This engrossing documentary from renowned director Erin Lee Carr takes viewers deep into the disturbing world of Lois Riess and the puzzling crimes that shocked a quiet community. Aired on HBO in late 2024, I’m Not a Monster goes beyond headlines to offer new insight into a case where reality proves stranger than fiction.
Lois seemed an ordinary grandmother from small-town Minnesota, but in 2018 she was accused of murdering her husband David. What began as a tragic tale soon twisted further when she was allegedly killed again while on the run.
Now prisoners to her own actions, Lois agrees to sit down with Carr and share her side of this unbelievable story. Across two intimate interviews, opposing sides of this woman emerge—is she a vicious killer or yet another victim of circumstances beyond her control?
Carr’s delicate yet probing style lays bare the complexities beneath the surface. Through blending Lois’s firsthand account with other key perspectives, a multidimensional picture forms of how one can be both villain and vanquished.
While evidence challenges some claims, the roots of human breakdowns seem to defy simple explanations. By the finale, more questions linger than answers, demonstrating how even in the largest of crimes, absolute truths can remain as elusive as the human mind itself.
Disturbing Deceptions
The crimes at the center of this troubling case are laid bare with unsettling detail. We learn how in 2018, rural Minnesota was rocked by the news that local man David Riess had been shot dead by his wife Lois at their home. But her attempts to cover her tracks soon came to light, as she arranged her husband’s body to seem like an accident had occurred.
For over a week, Lois worked to maintain the deception. Yet something darkened within during this time. Driven to flee, she headed south to the Florida panhandle, where she encountered Pamela Hutchinson in a bar. Much like Lois herself, Pam came from a troubled past. But kindness defined the friends’ brief interaction before Lois emerged with a sinister new agenda.
Tragically, Pam soon lay dead from the very same bullets used to kill David. With ruthless efficiency, Lois then set about stealing Pam’s identity and possessions. Police affidavits detail how over $6000 was drained from the victim’s accounts in mere hours. Now using Pam’s car, Lois entered a cross-country game of cat and mouse with an ever-expanding law enforcement dragnet on her tail.
Twists saw Lois manage to evade arrest for 12 days despite massive attention on the case. But through cell phone records, eyewitness logs, and forensic evidence, a dark trail was unraveled, with authorities like Sheriff Marceno piecing together Lois’ disturbing deceptions. These cruel acts raised serious questions about her state of mind—and whether the depth of her depravity could ever fully be known.
Piecing Together a Tangled Past
To understand what led Lois to such dark acts, the documentary delves into her background. Born in Rochester, Minnesota, she came from a difficult family life marked by instability. As the youngest of five children, Lois’ mother suffered from severe mental health problems that created turmoil in the home.
Friends from Rochester paint a picture of a sensible but unpredictable woman. Beneath charm and humor, acquaintances sensed trouble simmering. Lois married David, and for a time they seemed happy, yet the documentary implies tensions grew. The couple moved often before settling in the small town of Blooming Prairie.
It’s there pathology took hold. Lois describes abuse from David while struggling with addictive gambling habits fueled by embezzling from a disabled relative. These demons dragged her to a psychiatric ward, showing mental instability that ran deep. Analyzing her past, psychiatrists believe this upbringing left scars that impacted her actions.
Yet those actions defy simple diagnosis. Friends saw her eccentric but not unhinged, contrasting starkly with the cold-blooded acts later committed. While abusive relationships may explain sporadic violence, premeditation in multiple murders implies malice beyond mental turmoil alone. In Lois, nature and nurture tangled into something dark and uncertain. Even with intimate access, her mind remained an enigma.
Behind Locked Bars, More Questions than Answers
A pivotal part of understanding this complex case comes through Lois Riess’s own words. In interviews from prison, she paints herself as a victim, claiming abuse drove her acts and memory loss clouds full recollection.
Yet against her testimony stands contradictory proof. Phone records and surveillance footage track her methodical moves, conflicting with an image of sporadic snaps. Pamela Hutchinson’s slaying, in particular, seems premeditated where Lois provides no reasonable justification.
Outside perspectives further challenge her story. Investigators and people close to Lois poke holes in specifics she relates. A fluctuating narrative over time drives doubt as well.
Even with brutal honesty about some past wrongs like theft, blind trust in all she says seems misguided. Her presence and articulation disguise inner truths. Director Erin Lee Carr’s interview style, pressing but not punitive, brings moments of clarity alongside lasting obscurities.
As with any crime of passion turned calculated killing spree, simple answers elude. While abuse may provoke snap decisions, clarity remains clouded on how much remaining control existed. On this, Lois leaves final judgment to the viewer through artful words that admit as much as they obscure.
Deciphering Manipulation from Misfortune
This documentary poses thought-provoking questions about Lois Riess’s true nature. The first murder, linked to years of spousal mistreatment, appears more reactionary than a planned attack. Yet following crimes grow increasingly troubling and premeditated in nature.
While past trauma can reduce inhibitions in times of intense stress, is it fair to attribute all her actions solely to mental cracks? Her grandparent persona formed a diversion few saw through, but doesn’t excuse targeting additional victims.
The second killing seems to lack valid provocation outside desire. Lois’s prolonged masquerade as her replacement shows lucidity undermining images of disoriented snaps. Even accounting for her undeniably troubled background, was calculated cunning not also at play?
In the end, she maintains victimhood despite acknowledged murders and thefts. But do manipulative tools reveal someone also aware of wrongs done? A self-professed lack of recall comes too late, once truth emerges in evidence against her crafting.
Perhaps the aim is not to label but to learn. Mental health remains a blurred space, with triggers varying from case to case. In Lois, some met with misfortune while others encountered orchestrated harm. Teasing apart the two may never fully resolve inside her contradiction-filled mind.
Illuminating the Truth Beyond Facades
Director Erin Lee Carr navigates complex terrain with nuanced skill. In interviewing Lois Riess, she adopts an empathetic yet probing style, not allowing excuses but showing understanding of trauma’s impacts. This delicate balance proves key—fully engaged, Riess provides candid insight despite the likelihood of self-interest.
Occasional dramatization of events feels slightly intrusive. While spurring visualization, they divert from Carr’s emphasis on letting subjects speak freely. Focus remains rightly on Lois’ actions and words rather than superfluous reenactment.
However, one area requiring more light is the human toll on victims’ families. Understandably, exposure to Riess herself holds dramatic interest. Yet pulling further back from her point of view to respect the loss of the slain could have offered perspective absent brutality’s lasting echoes.
Ultimately, Carr triumphs through nuance, avoiding sensationalism while not accepting deflection. Her guiding hand ensures facts outweigh fiction in parsing truth from lies. An intelligent, justice-driven work highlighting how understanding darkness demands shining light into its every recess through wisdom, not accusation alone.
Shadows of the Past, Shadows of the Mind
This documentary delves into a disturbing case with care and nuance. Across two tightly-woven episodes, I’m Not a Monster guides viewers through the maze of Lois Riess’s actions, history, and psychology.
From troubled roots to calculated acts of violence, her winding narrative exposes someone harboring secrets even they may not fully comprehend. While claiming victimhood, contradictory evidence suggests a criminal cunning that contradicts her grandmotherly charm.
Yet for all director Erin Lee Carr illuminates, some shadows stubbornly remain. In Lois’s mind, do memories retain methods to a madness never to be known? Or does fractured past alone explain present dark deeds? In probing such questions, Carr highlights how no crime or criminal fits into simple boxes.
By the film’s end, we grasp Lois better, though final judgments stay inconclusive. Her murky interior world may forever defy full outside view. What shines through is a need for balanced, empathetic perspectives when delving humanity’s fallen corners, to make darkness, if not plain, at least a space where wisdom might walk rather than fright alone.
The Review
I Am Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders
Director Erin Lee Carr has crafted a compelling yet nuanced examination of a disturbing case with more questions than answers. By blending Lois Riess's firsthand accounts with challenging counter-evidence, a multifaceted portrait emerges of how trauma and cunning may both shape living nightmares. While light is shed on terrible acts, the darkest recesses of the human mind and motive remain impervious to full illumination.
PROS
- Artful direction by Erin Lee Carr that raises probing questions through her interview style
- Providing multidimensional context to Lois Riess's crimes and background through interviews
- Engaging the viewer with this complex case that remains a psychological puzzle
- Emphasizing the need for balanced understanding of even heinous acts
CONS
- Could have featured the human impact on victims' families more strongly.
- Some superfluous reenactments that divert from letting people speak for themselves
- Lack of definitive conclusions reflecting how opaque the human mind can remain
