Whenever a creator has a hit for a streamer like Netflix, the pressure is always on to come up with an equally buzzy follow up. The sophomore slump can be a particularly nettlesome hurdle to surmount, as we’ve seen time and time again from new releases on the streaming giant — but based on the newly released trailer for American Nightmare, I already feel confident in declaring that Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins, the makers behind 2022’s The Tinder Swindler, are about to have another wild-yet-true bona fide hit on their hands.
Launching on Netflix on Jan. 17, the three-episode American Nightmare sort of unfolds like a real-life Gone Girl. The trailer begins with a 9-1-1 call. “My girlfriend Denise got kidnapped last night,” Aaron Quinn calms tells the operator.
“And you didn’t call last night when this occurred?”
“…I was tied up.”
It turns out, no, that’s not the flippant “I was busy” remark that it looks like. He meant he was actually tied up and restrained — and things just get weirder from there. The incident stemmed from Quinn and his girlfriend Denise Huskins being woken in the dead of night on March 23, 2015, by a home invader who ends up kidnapping Huskins.
“The story of Huskins’ disappearance invited national media scrutiny,” Netflix continues, “with many comparing it to the 2012 Gillian Flynn novel Gone Girl. Law enforcement claimed the young couple’s recounting of the events was too far-fetched for anyone to believe. Incorporating a mix of interrogation footage, and new interviews, the three-part docuseries unravels the consequences of our cultural rush to judgment — and what happens when law enforcement decides the truth can’t possibly be true.”
Netflix is already the home of incredible and shocking true-crime documentaries and docuseries, including everything from Take Care of Maya to Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife and Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. American Nightmare, which you can check out the first trailer for below, will no doubt be another must-watch title to add to that list.
