My Father, The BTK Killer (2025) Dir: Skye Borgman

Directed by Skye Borgman, this Netflix original documentary explored the intensely complicated and emotional fallout and journey for one of the children of the infamous serial killer; 'BTK'; Dennis Rader. Immediately upon seeing this documentary was coming out, I had mixed feelings. I was interested to hear a very seldom heard perspective - that of the family of the perpetrator - but I was unsure on how respectful to the direct victims of the case it would be.

The film tried to show both the timeline of events that encapsulated the killings of Dennis Rader, as well as the story of his daughter; Kerri Rawson, and her story since her father's arrest. Some of this was done well, but the execution was, at times, jumbled, creating a fairly convoluted documentary. The parts of the film that focused on Rader's crimes were fairly standard for a true crime documentary; the key events and dates were covered, some stock pictures and footage were shown, and law enforcement of the time were interviewed - it was all fine, if not overly enlightening for anyone who was aware of the basic information already.

The more personal side of the documentary was, was, in fairness, a touching, yet understandably heartbreaking account of Kerri's experiences. I think it is fair to say that she has had to face an unimaginable degree of hardship in the wake of her father's terrible actions. It wasn't just the direct memories and consequences of having a serial killer father that impacted her; the secondary fallout has evidentally taken a toll as well.

The problem, however, comes in the complete lack of acknowledgement on her part of the ten confirmed victims of 'BTK'. I appreciate that she did not edit the footage, and may not have had complete say on what was used from her interview footage, but it will not have helped her already complicated public perception that she failed to talk about the people that her father impacted with his crimes, instead choosing to focus almost solely on herself.

I will say, however, that her honest and open insight into some of her history with her father was genuinely quite interesting, and I think it will have helped to inform a lot of casual true crime viewers of the pain that comes from being an indirect victim of such a heinous criminal. I do think that the refusal of the victims' families to have taken part in the documentary speaks quite loudly as to what they felt about the necessity and respectability of the film, which I can't argue with.

Overall, I thought this was a fairly interesting, but jumbled, and ultimately clumsy true crime documentary. I think, at least as it pertained to Rawson, it was well-meaning, but she was not helped by the way she was questioned, and the lack of attention given to the actual victims of 'BTK' was very disappointing. They were presented almost as throw-away statistics rather than real people who lived and were cruelly, sadistically taken from their families by a remorseless, psychopathic, monster. I hope that, when this case is inevitably revisited again in a significant documentary, the families of the victims, as well as the victims themselves, are treated with more respect.