First look at Netflix's new psychological thriller based on ‘unthinkable true story’

Based on Charles Graeber’s 2013 book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder, Redmayne plays Charles Cullen, a nurse and serial killer who confessed to killing as many as 40 patients over the course of his 16-year career. Cullen used a variety of medicines to overdose his victims.

He was arrested in December 2003 and on 2 March 2006, Cullen was sentenced to eleven consecutive life sentences. Authorities believe he may be responsible for as many as 400 deaths as he worked in nine different hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Before becoming a nurse, Cullen had a harrowing upbringing and made his first suicide attempt when he was just nine years old.

His mother died in car crash when he was 17 years old and his father had died years earlier when Cullen was seven months old.

Cullen joined the US navy and was part of a team that managed Poseidon missiles aboard submarines. He was discharged from the military in 1984 after making another suicide attempt.

He then began medical training at the Mountainside School of Nursing and in 1987 - a year before his first murder - he secured a job at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey.

The dramatised version of Cullen’s crimes follows Chastain’s character Amy Loughren, who is also a nurse, as she begins to question a series of mysterious patient deaths.

Netflix’s description of the film teases ‘that’s when Cullen’s co-worker Amy Loughren engages in a deadly game of cat and mouse with her murderous colleague.’

Loughren is also based on a real person who was credited by investigators as being an informant who helped solve the case.

She tracked down drug requests made by Cullen, observed his computer searches and even wore a wire.

“My dad’s a fireman paramedic, my brother serves in the military,” she told the publication. “So often we’re surrounded by people who are doing the work to make all of our lives healthy and safe, and oftentimes they go unnoticed, so I was really excited about using this opportunity to amplify her and her story and her courage.”

The Good Nurse premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be released on Netflix on 26 October.