CAPTURING THE KILLER NURSE
US, 2022, 93 minutes, Colour.
Amy Loughren, Donna Hargreaves, Bruce Ruck, Tim Braun, Danny Baldwin, archival footage: Charles Cullen.
Directed by Tim Travis Hawkins.
In late 2022, Netflix released two films based on the book by Charles Graber, The Good Nurse.
The first was a dramatic interpretation of the characters and events. It starred Eddie Redman has the multiple killer, Charles Cullen, murdering many people in his role as a hospital nurse. The other part of the drama was the focus on the nurse played by Jessica Chastain. This documentary, there is archival footage of interviews with Charles Cullen and quite extensive interviews with the real Amy lock ring.
Soon after, this documentary was released, also based on Charles Graber’s The Good Nurse. However, it focuses on the investigation into Charles Cullen. It is directed by Tim Travis Hawkins, documentary-maker (who directed the film Persona, on psychological testing, which included some questionable material interpreting the Myers Briggs Type Indicator).
Some audiences prefer drama. Some audiences prefer documentary. Depending on preference, choices will be made about which film to see first. Those who see the drama first, it is interesting to see afterwards, in the documentary, extensive interviews with some of the key characters as well is here the recordings of interviews with Charles Cullen and see photos of him. For those who prefer documentary, they may not wish to see the drama but, if they do, they will discover how the screenplay keeps to the key characters and the development of the drama, giving attention to the eventual capturing of Charles Cullen which is much more emphasised, is the theme of the documentary.
This documentary deals with facts and interpretation, suspicions about deaths in hospitals, making the link to Charles Cullen, his background and difficulties with custody of his children, his access to medicines, his method of getting them and covering his tracks, administering the medication to the different patients, their deaths.
The film also has interviews with relatives of some of the victims, often substantial, throwing light on the murders and the repercussions, eventually dissing tearing the body of one of the victims, a Catholic priest, for evidence against Cullen.
Amy lock ring (Jessica Chastain in the film) is interviewed extensively throughout the film, her work at the hospital, her daughters, her own heart condition and difficulties, the interviews with the police, her helping them to get data. Don Hargraves, who work with her, was not dramatised as herself in the film. And there is also the contact with information about hospitals and poisons, Ron Buck, playing himself.
Interestingly, the two investigators, strong characters in the film, are interviewed at some length during the documentary, describing their methods, activities, and the frustrations with the hospital administration not collaborating, suppressing documentation…
As with the drama, there are no conclusions as to Charles Cullen’s motivations.
(Netflix did a similar release with the British conman in the drama, Rogue Agent, and the documentary, The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman, Robert Hendy Freeguard.)
