American Nightmare is the latest Netflix documentary series by the Tinder Swindler filmmakers Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins. It is executive produced by Rebecca North and Fiona Stourton. There are 3 episodes with a runtime of about 43-46 minutes.
The documentary series includes Denise Huskins, Aaron Quinn, Jane Huskins, Mike Huskins, Devin Huskins, Henry Lee, Marianne & Joe Quinn, Dan Russo, Amy Morton, Doug Rappaport, Chris Shepard, Miguel Campos, Misty Carausu, Tracey and others involved with the case.
Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn were awakened in the middle of the night by intruders on March 23, 2015. Huskins was abducted, and the events that followed in this frightening, convoluted, and disturbing story are the focus of American Nightmare. The mysterious abduction of Huskins grabbed the attention of the entire nation’s media, who began to draw parallels between the case and the plot of the popular 2012 novel, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
-This Article Contains Spoilers-
American Nightmare Review
Whenever an ordinary citizen finds themselves in a dangerous situation, their first thought is to get help from the respective governing authorities because that’s what they are meant to do. But what would happen if they deny to believe you and rather make you the vile monster, just craving for attention? That’s what happened with Aaron Quinn when he reached out to the Vallejo Police Department in California, to report his girlfriend’s abduction.
On March 23, 2015, Denise Huskins was abducted from her home at gunpoint. As stated by Aaron a few men barged into their home with guns taped with flashlights. They were wearing wet suits to conceal their identity & made Aaron turn to his stomach, so his hands could be tied with zip ties. They also injected some sedative into their bodies, while they dragged Denise’s tied-up body into Quinn’s car trunk.
By the time Aaron woke up, it was morning and the next thing he did was to contact the police. Little did he know that instead of getting help, he would become a suspect himself. After listening to the whole ordeal, the investigating officer, Mat Mustard, directly accuses him of killing his girlfriend over a conflict about his ex or they overdosed on drugs and now he is trying to get a ticket out. Instead of following up on the details he had given, the officers tried every tactic to break him down by pointing fingers at him.
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However, the fingers turned to Denise when she was found alive and had been released by her kidnappers after a few days. Despite providing all the true details of her harrowing experience, the police & FBI had already decided that it was all an act – just like Rosamund Pike’s character in Gone Girl. Instead of catching the criminal who might try something similar on someone else, they waged war on the traumatised couple, threatening them with federal punishment for creating a hoax for attention.
If hasn’t been for Officer Misty Carausu, who was investigating an attempted sexual assault case in Dublin, California, the couple could still have been fighting a case to prove their innocence. In June 2015, she came across a case where a 22-year-old girl was saved by her parents from getting sexually assaulted. The perpetrator was almost caught by the father & ran away in a hurry, leaving his phone behind. This led the police to Matthew Muller, an ex-military and lawyer, caught in various assaults & petty crimes in the last decade.
While going through the stuff in his apartment & stolen cars, they came across fake guns wrapped with flashlights, swim goggles with duct tape over them, sedatives etc. What became crucial evidence was a single strand of blonde hair, found with the goggles. After tenaciously trying to find the origin of the hair strand, Misty Carausu became the only helping hand that cleared Denise & Aaron’s name. The strand belonged to Denise and with other evidence found from Muller’s home, the FBI finally believed that the couple was telling the truth from the start.
American Nightmare presents the story compellingly and directly, without trying to create unnecessary suspense. The people who were at the centre of the whole ordeal bore their painful experience in front of the camera, hoping that people would finally see the truth in their eyes. It also sheds light on the law enforcement who were under great impression of a fictional film that they refused to see what’s happening in real life. While it’s a satisfactory end with the criminal being sentenced for their crime, there’s still one thing that remains unanswered.
The couple mentioned individually how their kidnapper mentioned Aaron’s ex, Andrea and her being the target/or the reason for this. But nobody questions it further, could she be involved in hiring them or was she the one that could have been kidnapped? Also, one of Andrea’s exes being the investigating FBI officer – David Sessa raises more suspicions but the authorities snubbed it and nobody seemed to be bothered to dig deeper. Whether this was some kind of revenge, or they became random targets of Muller & his associates, is still a mystery.
Overall, it’s a harrowing yet intriguing documentary where fiction and reality are fighting for the truth to shine through. It also makes the viewer wonder about the mindset of Matthew Muller, who previously attempted similar crimes but changed his mind when the victims pleaded. He also tried to prove to Denise that he was the ‘nice guy’ among the bunch of bad guys yet continued to put her through hell. His state of mind & perspective could have added a new discourse to the story.
American Nightmare is available for streaming on Netflix.
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