# Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer (2021)

> A four-episode Netflix true crime miniseries that follows the LA detectives who hunted the 1980s serial killer Richard Ramirez.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/95584

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 48 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, crime
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Gil Carrillo, Frank Salerno, Pearl Carrillo, Tony Valdez, Laurel Erickson, Paul Skolnick, Linda Arthur, Zoey Tur
- TMDB rating: 7.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13651632/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: tense, grim, unsettling, atmospheric, propulsive

## What critics say

Audiences rate this true-crime miniseries positively for its gripping dramatization of the hunt for the Night Stalker.

## Synopsis

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer (2021) is a American true crime limited series created for Netflix, a four-episode documentary miniseries of roughly 48 minutes each. Its focus is the real Los Angeles homicide investigators Gil Carrillo and Frank Salerno of the LA County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau, who pursue the predator Richard Ramirez, and the series is built from their own recollections alongside testimony from journalists such as Laurel Erickson of KNBC News and Tony Valdez of KTTV News. The engine is the detectives' stubborn pursuit of a killer who terrorized the city, shown through interviews, archive footage and case material that builds an episode at a time. Set in sunlit 1980s Los Angeles, the series balances glamour with a constant sense of menace, its mood tense, grim and unsettling without melodrama. Tones of dread and relentless focus run throughout, and the investigation's human cost is never far from view. Fans of The Staircase, Making a Murderer and Mindhunter will find resonance in its blend of real-life crime, procedural rigor and atmosphere of unease.

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