The true crime craze continues to go strong these days, with countless podcasts, documentaries and just about any other medium you can imagine getting in on the popularity. Hulu and ABC News Studios are certainly no strangers to the genre and now they have a brand new docuseries focusing on a specific corner of the subject matter.
Death in the Dorms tells the true stories of six college students whose lives tragically ended in murder in colleges and universities across the country. Each episode focuses on the life of one bright young student, diving into their lost potential, their loved ones’ grief, and the fight to bring their killers to justice through interviews with family, friends and law enforcement.
After having watched the first installment of this new docuseries, I can confidently say true crime fans will enjoy it. The series takes a deep dive into the harrowing stories of these murders with incredibly emotional interviews with the loved ones of the victims. The story was well told from a variety of angles, covering all the bases to really let the viewer feel as though they are well informed on the case.
It does however play up the entertainment factor a bit too much at times. Overly dramatized reenactments come across a bit cheesy in some moments, like the silhouette of a girl dropping her phone in slow motion after receiving some terrible news. It’s understandable that reenactments are crucial to make the audience feel as though they were right there as the murder was happening, but sometimes it’s just a bit overdone.
On the flip side of that, sometimes it gets just a little bit too real. These were obviously horrible incidents and there is clearly and interest in hearing these stories, but some of the gory details could, and probably should, be left out in some cases. This is going to be a very subjective critique, but one I think a lot of people will relate to after watching this first installment.
The documentary did also feel a bit rushed in the early going. These kinds of things typically spend some time letting the audience get acquainted with the victim and their family, so as to create more of an emotional investment. Death in the Dorms however, flies through some background in the first roughly 10 minutes, delivering what equates to a life story in that short window.
Beyond that though, the documentary settles in. It really hits its stride once it reaches the actual incident in question and can open up about the investigation thereafter. Once it reaches that point, the emotion and intense storytelling hits a high and the audience is drawn in and gripped by the story.
And these stories are loaded with emotional moments. Family and friends of the victims recount all of their memories on not only their lost loved one, but also the moments in which they realized they lost them. The amount of interviews featured in this doc really give it a sense of authenticity, authority and emotional gravity that can’t be substituted.
Overall, Hulu’s Death in the Dorms is a great watch for fans of the true crime genre. It will yo-yo back and forth a bit between being overly dramatic and hauntingly real, but when it hits its stride, it tells a gripping story that will have the audience feeling like they were there.
Death in the Dorms begins streaming January 5th only on Hulu.