Netflix has just released their first teaser trailer for The Monster of Florence (aka Il Mostro), and it will make you want to lock your doors. Twice. We’re getting Mindhunter meets True Detective vibes, and, honestly, it looks genuinely disturbing.
Releasing on October 22, the four-part limited series digs into Italy’s most puzzling, gruesome, and unresolved true crime saga. And because Netflix loves a good PR stunt, the release just so happens to line up with their 10-year anniversary in Italy. What a great way to celebrate, right?
Directed by Stefano Sollima (Gomorrah) and written with Leonardo Fasoli, this dramatized retelling goes beyond the standard true crime checklist. Yes, there are the grisly murders. Yes, the killer used a .22 Beretta. But the show doesn’t stop at the crime scenes. It zooms in on the investigation, public paranoia, and the many poor souls who got swept up in the chaos.
From the very first second, the teaser trailer gives off David Fincher vibes. It opens on a car driving through darkness at night. “First murder, September 1974,” a subtitle reads. What follows is a moody montage of old photographs, crime scenes, and shadowy figures. One shot even shows a killer’s reflection in a window. And it’s that sort of thing that will make true crime fans rewind and watch in slow-mo, like they’re about to solve the case themselves.
Visually, Netflix’s The Monster of Florence looks expensive too. This isn’t a throwaway docu-drama put together with generic stock footage and dramatic voiceovers. It actually feels like cinema.
Between 1968 and 1985, 16 people were murdered around Florence. Almost all of them were couples, attacked in parked cars in rural areas. Always under a new moon. Always with the same weapon. And in some cases, the female victims were mutilated in ways that still make hardened detectives wince. The darkest moment came in 1985, when a body part was apparently mailed to the Florence Prosecutor’s Office. It’s dark stuff.
Of course, theories spiraled from there. Was this all ritualistic? Could it have been a group effort? Was there a secret society pulling the strings behind the curtains? No one could actually agree, and the case was never solved. And that’s exactly why this story still haunts Italy nearly four decades later.
Netflix’s synopsis sums it up: “Eight double murders. Seventeen years of terror. Always the same weapon: a .22 caliber Beretta.”
So yeah, if true crime is your thing, mark October 22 on your calendar. The Monster of Florence is bound to be a huge hit on streaming and one that is going to have everyone talking.
Watch the teaser trailer for The Monster of Florence.
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