Erik Menendez calls Ryan Murphy's “Monsters” “dishonest”

Erik Menendez calls Ryan Murphy's “Monsters” “dishonest”

The reviews for Ryan Murphy's latest true crime film are in, and one critic is certainly not pleased.

After Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menéndez In the show, which premiered on Netflix on Thursday, Erik Menéndez criticized the series' “naive and inaccurate” portrayal of the murder of parents José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez by him and his brother Lyle in 1989.

“I thought we had moved beyond the lies and devastating character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle based on horrific and blatant likes that were rampant on the show,” Erik said in a statement shared on Lyle's Facebook page. “I can only believe they were done on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I must say that I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to do this without malicious intent.

“It saddens me to know that Netflix, with its dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime, has pushed the painful truths back several steps – back to a time when prosecutors built a narrative on the belief system that men were not sexually assaulted and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women. These horrific lies have been refuted and exposed over the past two decades by countless brave victims who have overcome their personal shame and courageously spoken out about it,” he continued. “Now Murphy is shaping his horrific narrative through vile and horrifying character portrayals of Lyle and me and disheartening slanders.”

Erik added, among other things: “Isn’t the truth enough?”

Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. (From left to right) Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez, Chloë Sevigny as Kitty Menendez, Javier Bardem as Jose Menendez, Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez

Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menéndez, Chloë Sevigny as Kitty Menéndez, Javier Bardem as José Menéndez and Cooper Koch as Erik Menéndez in Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez

Courtesy of Netflix

After José was shot six times and Kitty ten times on August 20, 1989, police initially followed up on several leads pointing to the Mafia. The brothers were arrested in March 1990 after Erik confessed to his psychologist. At trial, they claimed they killed their parents out of fear for their lives after suffering a lifetime of abuse, including sexual abuse by their father.

Although Erik and Lyle were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for premeditated murder in 1996, their attorney Mark Geragos People He is “cautiously optimistic” that new statements from the family will help reduce the case to manslaughter.

According to the show’s official Netflix logline: Monster “delves into the historic case that took the world by storm, paved the way for today's audiences' fascination with true crime, and asks the audience in turn: Who are the real monsters?”

Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch play Lyle and Erik Menéndez, with Javier Bardem as José, Chloë Sevigny as Kitty, Nathan Lane as Dominick Dunne and Ari Graynor as Leslie Abramson.

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