American Nightmare

This documentary was very intriguing.

The slow start, the presentaion of events and the unbelievable stories led me to thinking, yep this is a Gone Girl copy but for real!

I vaguely remember the story but not the outcome.

The way the couple were individually shown in both police interviews and even the Netflix interviews truly sounded like the kidnapping was not true and actually bizarre.

I placed trust in the police investigation as that has been my point of truth but now find I need remove my bias and think more carefully about jumping to conclusions.

Watch this and draw your own conclusions.

I've been watching too many true crime serial killer things lately and I thought this was just one more of the same.

I was wrong.

It was not what I expected and after watching it I was sort of breathless.

Holy moly!

I did not at all remember this although clearly it was on the national news.

Here I am 24 hours later and still shaking my head.

How could a thing like this happen?

It's shocking and disturbing.

I really feel for the victims here. It could happen to any of us.

This is made very cleverly. I don't even want to say much more than that. We come to stories like this with firmly held preconceived notions.

But things are sometimes not what they seem.

I would have given this a 10 except at some (few) points it drags a bit. So a 9 but highly recommended.

As Episode 1 of "American Nightmare" (2024 release; 3 episodes of about 45 min.) opens, we are introduced to Aaron and Denise, a couple in their late 20s in Vallejo, CA. Then shockingly, Denise is kidnapped in the middle of the night, and Aaron doesn't call 911 until the next afternoon... At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from director Felicity Morris ("The Tinder Swindler"). Here she reassess events from 2015 when a woman is kidnapped (or was she?), and the boyfriend is an immediate suspect by the Vallejo PD and the FBI. I had not heard of this true crime case before, and it is super plot heavy, so the less said on that, the better. I will simply comment that once again if this was presented as fiction, it would lack credibility. But facts are stranger than fiction. Morris does an outstanding job presenting all the different aspects, and doesn't waste a second. My only complaint is the series' title, which is unnecessarily generic and surely someone could've come up with something more relevant.

"American Nightmare" started streaming on Netflix a few days ago. I watched all 3 episodes in a single setting. If you are in the mood for a kidnapping case that is bizarre, to say the least, but along the way makes for riveting viewing, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

"American Nightmare" is a short documentary that enrages you, not because it's a low-quality production - it's quite the opposite: It enrages you because it does an effective job of exposing injustice and incompetence from authorities who are supposedly here to serve and protect. You are reminded of the barriers women face when victimized. This is why most do not report. To this day, even post-Harvey Weinstein and the strong feminist movement, female victims are still not believed. It's easier to just forget that this is happening in our society, but thanks to good documentaries like this one, we are reminded that not only do victims get victimized twice, the law enforcement victimizers are actually rewarded and not punished for their smug incompetence.

For fans of the true crime genre, American Nightmare offers a very well documented, detailed and also with the real victims, they are not actors. They even have audio and video evidence.

This documentary rise the questions around judging and pointing fingers without sufficient evidence, disbelief and the failings of our institutions, the truth is that it is not a new issue, although in this case it is extremely cruel and I would say that it is even illegal. The word 'negligence' falls short in this case, it is much worse than negligence.

I would have liked to know more about Andrea's ex-partner, the FBI agent, but it still doesn't matter for the final result. And also a psychological profile of Matthew Muller could have maybe added a new view to the story.

When a citizen finds themselves in a dangerous situation, their first thought is to get help from the authorities because that's what they are meant to do, at least come forward to prove they are not lying! But what if they deny to believe you? The officers tried everything to break them down by pointing fingers at them from the beginning. Really frustrating! My blood pressure went up! And if that were not enough, let's talk about the press, always inventing things just to damage and break our lives. I will tell journalist Henry Lee, from the San Franciso Chronicle, not to judge without knowing, that is not doing your job well at all!, but simply wanting to harm others in every way. I hope it happens to you one day, let's see if we believe you. Asking for forgiveness later makes no sense any more, damage is already done!

I just hope that after all this unnecessary drama and loss of a lot of money, the organizations that should help us when we need it most have learned something.

I absolutely recommend it!