how monsters are made, as opposed to born. Every season has that in common. This one certainly does, and we try to not have too much judgment about that, because we’re trying to understand why they did something, as opposed to the act of doing something.”
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