The Trailer for Netflix's Newest True Crime Movie Will Make Your Blood Boil

best true crime movies 2023, victim suspect
The 7 Best New True Crime Movies of 2023Netflix

When it comes to true crime, we are obsessed. Whether we're learning about it through new TV shows, documentaries, podcasts, or books, true crime never fails to fascinate (and horrify) us with all its gory and mind-bending detail.

In 2022, true crime fanatics were introduced to Netflix movies like The Good Nurse, documentaries like The Tinder Swindler, and big motion pictures like Till. For 2023, streaming services and movie theaters are gearing up for another big year of true crime cases covering all kinds of different topics, from murder to kidnapping and terrorism.

Here are the most anticipated true crime movies of 2023. Keep checking back on this article, as we'll be updating it with new premiere dates as more information becomes available.

January 6th

When it premieres: January 5, 2023 on Discovery+

What it's about: On January 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol was attacked. This documentary explores what exactly happened on that fateful day in our nation's history, as well as provide firsthand accounts from witnesses.

Watch the trailer here

january 6th, discovery plus
Courtesy of Discovery+

The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker

When it premieres: January 10, 2023 on Netflix

What it's about: In 2013, a YouTube video was posted that showed a homeless hitchhiker named Kai (born Caleb McGillvary) using a hatchet to attack the man who gave him a ride. Reportedly, Kai did that because the man allegedly hit a pedestrian with his car and then started choking someone who ran over to help.

Kai's actions and news interview about the incident quickly went viral, but that's not the end of the story.

Months later, Kai was "arrested for allegedly taking the life of a man in New Jersey," a news reporter shares in the documentary's trailer.

With that information in mind, many people begin to wonder if the hatchet incident happened the way Kai said it did.

Watch the trailer here

the hatchet wielding hitchhiker netflix
Netflix

Amber: The Girl Behind the Alert

When it premieres: January 17, 2023 on Peacock

What it's about: You probably know about Amber Alerts when you get them on your phone, but did you know that system was created because of a girl named Amber Hagerman?

Twenty-five years ago, a nine-year-old girl named Amber Hagerman was kidnapped while riding her bike and was found dead four days later. Her murder has never been solved, but this tragedy did end up helping to create the Amber Alert system to help find other missing children. ("AMBER" actually stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.)

Since its creation in 1996, Amber Alerts have helped save over 1100 kids.

This documentary explores new theories and evidence in Amber's abduction and murder.

Watch the trailer here

amber the girl behind the alert
Courtesy of Peacock

Boston Strangler

When it premieres: March 17, 2023 on Hulu

What it's about: In the 1960s, a serial killer and rapist, dubbed 'The Boston Strangler,' killed 11 women across the state of Massachusetts. Albert DeSalvo took credit for the crimes, but it wasn't until 2013 that DNA evidence could prove he was, in fact, the culprit.

DeSalvo was already in prison for another crime when he made the jailhouse confession, but he was never charged for the Boston Strangler murders. He was later mysteriously found dead in his cell in 1973.

This movie will focus on the female reporter, Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley), who was the first journalist to connect the various Massachusetts murders to one perpetrator.

Loretta, along with her colleague, Jean Cole (Carrie Coon), battled sexism of the 1960s, but they didn't let that stop them from reporting on this notorious killing spree targeting women.

Watch the trailer here

the boston strangler the film follows loretta mclaughlin keira knightley, a reporter for the record american newspaper, who becomes the first journalist to connect the boston strangler murders as the mysterious killer claims more and more victims, loretta attempts to continue her investigation alongside colleague and confidante jean cole carrie coon, yet the duo finds themselves stymied by the rampant sexism of the era nevertheless, mclaughlin and cole bravely pursue the story at great personal risk, putting their own lives on the line in their quest to uncover the truth loretta mclaughlin keira knightley, shown courtesy of hulu
Hulu

Cocaine Bear: The True Story

When it premieres: April 14, 2023 on Peacock

What it's about: In February 2023, Universal Pictures gave us the magical movie that was Cocaine Bear, a horror-comedy loosely based on a true story about a bear who found smuggled cocaine, ingested a ton of it, and then died from an overdose.

Now, Peacock is examining the drug smuggler behind the epic story. Drew Thornton went from "cop to international drug smuggler, flying planeloads of cocaine into America from South America," according to a press release. "But one day he mysteriously falls to his death in a Knoxville, Tennessee driveway with his own huge bag of cocaine, armed to the teeth and wearing a pair of...Gucci loafers?"

This one-hour documentary will, as the hilarious tagline says, make you see that the "truth lies between the lines."

Watch the trailer here

best true crime movies 2023, cocaine bear true story
Peacock

Victim/Suspect

When it premieres: May 23, 2023 on Netflix

What it's about: Journalist Rae de Leon discovers a horrifying pattern while investigating sexual assault cases. She learns that many of the victims are not believed — and they are later arrested for allegedly filing a false police report.

Watch the trailer here

best true crime movies 2023, victim suspect
Netflix

Killers of the Flower Moon

When it premieres: October 20, 2023 on Apple TV+

What it's about: Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this movie based on David Grann's 2017 nonfiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.

When members of the Native American tribe, the Osage Nation, are murdered under mysterious circumstances in Oklahoma in the 1920s, a major FBI investigation develops that is orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover.

These crimes happened after oil was discovered underneath the Osage tribe's land, and members were getting super rich because of their rights to any mineral discoveries on their land.

killers of the flower moon
Apple TV+

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