Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, Crime, True crime
Lucy Devine
A true-crime series based on 'the real life Gone Girl' has just dropped on Netflix.
The doc arrived on the streaming platform on Wednesday (January 17) and so far people have been glued to the series, with many watching the entire three-parter in one sitting.
The true-crime documentary tells the story of Denise Huskins, who was kidnapped in the middle of the night in 2015.
She had been hanging out at her boyfriend Aaron Quinn's house in Vallejo, California, when their lives suddenly changed irrevocably.
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The couple, who are physical therapists, went to bed that evening, but were awoken in the middle of the night by intruders.
Two men broke into the home, tied them up and forced them into a closet where they were drugged and blindfolded.
Denise was kidnapped and held for ransom, but when Aaron reported the crime, police ended up suspecting him instead.
Even when Denise was released two days later, after being drugged and raped by her abductor - police still claimed the story didn't make sense.
Denise's story became known as the Gone Girl kidnapping, after earning comparisons to the book and movie, which tells the story of a woman who faked her own kidnapping.
Check out the trailer below:
The true-crime series raises questions over why people are so reluctant to believe women and what happens when law enforcement decides the truth isn't true.
While people doubted the couple for weeks, three months later, police were investigating a similar case and found evidence relating to Denise's kidnap, in the possession of a man named Matthew Muller.
Muller ended up being sentenced to 40 years in prison, meanwhile the couple sued the City of Vallejo for defamation and won a $2.5 million settlement.
Over on X (formerly Twitter) and people were shocked after watching the series.
One person wrote: "30mins in to #netflix American Nightmare. No idea what the outcome will be but that Police Force is like something from the 70's!!! Don't worry about the investigation, just choose an outcome & make it fit!!!"
While another said: "I can’t believe what I’ve just watched. Denise and all women that come forward with their truth deserve so much better than what the backwards justice systems all over this messed up world gives them. I feel sick to my stomach. #AmericanNightmare."
And a third added: "American Nightmare is WILD this poor couple."
You can watch American Nightmare on Netflix now.