The second season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Netflix anthology, Monsters focuses on the infamous Menendez brothers, who’re still serving time for killing their parents. The season also happens to be a goldmine for movie nerds and pop culture aficionados. There’s loads of references over the course of nine episodes, and we’re going to look into them in this article, one by one.
Batman
Right after shooting their parents to death, Lyle and Erik Menendez go to a Los Angeles cinema hall and try to buy tickets to Batman. The Batman movie in question is obviously the one made by Tim Burton, starring Michael Keaton as the caped crusader. The brothers’ plan is to make a solid alibi in order to avoid any sort of trouble. The woman at the counter, however, refuses to sell them tickets as they’re way too late, and it’s the theater’s policy to not sell tickets beyond the first fifteen minutes. The brothers try to convince the woman by telling them they only want to watch the second half as the first half is underwhelming (clearly, they’re not in the know), but the woman is adamant enough to not sell the tickets. They’ve got to settle for the next show, which they ultimately don’t watch. Well, that’s their loss!
Billionaire Boys Club (1987)
We’re obviously not talking about the 2018 Kevin Spacey film here, which is based on the same story as well. This is the 1987 television film, which Erik stumbles onto, and this is where he gets the idea of killing his parents. At least that’s what he says to Dr. Oziel. It’s obviously quite extreme to see a movie and kill your parents after being inspired by it, but then again, this is a profound example of movies actually changing lives. Considering that Billionaires Boys Club plays a major role in the second season of Netflix’s Monsters.
At Close Range
This one is interesting. In this Sean Penn-starring (that’s the name Lyle mentions) thriller, a dangerous man runs a criminal organization, and he is capable of doing unspeakable things like torturing and killing his own family. That, of course, is a direct reference to Jose Menendez, Lyle, and Erik’s father—at least the way the brothers describe him. However, Lyle keeps asking several people to watch this particular movie before they give their testimonies, which does imply that what he says about his father may be fabricated. That’s a topic for a different article though (in case you’re interested, click here).
When a Child Kills
“When A Child Kills: Abused Children Who Killed Their Parents” is a book with a very literal title, as you can already see. It makes its way into the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez, when the public defender accuses Leslie Abramson and her defense team of entirely ripping off ideas from the book when it comes to their clients’ testimony. The book is obviously about various accounts of children getting tortured by their parents and ending up doing the extreme. Lyle and Erik Menendez claim that their father sexually abused them and their mother enabled it, which provides them valid grounds for murdering their parents. Whether that was truly the case or these two brothers were just psychopaths remains the big question even after the show.
Jeffrey Dahmer
There’s a scene in the second season of Monsters where Lyle and Erik are being transported in a prison van, and Erik name drops Jeffrey Dahmer. Apparently, people are calling them cousins of Dahmer. Now, I don’t think I have to tell you who that is but this might also be Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s way of referencing the first season of their anthology series, which was, in fact, based on Dahmer. I would recommend you watch that in case you haven’t yet, but it’s not a show for the faint of heart, and way more grotesque than the current season.
OJ Simpson
I’m not sure whether or not OJ Simpson ever lived in the cell block next to Erik Menendez or the show just decided to take cinematic liberty to bring some flair (not that it needed more). We never get to see the face of OJ, though. Only his voice is heard as he has this conversation with Erik. OJ seems to know the Menendez brothers as well and even asks Erik about his elder brother. They also have a conversation about lawyer Robert Shapiro, who was the Menendez brothers’ lawyer before Leslie and Jill took over. Shapiro didn’t think the brothers could get away with it and was not in the good books of the brothers, as we see Erik asking OJ to not blindly trust his lawyer. That’s ironic, as we already know OJ Simpson is eventually acquitted of the murder charge against him.
Here’s an interesting tip. Ryan Murphy, co-creator of Monsters, also executive produces (and sometimes directs) FX Network’s American Crime Story, an anthology series about noteworthy American crimes, and the first season of that show was in fact based on the OJ Simpson case. Needless to say, if you dig Monsters, then you’ve got to try that show as well, as these two are pretty much cut from the same cloth.
Friends
We’re indeed talking about the NBC show here, which gets mentioned during the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez. But the TV show actually doesn’t have much to do with Monsters. Shortly before killing his parents, Erik co-wrote a screenplay about a man killing their own parents with his friend Craig (who eventually testifies against him), and for some strange reason, he decided to name the movie (if it ever materialized) Friends. The name didn’t make sense to anyone, and Lyle keeps taking sarcastic jabs at his brother, but Erik continues to claim that’s the best possible name for the screenplay. Is that psychopathic behavior or what? By the way, the public defender also takes the name of Jennifer Aniston while talking about Friends, the TV show, which only makes sense.
