'The Good Nurse' Is Based On Terrifying True Story
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Netflix has come out with a slew of creepy content lately (looking at you, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Watcher). And it's not slowing down any time soon. The streamer is bringing a new, horrifying film into the mix. The Good Nurse, a new film that drops on Netflix on Oct. 26, details the story of nurse Amy Loughren, who discovered one of her colleagues and friends had murdered dozens over patients over 16 years and helped authorities apprehend him.
Given the fact that so many of these Netflix series and films have tapped into very real stories and events lately, it’s only natural to wonder if there’s truth to this one, too.
Bad news: Unfortunately, The Good Nurse is based on the story of Charles Cullen, a real-life nurse who killed a slew of patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania before getting caught in the early 2000s. And the film is actually adapted from the 2013 book called The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber.
The story is terrifying and disturbing. And the film is pretty darn accurate. Here are the details:
Who is Charles Cullen?
Charles Cullen is a former nurse who killed nearly 30 people during his career, according to The New York Times. Charles was born in 1960, in West Orange, New Jersey, per The Independent. Both of his parents died before he was an adult (his father, close after his birth, his mother, in high school) and he signed up to serve in the US Navy before being medically discharged for a suicide attempt in 1984, the outlet said.
Cullen then attended nursing school in Montclair, New Jersey, and went on to work in various hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for sixteen years, from 1988 to 2003. He was finally apprehended for his crimes in December of 2003.
At one point, Cullen was married to a woman named Adrienne Taub, but she filed for divorce in 1993, per The Morning Call.
How many people did he kill?
Cullen killed at least 29 people during his tenure, per the Times, but some think the kill count was much higher. His first victim is believed to have been a Jersey City judge named John W. Yengo. The judge died in 1988 at the age of 72.
How did he kill his patients?
Cullen killed patients by injecting their IV bags with lethal doses of insulin and heart medications, according to NJ.com. He moved from hospital to hospital in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and was fired or forced out of at least six medical centers, the news organization reported.
Loughren has a website called "Amy the Good Nurse," where she wrote that "five hospitals knew he was hurting patients and still gave him a neutral reference, sending him on to continue his killing spree.”
Why did he kill them?
Cullen claimed in a 60 Minutes interview that these were mercy killings. “I thought that people aren't suffering anymore, so in a sense, I thought I was helping,” he said.
While some of Cullen’s victims were terminal, others weren’t. When 60 Minutes confronted him about this, Cullen said, “My goal here isn't to justify. You know what I did there is no justification. I just think that the only thing I can say is that I felt overwhelmed at the time.”
What was Cullen charged with?
Cullen was charged with the murder of 29 people, per the Times. However, some estimates have put the number of his victims at closer to 400.
Who plays Cullen in ‘The Good Nurse’?
Actor Eddie Redmayne plays Charles Cullen in The Good Nurse. You might recognize him from roles in Les Miserable, The Theory of Everything, or The Danish Girl.
Who is Amy Loughren?
Amy Loughren, who is played by Jessica Chastain in the movie, is a nurse who was a close friend and coworker of Cullen's. She was recruited by officials to try to bring Cullen to justice. The single mom worked as a trauma and ER nurse until 2003, according to her website.
When authorities first told Loughren about Cullen's activities, she said that "it was like everything shut down," per a Glamour Magazine interview. "I completely disassociated from reality because I could not process it. It was such an intense emotion that I couldn’t even grasp it.”
While she knew her coworker was struggling, she didn't know how it manifested in his life. "I thought maybe he had a bit of depression," Loughren told Glamour. "We bonded over the fact that we both had darkness within us—my darkness was different to his."
Where are Cullen and Loughren now?
Cullen is currently serving 11 consecutive life terms in a prison in Trenton, NJ, per the Times.
Loughren is now a Reiki Master, according to her website. She also serves as a hypnotherapist, meditation instructor, DreamSculptor practitioner, reconnective healer, integrative energy healer, past life regressionist, crystal language reader, and medical intuitive.
Loughren worked pretty closely with the actors on the movie to help their portrayals. "Eddie and I talked a lot about who the real Charlie was. I didn’t know the serial killer, I met that person only a few times. The real Charles Cullen was a different person," she told Glamour Magazine. "Eddie took notes from my description of him, and I watched him take those notes and put those into his craft and artistry to become Charles. Jessica talked a lot too—she played the version of me from 20 years ago."
And a lot has changed since that time when she found out her friend was a killer. "I am 20 years wiser and more confident. I’m a much better version of myself than I was then."
The Good Nurse drops on Oct. 26 on Netflix, and is already showing in select theaters.
You Might Also Like
