This article contains major spoilers for American Nightmare.
Netflix’s new true crime documentary American Nightmare has captivated viewers since its release on January 17.
The three-part series tells the story of a 2015 case referred to as the “real-life Gone Girl“, in which San Fransisco resident Denise Huskins was abducted from her home in the middle of the night by an unknown assailant, after she and her partner Aaron Quinn were drugged and blindfolded.
Quinn went to the authorities for help, but they considered his story to be unbelievable and subsequently accused him of Huskins’ murder. However, when she reappeared two days later near her parent’s house, suspicion shifted to her.
The case was compared to the best-selling novel Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which was later adapted into the 2014 film starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. In the film, author Anne Donne (Pike) vanishes, leading police to suspect her husband Nick (Affleck) was to blame.
American Nightmare ending explained: What happened to Denise Huskins?
Unlike the story of Gone Girl, in which Anne Donne fakes her own kidnapping in an attempt to frame her husband, Huskins was telling the truth.
By the end of the final, hour-long episode of American Nightmare, it becomes clear that Huskins was indeed abducted, falsely imprisoned and sexually assaulted by a Harvard-educated, ex-marine called Matthew Muller, who was arrested by police in Dublin, California, for an unrelated but not dissimilar home invasion.
Speaking about the incident in 2021, Huskins told ABC News: “You can go through any kind of trauma to where it leaves you devastated and in a place where you just think, ‘This is impossible to move forward from. What do I do next?’”
Netflix’s official synopsis for the series reads: “After a home invasion and abduction, a young couple’s recounting of the events is too far fetched for the police to believe. Why did the victims seem so calm? Was it all a hoax?
“From the filmmakers behind The Tinder Swindler, this three-part docuseries unravels the consequences of our cultural rush to judgment, and the damage done when law enforcement decides the truth can’t possibly be true.”
The streaming service adds of the series: “Incorporating a mix of interrogation footage and new interviews, the…docuseries unravels the consequences of our cultural rush to judgement — and what happens when law enforcement decides to focus on their version of the truth, even if it couldn’t be further from reality.”
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