Netflix drops eerie first look at ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’
There’s a new set of monsters in town.
Netflix has released first-look photos for “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
Executive-produced by Ryan Murphy, “Monsters” is the next chapter of the true-crime anthology series that began with the smash hit “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” starring Evan Peters and Niecy Nash, who both won Golden Globes for their roles.
“Dahmer” was controversial, with the victims’ families slamming the show. But it was a hit, and still stands as the platform’s third-most-watched season of TV ever, behind “Wednesday” and the most recent episodes of “Stranger Things.”
Per the streamer: “Following the massive success of ‘Dahmer,’ Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series returns with ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,’ chronicling the case of the real-life brothers who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez.”
In the teaser trailer, Kitty, played by Chloë Sevigny, can be heard saying, “I need to know what’s going on with you and the boys.”
Netflix’s plot synopsis continues, “While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed — and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole — that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents.”
The platform’s summary concludes by saying that the show “dives into the historic case that took the world by storm, paved the way for audiences’ modern-day fascination with true crime, and in return asks those audiences: Who are the real monsters?”
The show stars Nicholas Alexander Chavez (“General Hospital”) as Lyle and Cooper Koch (“They/Them”) as Erik.
Javier Bardem plays their father.
In the first-look photo, the family of four smiles, posed together, seeming happy and ordinary.
The real Menendez brothers murdered their parents in 1989, when Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18. They were convicted in 1996 and are both in a prison outside of San Diego.
Last year, former inmate Anerae “X-Raided” Brown — a rapper who served 26 years for murder and met Lyle and Erik in prison — told The Post that Lyle is “a very charismatic, magnetic person. We just became people who could rely on each other.”
He added, “Lyle was the guy who started teaching me the value of utilizing my popularity to my advantage in a way where I can be influential for positive things. He was the first person to say, ‘Hey man, I think you should sign up for these classes. There’s another way to do your time.’”
In 2008, when Brown was transferred to Pleasant Valley State Prison, Erik was waiting to greet him after receiving a letter from Lyle.
“It said, essentially, ‘I love X-Raided, he’s my little brother and take care of him how you would take care of me,’” Brown, who was once in the Crips, recalled of the introductory letter.
Brown praised Erik as a “calm, put-together” soul who picked up right where Lyle left off. “He was a positive influence on me, and somebody that I looked up to.”
However, Eugene L. Weems, an MMA fighter who served 17 years for robbery and knew Lyle before being released in late 2018, had a different account.
“He’s a coward. He’s very disrespectful,” Weems told The Post of Lyle last year.
“He is flamboyant and he thinks he’s better than everyone else,” Weems went on. “This is how he is; this is truth. I dealt with him — we were friends.”
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” premieres Sept. 19 on Netflix.
