Netflix has long been the hub for various crime and murder documentaries to submit our natural morbid curiosities. American Nightmare is a new Netflix documentary that follows a kidnapping affecting Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn. The documentary begins with a 911 call in the late afternoon of March 15th 2015 from Aaron to report that his girlfriend Denise had been kidnapped in the early hours.
Aaron described that he had been tied up by the kidnappers and unable to leave his bedroom, hence why he did not report the crime directly after it occurred. The first episode, of the three part series, places Aaron in the hot seat as Vallejo Police working on the case disbelieve the wild story of Denise’s kidnapping and look to Aaron as the orchestrator of her disappearance. The police immediately dig into Aaron and Denise’s relationship to find any cracks which would put Aaron in a position to harm Denise.
In this search they find messages to and from an ex partner days before the kidnapping took place. Vallejo Police are relentless in their narrative of Aaron’s guilt and frame their investigation to make him the orchestrator. Even going so far as to tell him he failed the lie detector test (which he passed) and telling him they knew he was at fault for her disappearance.
The three part series is gripping in that it withholds the truth of the kidnapping from the viewer and we watch alongside the investigation and uncover the evidence with those investigating it. The first episode focuses on Aaron, the second places Denise at the fault of her own kidnapping when she arrives back at her family home two days after her disappearance. The investigation gained popularity under the name of the ‘Gone Girl’ case.
As similarities were contrived between Denise's kidnapping and the film Gone Girl starring Rosamund Pike. Vallejo Police, having shifted their blame from Aaron to Denise, believed that Denise faked her own kidnapping to spite Aaron for his contact with his ex-girlfriend. The third and final episode reveals the truth of the shocking case which I will leave you to discover.
The evidence, I will say though, was found by another department as Vallejo police were still unrelenting in their accusations of Denise and Aaron. Criminologist David Wilson spoke on This Morning about the popularity of this fascinating case particularly the pitfalls of the American police force dealing with the kidnapping. Wilson queried Vallejo Police and their handling of the case which was completely aimed at proving the guilt of Aaron and Denise and their seemingly unbelievable and fictitious story instead of looking for anyone who could have kidnapped her.
Wilson acknowledges the merit of this documentary for exposing the biases within criminal cases and the victims of police inadequacies. This shocking story of Denise Huskins kidnapping is a woman's worst nightmare. The documentary does involve discussions of sexual assault and rape which could be distressing for some viewers.
At the core the most disturbing aspect of this documentary is not only the brutality of the kidnapping but the disbelief of Denise Huskins and the contrived narrative of her as the perpetrator not the victim of this horrific crime. This documentary whilst being gripping and enthralling is an astounding comment on the victims of a broken system and specifically the disbelief of female victims of sexual crimes.