Latest news with #LambFuneralHome
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Love true crime? Here are 10 of the latest documentaries to binge
Our love of true crime is not a new phenomenon. Long before podcasts and dramatic re-enactments, newspapers catered to a morbidly fascinated public, taking off in the 1880s when the Jack the Ripper murders coincided with the invention of the rotary press. The middle classes took tours of London's underbelly where the crimes took place, hoping for a vicarious thrill. Now we have documentaries to sate that thirst. Here are 10 of the latest binge-watches allowing us to explore the darker side of humanity from the safety of the sofa. Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story While this doco about Britain's worst serial killers, husband and wife Fred and Rosemary West, features 'recently discovered' police interviews (no mention of how they were 'lost') and interviews with relatives of some of the victims, there's little new information. For viewers not familiar with the horrifying crimes carried out by the Wests against at least 12 women (including, horrifyingly, one of their daughters), the three-part series reveals the whole sordid story, and the footage of Fred West directing police where to dig up the family's Gloucester garden is one of the most chilling true-crime moments on camera. Netflix Loading Hey Beautiful: Anatomy of a Romance Scam This bingeable three-parter starts like all docuseries about women being swindled on dating sites, but takes some extraordinary turns. Just when you think the reveal is coming, there's another juicy twist. It follows three women who fall in love with the same handsome man online – who just happens to need money urgently transferred to him. Frequently. Each of them had video calls with him (who went by different names), and despite not having met him in person, trusted him. The series follows their attempts to uncover the truth and leads to some extraordinary revelations – and the truth about the man whose identity these scammers have stolen. This is a seriously gripping one. Disney+ The Mortician For most of the first episode, I was a little underwhelmed by this tale of the Lamb Funeral Home scandal in California, which begins with David Sconce, who reluctantly joined his family's business, and set about trying to undercut his rivals in the crematorium game. Freshly out of prison, he's one of the main interviewees, so I knew there was more to come. And man alive, do things escalate quickly. Sconce starts out bulk-burning bodies to save money, but his desire for profit soon sees him and his associates – many of whom were gang members – committing increasingly heinous crimes. I'm talking war-crime level. This one is not for the squeamish. Max Australian Crime Stories Let's not forget Australia has its own share of grisly crime. Nine's long-running series, now in its fifth season, examines a different crime in-depth each episode, from historic unsolved murders, such as that of Sydney designer Florence Broadhurst in the 1970s and the disappearance of journalist Juanita Nielsen in 1975 to more recent crimes such as the story of barrister Nicola Gobbo, aka Lawyer X. The latest season also has a grim treat for hardcore crime fans – the tale of serial killer Derek Percy, who came to the attention of Victorian cops in the mid-1960s when he began stealing female underwear and mutilating dolls with razor blades. Strap in. 9 Now Surviving Ohio State Loading Australian filmmaker Eva Orner had to be talked into working on this tale of sexual abuse at Ohio State University by producer George Clooney, feeling she wasn't right for the job. But Orner's outsider status didn't hinder her investigation into the horrifying story of what went on at the university at the hands of sports medicine doctor Richard Strauss. The once-respected physician worked in the athletic department for 20 years, from 1978, during which time he abused at least 177 male students. Strauss was known among the students as 'Jellypaws', and the university received complaints about his behaviour as early as 1979, but nothing was addressed until 1996 – and even then, he kept his job. This is another tough watch. Max Scamanda An adaptation of a true-crime podcast (an ever-growing genre), this is the story of America's own Belle Gibson: Christian blogger Amanda Riley, who fabricated a moving tale of battling terminal cancer for financial gain. If you haven't heard the podcast, prepare to be outraged, as the already comfortable (and white) Riley, beloved in her church community, scams not only her fellow congregation members out of money, but also former friends, with her online 'journey' of dealing with Hodgkin's lymphoma for more than a decade. As well as the crime itself, this series examines the idea of societal bias – would Riley have attracted so much sympathy (and cash), had she been from a different race or socioeconomic background? Disney+ Grenfell: Uncovered This one is an extremely difficult watch, examining the horrific 2017 fire that broke out at a London tower block, killing at least 72 people, and uncovering the ways in which the disaster could easily have been prevented. Opening with the first emergency call, it follows a linear narrative of the horrific fire, interspersed with accounts from survivors, bereaved families and emergency workers. Then there are the experts whose commentary on the cladding, which caused the fire to rip through the building, is beyond damning. The corporate greed and malfeasance that led to the completely unavoidable deaths of dozens of people are rage-inducing. Netflix Trainwreck: Poop Cruise I want to say I'm including this as a palate cleanser, but given what happens (the clue is in the title), that's perhaps not the best description. When an engine fire disables the electricity on board a cruise from Texas to Mexico, it plunges the ship into darkness – and stops other things plunging down the toilets. The plan is to tow the ship to port, but after it drifts out to sea, passengers are left without running water and toilets for four days. But the biggest horror, according to passenger accounts, is the red bags supplied for 'pooping' in. And that's before a free bar is opened, the toilets start overflowing and things turn into a fecal-themed Lord of The Flies. Netflix Exposed: Naked Crimes This true-crime series is peak America – at once titillating, voyeuristic and exploitative. Comprising cobbled-together clips of various crimes being committed by naked perpetrators, it also features firsthand accounts from cops, witnesses and the occasional nude criminal themselves. The (mercifully) grainy footage is culled from CCTV, home security cameras and police body-worn cameras, and the crimes range from everything to DUI arrests to petty theft. While some of it is amusing, it's hard not to feel for the birthday-suited crims, many of whom are clearly not in their right minds. Unbelievably, this cheaply produced series is in its third season. Max Lucy Worsley Investigates Loading The historical crimes featured in historian Lucy Worsley's latest series are no less brutal than modern ones, but watching dramatic re-enactments of bloodthirsty murders at such a remove is somehow less stressful. Worsley examines the Jack the Ripper murders, and how the breathless newspaper accounts of the murders became the prototype for all true-crime stories that followed, the motives behind the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, and the case of Queen Mary I, aka 'Bloody Mary', among others. Lovely Lucy and her posh bob ensure this one is more of a cosy true-crime binge, but no less compelling. ABC iview
The Age
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Love true crime? Here are 10 of the latest documentaries to binge
Our love of true crime is not a new phenomenon. Long before podcasts and dramatic re-enactments, newspapers catered to a morbidly fascinated public, taking off in the 1880s when the Jack the Ripper murders coincided with the invention of the rotary press. The middle classes took tours of London's underbelly where the crimes took place, hoping for a vicarious thrill. Now we have documentaries to sate that thirst. Here are 10 of the latest binge-watches allowing us to explore the darker side of humanity from the safety of the sofa. Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story While this doco about Britain's worst serial killers, husband and wife Fred and Rosemary West, features 'recently discovered' police interviews (no mention of how they were 'lost') and interviews with relatives of some of the victims, there's little new information. For viewers not familiar with the horrifying crimes carried out by the Wests against at least 12 women (including, horrifyingly, one of their daughters), the three-part series reveals the whole sordid story, and the footage of Fred West directing police where to dig up the family's Gloucester garden is one of the most chilling true-crime moments on camera. Netflix Loading Hey Beautiful: Anatomy of a Romance Scam This bingeable three-parter starts like all docuseries about women being swindled on dating sites, but takes some extraordinary turns. Just when you think the reveal is coming, there's another juicy twist. It follows three women who fall in love with the same handsome man online – who just happens to need money urgently transferred to him. Frequently. Each of them had video calls with him (who went by different names), and despite not having met him in person, trusted him. The series follows their attempts to uncover the truth and leads to some extraordinary revelations – and the truth about the man whose identity these scammers have stolen. This is a seriously gripping one. Disney+ The Mortician For most of the first episode, I was a little underwhelmed by this tale of the Lamb Funeral Home scandal in California, which begins with David Sconce, who reluctantly joined his family's business, and set about trying to undercut his rivals in the crematorium game. Freshly out of prison, he's one of the main interviewees, so I knew there was more to come. And man alive, do things escalate quickly. Sconce starts out bulk-burning bodies to save money, but his desire for profit soon sees him and his associates – many of whom were gang members – committing increasingly heinous crimes. I'm talking war-crime level. This one is not for the squeamish. Max Australian Crime Stories Let's not forget Australia has its own share of grisly crime. Nine's long-running series, now in its fifth season, examines a different crime in-depth each episode, from historic unsolved murders, such as that of Sydney designer Florence Broadhurst in the 1970s and the disappearance of journalist Juanita Nielsen in 1975 to more recent crimes such as the story of barrister Nicola Gobbo, aka Lawyer X. The latest season also has a grim treat for hardcore crime fans – the tale of serial killer Derek Percy, who came to the attention of Victorian cops in the mid-1960s when he began stealing female underwear and mutilating dolls with razor blades. Strap in. 9 Now Surviving Ohio State Loading Australian filmmaker Eva Orner had to be talked into working on this tale of sexual abuse at Ohio State University by producer George Clooney, feeling she wasn't right for the job. But Orner's outsider status didn't hinder her investigation into the horrifying story of what went on at the university at the hands of sports medicine doctor Richard Strauss. The once-respected physician worked in the athletic department for 20 years, from 1978, during which time he abused at least 177 male students. Strauss was known among the students as 'Jellypaws', and the university received complaints about his behaviour as early as 1979, but nothing was addressed until 1996 – and even then, he kept his job. This is another tough watch. Max Scamanda An adaptation of a true-crime podcast (an ever-growing genre), this is the story of America's own Belle Gibson: Christian blogger Amanda Riley, who fabricated a moving tale of battling terminal cancer for financial gain. If you haven't heard the podcast, prepare to be outraged, as the already comfortable (and white) Riley, beloved in her church community, scams not only her fellow congregation members out of money, but also former friends, with her online 'journey' of dealing with Hodgkin's lymphoma for more than a decade. As well as the crime itself, this series examines the idea of societal bias – would Riley have attracted so much sympathy (and cash), had she been from a different race or socioeconomic background? Disney+ Grenfell: Uncovered This one is an extremely difficult watch, examining the horrific 2017 fire that broke out at a London tower block, killing at least 72 people, and uncovering the ways in which the disaster could easily have been prevented. Opening with the first emergency call, it follows a linear narrative of the horrific fire, interspersed with accounts from survivors, bereaved families and emergency workers. Then there are the experts whose commentary on the cladding, which caused the fire to rip through the building, is beyond damning. The corporate greed and malfeasance that led to the completely unavoidable deaths of dozens of people are rage-inducing. Netflix Trainwreck: Poop Cruise I want to say I'm including this as a palate cleanser, but given what happens (the clue is in the title), that's perhaps not the best description. When an engine fire disables the electricity on board a cruise from Texas to Mexico, it plunges the ship into darkness – and stops other things plunging down the toilets. The plan is to tow the ship to port, but after it drifts out to sea, passengers are left without running water and toilets for four days. But the biggest horror, according to passenger accounts, is the red bags supplied for 'pooping' in. And that's before a free bar is opened, the toilets start overflowing and things turn into a fecal-themed Lord of The Flies. Netflix Exposed: Naked Crimes This true-crime series is peak America – at once titillating, voyeuristic and exploitative. Comprising cobbled-together clips of various crimes being committed by naked perpetrators, it also features firsthand accounts from cops, witnesses and the occasional nude criminal themselves. The (mercifully) grainy footage is culled from CCTV, home security cameras and police body-worn cameras, and the crimes range from everything to DUI arrests to petty theft. While some of it is amusing, it's hard not to feel for the birthday-suited crims, many of whom are clearly not in their right minds. Unbelievably, this cheaply produced series is in its third season. Max Lucy Worsley Investigates Loading The historical crimes featured in historian Lucy Worsley's latest series are no less brutal than modern ones, but watching dramatic re-enactments of bloodthirsty murders at such a remove is somehow less stressful. Worsley examines the Jack the Ripper murders, and how the breathless newspaper accounts of the murders became the prototype for all true-crime stories that followed, the motives behind the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, and the case of Queen Mary I, aka 'Bloody Mary', among others. Lovely Lucy and her posh bob ensure this one is more of a cosy true-crime binge, but no less compelling. ABC iview
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Mortician' Becomes HBO's Most-Watched Documentary Series In Over 5 Years
EXCLUSIVE: The Mortician is piquing audience interest for HBO. The three-part documentary series, which chronicles the inhumane practices at a funeral home in Southern California, debuted on June 1. Since then, the show has tallied more than 2.6M cross-platform viewers in the U.S., per the network. More from Deadline 'Love Island USA' Season 7 Sets New Bar For Series, Soaring Past 1B Minutes Viewed In Week After Debut, Per Luminate HBO's Steve Carell Comedy Series Adds Annie Mumolo 'Somebody Somewhere's Tim Bagley On Finding The Humor In The "Depth And Darkness" Of Life & Showing The "Openness Of Your Heart" In Song It's now the most-watched HBO documentary series in over five years. That means it's beat out some high profile documentaries like Pee-wee as Himself, Chimp Crazy, Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God and more. This is certainly a strong performance for the series, likely aided by the vote of confidence from HBO to place it in the network's marquee 9 p.m. Sunday night slot, following on the heels of The Last of Us, The White Lotus and The Gilded Age. That generally has signaled to viewers that a series should be on their radar and thus can be a force for driving engagement. The Mortician follows a trusted family-owned funeral home that hid behind a façade of decency and propriety to take advantage of loved ones at their most vulnerable moments. In the early 1980s, David Sconce, scion of the Lamb family, took over the family business and sought to exploit the deceased in numerous ways to expand their earnings. Driven by profit, the Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, California engaged in years of morally questionable and inhumane practices. Featuring an exclusive interview with Sconce, newly released from prison, the series examines the lucrative and ubiquitous multibillion-dollar mortuary industry and illuminates what can happen behind closed doors, away from public scrutiny. With emotional interviews with families of the victims of the Lamb Funeral Home and revelations from former employees, The Mortician unravels a dark, troubling story that involved mass cremations and stealing from the dead in a multitude of macabre ways. The scandal shook Southern California and as members of the family stood trial, the funeral industry took heed, bringing about tighter regulations and allowing for greater transparency into the business of death. A testimony from Sconce, who tells his side of the story with animated energy and candor, anchors the series. The HBO unscripted series is directed and executive produced by Joshua Rofé and executive produced by Steven J. Berger for Number 19 and Strong Baby's Jonah Hill and Matt Dines. Best of Deadline 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
The Guardian
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Mortician review – so queasy it will stay with you for ever
The smart thing about comparing something to The Jinx is that you're essentially daring viewers to stick with you until the very end. After all, as good as The Jinx was, it didn't reach legendary status until its final few moments, when notorious murder suspect Robert Durst paused an interview with his microphone still on, and muttered a confession while using the toilet. The Mortician, it has to be said, is pound for pound more staggering than The Jinx. Joshua Rofé's three-part documentary about California cremator David Sconce is a feat of construction, patiently doling out larger and larger transgressions until the whole thing becomes swamped in unimaginable horror. It's the kind of documentary where, when the credits roll, you realise that you haven't drawn breath for several minutes. As with most true crime documentaries, Sconce's case is a known one. Perhaps you watched it unfold at the time, or perhaps you like to spend your time trawling the darker corners of Wikipedia. This is the downfall of many products of this ilk; they're flashy retellings that add very little of value. The Mortician is not that. The Lamb Funeral Home scandal made enough of a splash to have inspired more than one novel, and yet The Mortician deserves to go down as the definitive version. On some level, it's the story of a very efficient businessman. As the figure in charge of Pasadena crematorium Lamb Funeral Home, David Sconce was determined to undercut his rivals. He would perform long round-trips around mortuaries in his rundown van, collecting bodies, burning them and returning them for the low, low price of $55. But cremations are slow. It takes from two to three hours to burn a body and let the remains cool enough to safely gather them. So Sconce started burning a few at a time. And then more and more, breaking bones to cram as many as he could into his incinerator. In barely any time at all the business went from performing 194 cremations a year to 8,173, handing bereaved relatives urns scooped from bins brimming with the mixed ashes of countless different people. Incredibly, it only gets worse from there. To reveal too much would be to spoil the cascade of monstrosities that follow, but it makes for extremely queasy viewing. The thefts, the desecration, the complete detachment between the human life that ended and the wholesale scavenging that followed. It is unbelievably dark. At the centre of it all is Sconce himself. Met by the documentary crew outside jail, where he had just finished serving a 10-year sentence, Sconce is a weirdly charismatic presence. Described by one talking head as 'Richie Cunningham' from Happy Days, he has a big, open, all-American face, and golly-gees his way through much of his interviews despite the atrocities laid at his feet. At best, he defends his actions with a cold logic – 'People have got to be more in control of their emotions,' he says at one point of the appalled bereaved; 'That's not your loved one any more' – but at worst there's a showboating bravado, as if he can't get enough of his own performance. And this is ultimately what gets him. The Mortician has received so many comparisons to The Jinx because of how it ends. During an unguarded moment when he believes the camera is no longer running, Sconce appears to admit to something awful. It's left vague, since there's nothing as concrete as Durst muttering that he 'killed them all', but it's still enough for Rofé to publicly encourage renewed investigation. However, while the climax will grab all the headlines, the journey is just as important. The Mortician isn't only about one grim individual who did horrendous things to thousands of corpses; it's about the dehumanising effects of unfettered capitalism and our own relationship to death. In the cold light of day, how should we treat the people we love once they are gone? Is the dignity we afford their bodies purely ceremonial? Do they simply become matter to be disposed of by whatever means necessary? It is a harrowing journey to get to the end of the programme – the faint of heart should be warned that the series includes talk of concentration camps, infants, organ harvesting and something nefariously referred to as 'popping chops' – but it's worth it. The Mortician is so much more than a gussied-up Wikipedia page. It's something that is unlikely to ever leave you. The Mortician is on Sky and Now in the UK. In the US, it airs on HBO and Max. In Australia, it airs on Max
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
HBO's Gruesome True-Crime Doc Tried to Have Its Bombshell Moment. There's Just One Problem.
Joshua Rofé's docuseries The Mortician, which finished its run on HBO last night, doesn't tell us anything about its central character over the course of its three hourlong episodes that we don't know from the very beginning. It's clear practically from the instant that David Sconce, the scion of a Southern California funeral home dynasty who ran a yearslong scheme involving illegal bulk cremation and the mutilation of corpses, is as unrepentant as he is shady, a man who offers to tell the filmmakers everything because he's fundamentally lacking in remorse. But what's increasingly astonishing, throughout the episodes, is just how much Sconce is who he appears to be: the platonic ideal of a conscienceless grifter who will always find a way to justify his actions. The series initially presents Sconce as a bad seed, a golden-haired high school football star who was forced into the family business after a knee injury ended his athletic career. On his mother's side, Sconce is a descendant of the Lambs, a storied 'old Pasadena' family who had run the Lamb Funeral Home since the 1920s. Generations of locals trusted them implicitly, which gave Sconce ample opportunity to betray that trust. Placed in charge of the family's crematorium in the 1980s, he came up with a plan to slash prices and boost volume, going from under 200 to over 25,000 cremations annually in less than five years. Sconce did this not by building a large new facility, industrializing a largely family-run industry at a previously unheard-of scale. He did it the old-fashioned way, if by old-fashioned you mean the 18th century. Sconce and his employees, who were mostly ex–football players with drug habits or criminal records or both, would compete to see which of them could cram more bodies into a single oven at the same time, breaking or severing whatever extremities it took to fill it to bursting. When the crematorium burned down after one helper got too high to keep an eye on it, Sconce simply relocated to a new facility in nearby Hesperia, using ceramics kilns in the place of ovens. The smoke, which got so bad that one of Sconce's accomplices ran a phone line out to his car so he wouldn't have to stay inside the building, eventually drew the ire of local residents, and when the authorities came to investigate, one of them recognized the smell—as a soldier, he'd helped liberate Auschwitz. But as The Mortician's later episodes make clear, Sconce's rotten apple didn't fall far from the family tree. His habit of harvesting organs and gold teeth—which he called 'popping chops'—from corpses was already Lamb family practice, and his mother, Laurieanne, according to an auditor from the California Funeral Board, regularly skimmed profits from preneed accounts, which allow families to set aside money for funeral expenses in advance. One subject says Laurieanne kept a container of miscellaneous ashes on hand, along with a table of how much ash a cremated body typically yields, so that she could, for example, spoon the missing amount into a baby's urn to make up for the issue that the family had already sold to a third party. (Sconce himself points out that selling body parts is illegal, but charging for the labor it takes to procure them is not.) It's not clear whether the Lambs were always crooks or whether things went sour between one generation or the next, but it's safe to say that by the time David came along, the clan's skulduggery was already established practice. The Lambs' fellow morticians wax nostalgic about how ethical the funeral industry was before the Sconce scandal unleashed a wave of new regulations, but none of them reflects on why their colleagues were too keen to question why the cost of cremation suddenly dropped by three-quarters. If they didn't know, it can only be because they didn't want to. The series interviews several people whose loved ones were left in the care of the Lambs and handed what they now know was a pile of ash that had little if any connection to the person they mourned. (One individual also found out during the Lambs' trial that her family members' hearts had been removed first from their bodies.) But, ultimately, The Mortician keeps getting drawn back to Sconce, whose cold-blooded certainty is treated as if it's more interesting than the victims' grief. Those who handle the dead for a living naturally have to learn to regard bodies with a certain clinical distance, but Sconce's total lack of empathy is more like sociopathy than professional remove. 'That's not your loved one anymore,' he tells the camera, as if he's still arguing with bereaved family members decades after the fact. 'It's just potash and lime.' One day, his ex-wife says, he came home with a Styrofoam cup full of teeth and, without so much as a word, plopped down on the garage floor to break out the gold fillings. Small wonder, then, that he may have come to regard the living with the same disdain. Despite years of effort, neither the authorities nor the filmmakers were able to tie him definitively to the 1985 murder of Timothy Waters, a rival mortician who was preparing an exposé on Sconce's methods for an industry trade publication—or even, for that matter, to prove that Waters was murdered at all. His death was initially ruled a heart attack, and although Sconce was charged with first-degree murder and preliminary tests found traces of oleander—a natural poison that can stop the heart—Waters' body had decayed so much by the time the case came to trial that no evidence could be found, and the charge was dropped. (The specialist who performed the tests compares Waters' liver with 'chocolate pudding.') Sconce's associates say he bragged about committing the crime, but with a habitual liar, it's hard to know what the truth might actually be. But, like too many contemporary true-crime documentaries, The Mortician isn't satisfied with merely questioning truth; it has to provide it. So Rofé ends with a Jinx-style stinger: Sconce apparently, or at least plausibly, confessing to three murders. Exactly which three is difficult to say—Waters', perhaps; an employee of Sconce's who was found hanged after threatening to quit; and, most suggestively, an unnamed man who tried to rob Sconce and his wife at gunpoint. Sconce has just begun to tell the story, prompted only by Rofé asking if there's anything else he'd like to say, when the cameraperson announces that they have to reload, and Sconce regains enough control to say he'll tell the story only off-camera. But he does say it's one of three 'things I can't talk about'—three being the number of murders an anonymous former employee suggests, elsewhere in the film, that Sconce may have carried out. Rofé told the Guardian that Sconce is 'clearly implying serious crimes have been committed.' But, considering there's no suggestion whom that mystery victim may have been, it's a wan note to end the series on, more of a damp squib than a bombshell. (The most materially suspect aspect is when Sconce, who previously claimed he 'wasn't a gun guy,' goes into detail about the handgun he usually kept in his driver's-side door.) The last-minute equipment malfunction inevitably recalls the end of Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line, whose pivotal interview was captured only on audio cassette due to a broken camera. But, as Morris has pointed out many times since, there's a big difference between leveraging a movie to prove a condemned man's innocence and using one to point toward his guilt. Nearly four decades later, the influence of Morris' landmark movie is like a massive planet, pulling lesser satellites into its orbit. But few of them have the goods to be its equal, and most just end up as rubble.
