Looks like Michael Bay isn’t just a success on the big screen. The first docuseries from the “Transformers” and “Bad Boys” director is a hit for ID with “Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior” drawing 6.4 million viewers in its first week, TheWrap has exclusively learned.
Those viewers spanned ID, Max and discovery+. The five-part series premiered last Monday on Sept. 2.
“Born Evil” follows the complicated and dysfunctional family of Hadden Clark, a serial killer most people have never heard of. It also details the alleged confessions Clark made to his cellmate, whom he believed was “Jesus.” Those very confessions sent investigators on a search to solve a series of cold cases that were linked to him.
Ultimately, Clark was only convicted on two murders, those of 6-year-old Michele Lee Dorr in 1986 and 23-year-old Laura Houghteling in 1992. Both were killed by a knife and buried. Due to those cases, Clark was dubbed “the cross-dressing cannibal killer.” He reportedly ate part of Dorr’s body and dressed up in a wig after killing Houghteling to make people think she was alive for longer than she was. Clark was sentenced to two consecutive 30-year sentences. However, once incarcerated, he admitted to allegedly killing dozens of victims.
“Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior” is produced by Range Studios with Bay Films and Ladder Truck 33 for Investigation Discovery. Bay is executive producer on the series.
The filmmaker is responsible for movies like “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor,” the “Transformers” saga and both “Bad Boys” and “Bad Boys II.” As for his role as a producer, he’s been involved in the “Quiet Place” movies and “The Purge” franchise, as well as the 2000s-era reboots of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “The Amityville Horror,” “Friday the 13th” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
News about this collaboration between Bay and ID was first made available in 2023. “I’m a storyteller at heart; I’m fascinated by the human mind and exploring what makes each of us tick. When you approach documenting real-life crime from that perspective, the end result is always intriguing,” Bay said at the time. “Known for the caliber of their programming, Investigation Discovery’s expertise in unscripted true crime is second to none, and I can’t wait to expose one of the most twisted crimes of the century.”
