The Menendez brothers’ family just gave them their support and blasted Ryan Murphy

‘A phobic, gross nightmare – perhaps, after all, Monsters is about Ryan Murphy’

15 hours ago

The family of Erik and Lyle Menendez have released a big statement following Ryan Murphy releasing Monsters on Netflix, supporting the brothers and utterly condemning the show for what they deem “a gross, episodic serial nightmare.” They also shared their hope that the brothers will be released, as new evidence suggests that their incarceration may be re-examined.

In a statement titled ‘Family Response’, Erik and Lyle Menendez gained the support of their 24 strong united family after Monsters remains top spot on Netflix, and Ryan Murphy gets increasingly scrutinised. The family say “We are virtually the entire extended family of Erik and Lyle Menéndez. We are 24 strong and today we want the world to know we support Erik and Lyle. We individually and collectively pray for their release after being imprisoned for 35 years. We know them, love them, and want them home with us.

“Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story is a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations. Our family has been victimized by this grotesque shockadrama. Murphy claims he spent years researching the case but in the end relied on debunked Dominick Dunne, the pro-prosecution hack, to justify his slander against us and never spoke to us. The character assassination of Erik and Lyle, who are our nephews and cousins, under the guise of a “story telling narrative” is repulsive. We know these men. We grew up with them since they were boys. We love them and to this very day we are close to them. We also know what went on in their home and the unimaginably turbulent lives they have endured.

“Several of us were eyewitnesses to many atrocities one should never have to bear witness to. It is sad that Ryan Murphy, Netflix, and all others involved in this series, do not have an understanding of the impact of years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Perhaps, after all, Monsters is all about Ryan Murphy.”

Ryan Murphy himself has previously said a statement defending the show. “I have many things to say about [the backlash]. I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show. It’s really, really hard if it’s your life to see your life up on screen. The thing that I find interesting is that he doesn’t mention in his quote that if you watch the show, I would say that 60 – 65 per cent of our show in the scripts and in the film form centre around the abuse, and what they claim happened to them. And we do it very carefully, and we give them their day in court and they talk openly about it in this age where people can talk about sexual abuse.

“Talking about it and writing about it and writing about all points of view can be controversial. It’s a Rashoman kind of approach, where there were four people involved, two of them are dead. What about the parents? We had an obligation as storytellers to also try and put in their perspective based on our research, which we did.”

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.