Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan Netflix Review by Brooke Daugherty : Pop Culture Leftovers

Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan Netflix Review by Brooke Daugherty

October 5, 2021 12:30 pm |

The Monster Inside: 24 Faces of Billy Milligan is Netflix’s newest True Crime docuseries. The streaming service has rolled out many of these series and specials based on real events, but this one is different. How should I put this? I don’t know about you, but I’ve never thought “I really like this profile of a criminal, but it would be better if it was directed like a horror movie but with rock music”.

Watching this I was SURE it was done by a horror wanna be. I looked it up and it was done by Olivier Megaton, French director of sequels to Taken and The Transporter. Now, the weirdest part wasn’t the editing used to make paranormal shows scarier, it was the interview locations. They include a law library, an empty diner, an abandoned hospital/asylum, a rotting jail, and several homes of various stages of decay/opulence. Other than the jarring interview sites, it was a fairly straight forward four part documentary.

I hadn’t heard of Billy Milligan. The horrendous things he did , he blamed on multiple personalities. This series really does ask if he was really mentally ill or if he was just the most brilliant criminal mind the world has ever known. Interviewees run the gamut of professionals, family, and others involved in the crimes. A few of the psychiatric interviews were in French, which confused me until I looked up the director. From the completely empty interview locations and the cameras set twice the 6ft limit, I assume it was filmed during the pandemic and when he needed a few more professional opinions, he locally sourced them.

This story was actually interesting and I think it does a good job of making the viewer decide for themselves what kind of person Billy actually was. Do I think he had Dissociative Identity Disorder? Yes. Do I think he should have still been convicted of the crimes he committed? Yes. Do I think at any point he milked the “multiple personalities” once he had confronted his trauma in therapy? Absolutely. The array of people interviewed give some harrowing accounts that made me wonder how I’d never heard about this story. If you love this stuff and you’ve got the time for the four episodes, give this a watch.

PCL Rating: Taste It

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH