Just when you think you know everything there is to know about true crime documentaries and fancy yourself as a bit of a Sherlock Holmes, along comes Netflix with something new.
While The Devil Next Door follows in the footsteps of Making a Murderer and Abducted in Plain Sight, there’s something altogether more chilling about the story of John Demjanjuk.
The streaming giant’s latest must-watch addition sounds like a bit of a snoozer as it focuses on an elderly Ohio factory worker called John Demjanjuk. However, the big twist is that Demjanjuk is accused of being “Ivan the Terrible” — a Ukrainian SS guard from the famous Treblinka extermination camp.
If this is the case, John had a hand in the deaths of nearly 30,000 people during the holocaust. The story of Demjanjuk has grabbed international headlines for decades, but with his death in 2011, he was never cleared — enter The Devil Next Door.
Posting on Twitter, viewers can barely contain themselves when it comes to The Devil Next Door‘s shocking subject matter:
Fans praised the documentary’s careful handling of history and search to unearth answers about who Demjanjuk really was. Just like Abducted in Plain Sight, some viewers have been left furious/scratching their heads at some of the frankly baffling eyewitness accounts.
If anyone’s read any of my work before, you’ll know I’m a huge fan of HBO’s The Jinx, but by the sounds of it, The Devil Next Door is rising to top of the heap.
It’s been nearly 40 years since Demjanjuk was first accused of being Ivan the Terrible, and despite Netflix’s best efforts, we’re still no closer to the truth. That being said, The Devil Next Door is well worth a watch!