American Nightmare Review 2024: True Crime Documentary Between Actual and Imagined Reality
Cast: Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn
Created By: Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
American Nightmare is a documentary about a kidnapping case that occurred in 2015. The Netflix catalog is the richest among the most famous streaming platforms for true crime documentaries and shows that are always a great success among the subscribed public and are produced in large quantities. There are so many docufilms and docuseries of this genre that even the most passionate end up getting lost in a large cauldron of similar stories, in which one can hardly be distinguished from the other. This does not apply, however, to the new arrival on the platform, American Nightmare, a three-episode series which, due to the facts it tells, is very far from any case we have followed up to now. The crime genre is one of the genres that are most dominating these years. When we start watching a TV series of this kind, we start to make theories, we delve into the story looking for the culprit, the accomplice, and so on all the time.
It is no coincidence that crime is the genre on which Netflix is certain to focus. When another word, true, is inserted next to the term crime, the narrative becomes painful, because they are stories that do not have to do with fiction but with real life. They are adaptations of something that happened, of an event that really shocked people and which, as such, marked them forever. And looking at products of this type, we too are indelibly marked. We saw it with The Act, but also in the new Netflix Crime TV Series American Nightmare. In detail, this new Netflix production puts a strong sense of injustice at the center of its narrative that many users have compared to the events of Unbelievable, the 2019 miniseries in which a girl who is a victim of violence is not believed by the police. American Nightmare tells of a very similar dynamic that happens to a young American couple who, after a tragic event, cannot even count on the help of the police, the only institution truly capable of helping them.
American Nightmare Review: The Story Plot
This story opens with a call to the police, in which Aaron Quinn reports the kidnapping of his girlfriend Denise Huskins the previous night. Someone broke into their house, drugged and immobilized them both, and took the girl away, threatening him not to call the police. Aaron, desperate and not knowing what to do, turns to the authorities after a few hours, who, after having the situation explained to him, take him to the station. The first suspicions, as tends to happen in these cases, immediately fall on him: the kidnapping of a girl to ask for a ransom from her very normal boyfriend – who doesn’t have who knows what financial resources – seems very unlikely to the detectives, and for this reason, they are immediately convinced that it was the cover for a crime. Now we just need to find the body and indict the culprit. When Denise turns up, however, alive and well, not far from the house where she grew up, the case completely changes direction.
After questioning the girl, the investigators continue to be convinced that there is something wrong with what she says: why would someone kidnap her and then release her unharmed two days later? And did she make it all up to get revenge on her boyfriend who is rumored to still be talking to her ex-girlfriend? What immediately comes to the mind of the police is the famous film by David Fincher, Gone Girl, in which the protagonist organizes her kidnapping to take revenge on her cheating husband. Once the connection is made, any other solution to the case seems impossible, and both the police and the media are determined to frame Denise, who cheated everyone and “wasted precious state resources” on the investigation. Aaron, however, believes her, and even the lawyer that the two hires is sure that she is telling the truth: and if, although the girl’s kidnapping occurred in decidedly particular ways, the criminal who held her prisoner (and who committed sexual violence), is he on the loose ready to strike again? It will take another attempted kidnapping – with the attempted rape of another young woman – to bring the attention of all of America back to what happened to Denise.
American Nightmare Review and Analysis
American Nightmare is a very well-constructed and developed documentary, which reveals the details of the case progressively, without immediately revealing all its cards. The testimonies of the real Denise, for example, are shown only from the second episode, to guide public opinion towards the truth one step at a time. Therefore, if the story opens as that of the kidnapping of a girl, as the narrative progresses it evolves and changes direction, turning into a rather ferocious criticism of the actions of the lazy police forces who dealt with the case. The third episode tells us about Denise and Aaron’s desperate attempt to be believed, and it is only once the kidnapper strikes again – and the connection between the two crimes is made – that the police are willing to change their opinion.
The connection with Fincher’s film is central to this whole story: once the police and the media are convinced that Denise tried to act like the protagonist of Gone Girl, nothing can dissuade them from their ideas, not even the possibility of sending an innocent girl to prison, who is discredited in front of everyone. The series is developed in an extremely interesting way, making full use of the testimonies of all those who participated in the story (from the two protagonists to the family members and the lawyers) and is capable of captivating the viewer right away. We are sure that it will be able to stand out in the vast Netflix catalog and will be appreciated by lovers of true crime stories much more than many other products that crowd the platform.
In the darkest and most inexplicable terror of American Nightmare, two sides of the same news story lurk and develop. On the one hand, we find the act itself, the kidnapping, the dynamics through which it seems to have occurred, and the attempts to reconstruct the reasons by the protagonists directly involved; on the other hand, however, we have the speculative dimension, curiously connected with a cinematographic film which, instead of detaching itself, itself becomes the narrative material capable of shaping the same underlying truthfulness. Not an investigation like the others, also seen elsewhere, but a real trial of intentions focused on the victims of the kidnapping, rarely doubting their direct involvement in what happened. In American Nightmare, we do not witness the classic true crime in which an investigation pushes us to relate directly to some dynamics of our reality that no one would ever want to deal with, but a search for the truth that develops from some doubts towards the victims themselves involved, inspiring readings that would see them as the architects of a lugubrious and twisted farce in which nothing reported could make any logical sense.
In recounting the events of this kidnapping, however, American Nightmare will immediately make available to its viewers some means with which to try to clarify and think about the situation. Both the direct testimonies and the stories of Denise and Aaron, as well as the images of the real interrogations carried out by the police involved, are immediately fundamental. Between the actual reality of the images and the possible fiction of a doubt coming from the same story in progress, a Netflix docuseries moves which, starting from the kidnapping of a person, undertakes to continuously play with the same perception of the events of those who are letting yourself be carried away by the small screen. The truth and all the hypotheses being viewed certainly push us to continue, thanks to a fairly incisive formal construction as a whole, capable of moving between what it seems and what it is.
Absolutely yes, especially if you are passionate about true crime stories and documentaries in this sense. We are still talking about an ad hoc docuseries that aims to present and investigate, in its way, an American news story that happened, capable of deeply shocking us even today. Going beyond the story itself and the personal terror that can derive from absorbing the veracity of a situation like the one depicted, American Nightmare also strives to let the victims themselves speak and tell their stories in a succession of details that deceive and they try to explain something that could still be deeply fascinating today. In all this, we also find a series of criticisms, more or less direct, of the system in which the events narrated take on life, form, and substance. The investigative mechanisms in play highlight a series of other reflections that broaden the point of view, also reasoning on the methodologies used to clarify, and on the cumbersome voice of a press that has always and in any case been able to shape public opinion regarding what happened to Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, a young couple who saw their life and aggression continually questioned from the very first moment.
As we saw in the acclaimed Jaffrey Dahmer TV Series, these types of events have always occurred over the years. The complaints from the serial killer’s neighbors were never listened to, leaving Dahmer with the possibility of continuing to commit his crimes. In the same way, When They See Us also told a terrible cross-section of history when to deliver a guilty person to America, it nailed five innocent boys considered guilty only because they were Afro-descendants. Injustice is the glue that unites all these TV series which, by telling us about the terrible events that happened – and not pretendedly – to people like us, make us feel even more vulnerable and helpless in the face of danger. What would happen if we needed help, and it was denied to us? What should we do to be believed? On these questions, the Netflix true crime TV series comes to an end by telling the unspoken truth of Denise and Aaron. By giving them what was taken from them years ago, the platform spreads their story with the hope that it will be useful to the institutions to never back down in the face of a complaint. The truth, somehow, will come out. What is important, however, is to immediately provide help to those who say they need it, to those who see their lives in danger. If this doesn’t happen, you will have to deal with something you can never escape from your conscience.
American Nightmare Review: The Last Words
American Nightmare develops from a real nightmare, immediately indicated in its title. Starting from a true event in American crime news, this true crime docuseries on Netflix tells the story of the battle experienced by a couple who, after being victims of a brutal kidnapping, found themselves having to justify themselves to the press and the police. Not just a direct take on their reality, but an interesting study of the social context in which everything happens. American Nightmare is a true crime documentary that will surprise even fans of the genre with the unexpected case it tells.
American Nightmare Review 2024: True Crime Documentary Between Actual and Imagined Reality - Filmyhype
Director: Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins
Date Created: 2024-01-17 17:08
3.5
Pros
- The way in which events are reconstructed and reported in the documentary phase (editing, reconstruction and use of real images).
- The broader analysis and criticism of the investigation methodologies and the accusations against the couple.
Cons
- Some dynamics are addressed quite hastily.
- It wouldn't have hurt to delve deeper into the more negative sides of the story (media, police and kidnapper).
