American Nightmare- Netflix Series Review

A true crime mystery that plays out with the kind of twists and turns you would find in a Harlan Coben series.

Be warned the following will contain spoilers for the first episode

American Nightmare is the story of the kidnapping of Denise Ruskins in 2015 and the maelstrom of suspicion that would envelop her from the police and the media.

Right from the off, the filmmakers expertly let this strange case unfold masterfully. Initially built on the suspicion hovering over Aaron Quinn’s account of how his girlfriend Denise Huskins was abducted from their home in Vallejo, California.

From his oddly detached tone of voice during his 911 call, to the fact he reported the crime many hours later, we immediately are conditioned from many true crime dramas to take his story with a large dose of scrutiny.

The lead detective, Mat Mustard, seems to have been trained by those same TV shows, in actual taped police interviews, he jumps to the belief that Aaron has killed Denise over a jealous argument about his ex. He scarcely comes across as a professional law enforcement official but instead as an over eager amateur hoping to stumble onto a murder.

At first, like in a lot of true crime, we side with the doubting police officers; inquisitive, cynical, self-righteous,probing.

Those who binge watch True crime are perpetual know-it-alls, always ready to disbelief given accounts to hopefully preempt a plot twist that is just around the corner, then immediately boast about their prescience.

After all, it is an odd story that Aaron recounts, the kidnapping sounds like it could have been staged by Wes Anderson; kidnappers wearing wet suits, makeshift blackout goggles, playing wind chime music into their victims ears, laying down a square of red tape for Aaron to stay within, the fact they only ask for $20,000 or that they are targeting a pair of physical therapists.

But soon some plausibility emerges, for instance, a strong sleeping drug was administered to Aaron by the kidnapper, explaining his strangely calm voice on the 911 call.

Then as audio files, photos and emails are sent from the kidnapper himself confirming Denise is alive, Aaron is in the clear, but worse is yet to come for Denise as we head into the second of the three part series.

What follows is the very worst of today’s culture of online scrutiny, victim blaming and false narratives: Denise’s every move and her reluctance to talk are soon used as finite proof of this being a concocted scheme to set up Aaron ala Gone Girl. Instead of viewing it as possibly just the behavior of a recently traumatized victim experiencing the invasive public spotlight for the veyr first time in her life.

The continual references to the movie Gone Girl, released a year prior to the events and based on a Gillian Flyne novel is troubling. But far more troubling is when the lead detective brings it up to Ruskins’ lawyer as if it were a plausible scenario and not a complete work of fiction.

This is a story about how fiction affects reality, for example the police interrogation seems like a scene taken straight out of a cop show where the policeman actually trots out the tired cliche about how an investigation is like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. So stubbornly resolute in his conviction, Mustard even talks about how he will eventually create ‘the monster’.

The story also serves as an indictment of the Vallejo Police Department: a department that has killed more people per arrest than 97% of police departments in California. Along with a lack of accountability and a gung ho mentality amidst their officers, there is a distinct lack of public trust in the Vallejo Police Department, where only 4% of civilian complaints were ruled in favor of the complainant.

A Vice article titled “Inside One of America’s Deadliest Police Departments” focused in on Vallejo PD’s reputation: they linked the high numbers of police killings, misconduct and civilian complaints to the downsizing of the department when it filed for bankruptcy in 2008. This forced them to layoff half their police force and the subsequent drop in standards could be the reason behind how their detectives failed to see the obvious evidence that was coming in about what went on.

The filmmakers, Bernadette Higgins and Felicity Morris, are experts in crafting true crime stories for Netflix like the Tinder Swindler (2022) and Don’t F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (2019).

Their forte is in taking the usual cocktail of archival footage, interviews and reconstructions that we have seen a million times and structuring it like a scripted thriller, racking up the tension as it unfolds.

The brilliant Netflix documentary Victim/Suspect, covers the same subject of how sexual assault victims go to the police expecting justice and paradoxically find themselves treated as suspects. But American Nightmare goes one step further in underlining the role of the media in repeating and reinforcing the allegations of this being a ‘haux’, showing how news outlets can distort public opinion into believing a complete lie.

This is a story about the power of story itself, whether you call it a hoax, a fraud, or a myth, it’s undeniable the authorities, the media and the public bought into it rather than the facts of the case.

American Nightmare started with a fantastical story that ended up being true and ended with the cops, media and public choosing a fantasy over reality.

Verdict:

A sobering tale about the extremes of ‘tunnel vision’ investigations and the reality of how victims of sexual assault are still made to suffer under the intense spotlight of the Police, the Media and the Public