Murder, religious fanaticism, and belief in the apocalypse combine in this incredibly twisted Netflix series about a "Doomsday mom" and the investigation into the deaths in her family.
Sins of Our Mother is about Netflix like True Crime. It's bombastic, it tells a terrifyingly compelling and horrifying story, it's expertly structured and full of twists and turns, and it leaves that slightly dirty feeling of being sucked into other people's suffering for the purpose of entertainment. Over three episodes, each one more shocking than the last, it tells the story of Lori Vallow, known as the "doomsday mom" in the American media, after an astonishing series of events involving numerous deaths, fanaticism religious, spirits of light and darkness. and "zombies".
Stars: Colby Ryan, Janis Cox, Kelsee Ryan
Along with her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, Vallow is awaiting trial for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, in connection with the deaths of her fourth husband, Daybell's ex-wife, and two of Vallow's children, Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, 16. and seven when they died. Both Vallow and Daybell have pleaded not guilty. The length and complexity of even the explanation of what Vallow and Daybell are accused of goes some way to indicating how twisted and convoluted this documentary becomes.
The filmmakers have received interviews with family members, who tell their versions of the events leading up to Vallow and Daybell's arrest and her role in the media storm that preceded it. Vallow's mother, Janis Cox, talks about her changing loyalties, how she publicly defended her daughter, until she came to the conclusion that those who accused her of wrongdoing "were right." Colby Ryan, Vallow's oldest and only surviving son, is the most prominent voice, despite being arrested last week on sexual assault charges (which were later dropped). He offers a brief overview of Vallow's marital history and paints a bleak picture of a harsh upbringing marked by domestic violence and sexual abuse. Vallow becomes a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon church. She talks a lot about the apocalypse and the end of days, about visions of angels, about sleepless days and nights.
When Vallow meets her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, she has two children, Colby and Tylee. The couple adopts a son, JJ, connected through the branches of a particularly complicated family tree. During that marriage, she becomes entangled with fellow Mormon novelist Chad Daybell, who is married to a woman named Tammy; he eventually becomes her fifth husband. By the end of 2019, only Vallow, Daybell, and Colby Ryan would still be alive.
There is a wealth of material to tap into here, from podcast interviews to emails, from phone calls to police interviews, body camera footage, and, heartbreakingly, phone footage of families in "happier" times. We see emails in which Daybell gives the people in Vallow's life a light or dark spirit "rating," using a spirit "point system" that he has devised. We hear that living people are dead and demons are using their bodies. Charles Vallow, panicked that he can't locate his children, tells the police that his wife believes she is "a risen god"; we see another officer telling her that he doesn't see her as "a danger to you or anyone else."
All of this barely scratches the surface. Justin Lum, an investigative reporter in Arizona, picks up the thread that police initially missed, suspecting that the deaths and disappearances surrounding Vallow and Daybell may be connected. One of the many truly shocking claims, in a series full of them, is that Lori Vallow tells Charles Vallow's other children about her father's death via text and then refuses to answer her questions. understandably terrified of her.
It becomes more complicated, more horrible, attracting more friends, more family, more fanatical beliefs, until it reaches its terrible end point. The problem with this documentary is that there isn't really an end point. Vallow and Daybell were arrested in 2020 following the discovery of human remains on Daybell's property, but the legal process has been long and drawn out; they are currently due to stand trial in January 2023. This imbues everything with a vague, jarring sense of self-consciousness, a sense that you are leaving clues, unable to tell the full story, despite the implication that it is all there to see if you look hard enough.