Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, True crime
Callum Jones
A new true crime movie about a serial killer responsible for dozens of deaths has hit Netflix this week - and it is not for the faint hearted.
The Good Nurse focuses on Amy Loughren (played by Jessica Chastain), a single mother working night shifts as a nurse while struggling with a life-threatening heart condition.
Loughren soon becomes suspicions of her friend and co-worker Charles Cullen (played by Eddie Redmayne) after a series of mysterious deaths spark an investigation.
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An official synopsis of the movie from Netflix reads: "An overburdened ICU nurse leans on her selfless new colleague at work and at home — until a patient's unexpected death casts him in a suspicious light."
The Good Nurse is based on the true story of serial killer Cullen who admitted to killing up to 40 patients during his 16-year career across many hospitals in the US.
The serial killer was eventually caught in 2003 and is now serving life imprisonment in New Jersey.
Despite the chilling number of deaths, experts warn that Cullen could have actually killed hundreds of people, though the serial killer has never admitted that.
Loughren is also a real person and in an interview with Sky News, Chastain praised the real-life nurse for catching Cullen while also dealing with the many struggles in her life.
She said: "All the things that she was juggling at the time - you know, being a single mother to two girls, not having health insurance, working on a night shift so you're not really getting proper sleep, and also at the same time she needed a heart transplant.
"That's what we walk in with at the beginning of this film and then realise, I mean, without giving any spoilers away, what she then stumbles into is quite shocking."
With films based on real-life events, certain scenes are often made more dramatic.
However, the real-life Amy also told Sky News that the real-life events were actually tougher than they were portrayed on-screen.
She said: "The thing that they don't show in the film was that I was actually much more sick and I was terrified, truly terrified of leaving my two girls behind.
"And I was also directing a play at that time - I was directing my daughter's sixth-grade play. I was exhausted and I still showed up.
"Watching Jessica play me, I allowed myself to feel proud of myself for showing up."
Alongside Chastain and Redmayne, the movie also features actors Nnamdi Asomugha, Kim Dickens, Noah Emmerich, Malik Yoba and Alix West Lefler.
The Good Nurse is available to stream on Netflix now.