Netflix last Wednesday (26) released the film The Night Nurse, continuing the true crime genre’s debuts on its platform, including Dahmer: The American Cannibal and Welcome to the Neighborhood. Directed by Tobias Lindholm (The Hunt), the feature film adapts the true story of American nurse Charles Cullen, a serial killer convicted of murdering patients with a drug overdose. The production stars Academy Award winners Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) and Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye).
Prior to its streaming release, Night Nurse screened at the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival and in select theaters across the United States, to positive reviews from critics. Below is more information on the plot, cast and expert rating, as well as the outcome of the real case.
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2 of 4 In Netflix’s True Crime series, nurse Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain) suspects her new colleague is a patient killer — Photo: Disclosure / Netflix
In the Netflix series True Crime, nurse Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain) suspects her new colleague is a patient killer.
The Story of the Night Nurse
The film is set in New Jersey in 2003. Overworked nurse and mother Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain) is relieved to learn that the hospital she works at has hired another nurse to help with her duties. New pro Charles Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) quickly gains the trust of his colleague. However, investigative duo Danny Baldwin (Nnamdi Asomugha) and Tim Braun (Noah Emmerich) turn to Amy for help as officers suspect Charles may be involved in a series of mysterious deaths of patients in his care.
The film is based on the 2013 book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder, written by American journalist Charles Graeber.
Among review aggregator sites, Night Nurse has a 6.9 rating on IMDb, a critical rating of 64 on Metacritic, and a 5.1 public rating and critical approval rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 80% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes site.
3 of 4 Nurse Amy Loughren is questioned about the behavior of her colleague Charles Cullen — Photo: Reproduction / Rotten Tomatoes
Nurse Amy Loughren is questioned about the behavior of her colleague Charles Cullen Photo: Reproduction / Rotten Tomatoes
The film had been in development since 2016, with Tobias Lindholm directing and Krysty WilsonCairns (1917 and Last Night in Soho) writing the screenplay project to adapt Charles Graeber’s book for the screen. The first names confirmed to star in the feature in February 2020 were Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain. The following year, in 2021, they completed the team with Nnamdi Asomugha (Beasts of No Nation), Noah Emmerich (The Americans) and Kim Dickens (Fear the Walking Dead).
The case behind the film
In December 2003, American nurse Charles Edmund Cullen was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for causing the deaths of 29 patients in his clinical care by overdosing on drugs such as morphine and insulin. However, during the 16 years of work, suspicions arose that Cullen had actually taken the lives of about 400 people.
Cullen had worked at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey since the early 2000s. After being hired, the serial killer quickly became friends with Amy Loughren, a nurse with heart disease and a single mother of two girls. The strong friendship that developed between the two was shattered after local police sought Amy’s help to obtain information about mysterious deaths that occurred at the hospital where she worked.
Amy’s investigation led to Cullen, and the pro used her friendship with the killer to get her confession. With the nurse’s conviction, his criminal past was exposed: he was fired from five other hospitals and fired from two others, all motivated by criminal practices in the hospital environment. Cullen had a long history of mental imbalances, temper tantrums, attacks on fellow students, and suicidal thoughts.
In an interview with the BBC, Amy Loughren, who is now a doctor and underwent 18 years of surgery, says she felt guilty because she had previously failed to suspect Cullen’s behavior. “I wanted to believe he was a mercy killer (term used for killing patients with terminal illnesses) so I could still take care of him. And he wasn’t like that. He was a coldblooded killer. I didn’t realize it, I was really struggling,” the doctor recalled.
4 of 4 Today’s doctor Amy Loughren and convicted nurse Charles Cullen in real life — Photo: Reproduction/Getty Images and NJ.com. Edited by Jonathan Firmino
Current doctor Amy Loughren and convicted nurse Charles Cullen in real life Photo: Reproduction/Getty Images and NJ.com. Edited by Jonathan Firmino