Masters Dissertation Research: The Most Hated Woman in America (2017)

This movie left me with a bit of a weird taste in my mouth. The Most Hated Woman in America (2017) is based on the Kidnapping of well-known activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her family in the 1990's.

For a low budget movie, made with only $2 million, as it was a Netflix original movie. This means that, though the story jumps between the 60's and the 90's, the characters do not age, leaving viewers confused.

This film has a, somewhat, confusing tone. Due to the topics being breached, the tone begins pretty dark, however, there are some genuinely comedic moments, because of Madalyn's quick wit/sense of humour.

Spoiler Alert: due to the deaths of the three main characters it is impossible to know if this is how the interactions actually happened. The only people who could tell the story of the kidnapping and murders are the people who committed the crimes, and this can lead to a bias.

Personally, this film felt really weird. I didn't really care for Madalyn because she came across as being a bit money hungry and mean. This wasn't helped by the fact that, despite the film's rather grand title, I had never heard of the main character until this movie. And yet, her death wasn't shocking to me, but was instead a bit of a relief as it meant the film was coming to an end.

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