American Nightmare: Netflix’s New True Crime Doc Investigates A Real Life Gone Girl Case
Remember Gone Girl? One of last decade’s best thrillers (both the original novel and the Ben Affleck-starring film adaption), it became a small hit with its unsettling look at a mysterious disappearance and a domestic life gone wrong. Now, ten years after the film’s release, Netflix has a new documentary that follows a case apparently very similar to the film, centring around Denise Huskins, a woman dubbed “the real Gone Girl” in the media. If you’re always bingeing true crime documentaries like we are, then American Nightmare, from the same team behind The Tinder Swindler, is definitely one to watch.
What is American Nightmare about?
American Nightmare looks at a real-life kidnapping case from 2015, in which a woman, Denise Huskins, went missing, with her boyfriend Aaron claiming that she had been kidnapped from their home. Her abductors were said to be wearing wetsuits and sedated him to knock him out, and then demanded a ransom of $15,000. Police were suspicious and the case became even stranger when Denise popped up again miles away from the house and told a similar story of abduction and assault, but was also deemed to be lying. The story seemed to be eerily reminiscent of the film Gone Girl, in which Rosamund Pike’s character Amy Dunne apparently fakes her death in similar circumstances. Aaron’s account was not believed by the police and he was accused of taking it, but as the Netflix documentary explains, however, Huskins’ kidnapping may have been genuine, contrary to the initial investigation.
What else do I need to know?
Like most Netflix true crime documentaries, American Nightmare is split into three parts: “The Boyfriend”, “Gone Girl” and “The Others”, each exploring different elements of the story. It includes the original incident reported by Aaron, the alleged FBI theories of the couple being inspired by Gone Girl, and lastly the case’s possible connections to other crimes in the California area.
The documentary’s trailer begins with Aaron’s phone call to police and his interrogation before a media frenzy on the “Gone Girl” connection breaks out. But, as one talking head interviewee in the doc speculates, “Did we all get this wrong?” You can find out exactly what happened in this bizarre case by streaming American Nightmare on Netflix, available now.