Woman from new Netflix 'Gone Girl' series issues plea to viewers before watching it
Whilst it's custom for Netflix to issue age ratings and trigger warnings as a premise to their infamously chilling true crime documentaries, it's rare for stars of these limit series' to speak out themselves ahead of their release.
That said, this is seemingly the case for brand new three-part crime drama American Nightmare - which is said to follow the story of the 'real life Gone Girl' and has left viewers in a 'state of shock'.
Having landed on the UK streaming services earlier this week, this spine-tinging series tells the tale of Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins, a California couple who were plunged headfirst into their worst nightmare back in 2015.
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The pair were awoken by intruders, before being tied up, drugged and Denise taken, in this wild-goose chase that would lead authorities to pin all the blame on the victims themselves.
For readers who haven't yet been fallen witness to this heart-stopping sequence of kidnap, drugs, rape and astonishing levels of police neglect, please be warned: spoilers lie ahead...
Before getting into the mind-bending plot, however, Denise has issued a plea to her online followers to read the book she released about her turmoil before sinking their teeth into the series.
Sharing a trailer for the streaming service's latest addition before it was made accessible to viewers she wrote on Instagram: "There's a lot of footage that's never been shown before, that we hadn't even had access to until recently.
"So it'll give a visual to parts you already have read about, and I think will put people right there with us in a different way."
Denise went onto explain that her novel would give a deeper context to things that the docu-series - which includes staggering interview footage - couldn't do.
If books aren't your thing however, then read on to hear why exactly this true crime doc has sent so many viewers into a horrified frenzy...
After Aaron finally regained consciousness the morning after that fateful night - which saw Denise thrown into a trunk and driven away - he telephoned the police to inform them she'd been kidnapped for ransom.
After a brutal - and definitely unlawful - line of questioning by leading officers, Aaron was labelled the prime suspect, after being told his story resembled that told in 2014 blockbuster Gone Girl when it transpired that he'd exchanged messages with his ex.
However, despite all fingers pointing at Aaron, in a bizarre twist of fate similar to that featuring in the Ben Affleck psychological thriller, Denise unexpectedly reappeared near her mother's home in Huntington Beach roughly 72 hours later.
She subsequently corroborated Aaron's somewhat unbelievable story, revealing she was taken remote cabin where she was further drugged and tragically raped before being released.
Police became even more suspicious over the pair's story - in spite of Denise's haunting recollection - and they earned several comparisons to the blockbuster movie, which was released a year prior and tells the story of a woman who faked her own kidnapping to frame her cheating husband.
Instead of hunting down the man that had harmed Denise - who, as the final episode explains, is finally caught following another crime a year later - the documentary shows officers initially branding her story a 'hoax'.
After countless further errors made by investigating officers, Matthew Muller - an ex-Marine and disbarred immigration attorney - was identified as having taken and assaulted Denise.
He pleaded guilty in 2016 to one count of federal kidnapping, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison, also facing additional state charges of rape by force, robbery and burglary.
While many claimed Netflix lived up to its impressive reputation as a master of riveting true crime documentaries, the majority of online viewers claimed the real horror of this haunting tale was the behaviour of the authorities.
"I just finished American Nightmare on Netflix and I am in a complete state of shock," one viewer penned on X this week.
"OMG This documentary makes me want to choke the life out of these lazy ass cops !!! This is a perfect example of why victims don’t come out and speak ! Fear of being prosecuted or drug through the mud," another tweeted.
Topics: Netflix, TV And Film, Crime, True Crime
Rhianna Benson