Capturing the Killer Nurse

2022

1 hr. 34 min.

Crime

Documentary

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List

71%

7 Reviews

Tomatometer

55%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

Charlie Cullen was an experienced registered nurse, trusted and beloved by his colleagues at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey. He was also one of history's most prolific serial killers, with a body count potentially numbering in the hundreds across multiple medical facilities in the Northeast. Based on The Good Nurse, the best-selling book written by Charles Graeber and dramatized in a Netflix feature film starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne that released this fall, this new documentary from Emmy-nominated director Tim Travers Hawkins (XY Chelsea) reveals the twisted story behind Cullen's hidden spree of murders. Using audio from Cullen himself and emotional sit-downs with those closest to the events including whistle-blower and fellow nurse Amy Loughren, the detectives who cracked the case, author Graeber, and family members of the victims, the film traces how the truth was initially too shocking for anyone to comprehend, and how Cullen's horrific actions underscore an even bigger danger still lurking in our healthcare system.

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Jeff M

This is the real-life story that was the basis for the recent narrative film THE GOOD NURSE with Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne. I gave a lukewarm recommendation to that film a few weeks ago, and I feel basically the same about this documentary. While I enjoy the idea of comparing the two, I didn't feel like I learned a whole lot more from one than the other, which I suppose is sort of a compliment to the film version. The documentary does tend to dig a bit deeper into the psyche of Cullen and listening to actual audio tapes is undeniably chilling. But my basic issue is that this doesn't feel much different than an episode of DATELINE NBC. Perhaps I'm serial killer-ed out, but there's nothing about this story that feels "special" enough to warrant all this attention. It doesn't have the spark and originality of my favorite documentaries. And by saying this, I don't mean to belittle the horror of these atrocities and the many people whose lives have been forever changed. I just wish the filmmakers had found a way to make this more than just an average talking-head documentary. I don't feel it necessary to watch both this and THE GOOD NURSE. If I had to recommend one over the other, I'd choose this one, because it's almost always more harrowing to watch the actual people involved.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/21/24

Full Review

Nicolas

Not much to say. Just that it didn't grab much of my attention, and I felt it went quite slow in spite of not being a long documentary.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

farah r

Even true crime fanatics will have a thing or two to say about how utterly dull this documentary is. I nearly fell asleep multiple times and gave up a little over half an hour into it.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Michele L

I know other professional reviewers did not think much of this doc. I really liked it, not only for telling the stories of the nurse who worked with Cullen and became his friend, and the law enforcement who would not stop investigating him, but also for telling the heartbreaking personal stories of the loved ones who lost family members at Charles Cullen's hands. I took one look into those eyes in his pictures, and I'm thinking 'Uh huh. No way is this guy normal and on the up and up.' I have a gift of knowing what is in people's hearts, and if their motives are good or evil just by looking in their eyes, even in a photo. So I was not a bit surprised to learn that he had abused, and in one instance was suspected of having poisoned an animal. I'm thinking 'Yup. Right again.' It has always amazed me that people dont see what I can see and know by looking at someone. And that so often they are fooled and end up in a bad situation for trusting bad people. And in a very weird parallel to my life, I also had a cousin (older than me) named Larry, who was also very close to his mother, had never married, and his mother was his whole world. Even the pictures of the man and his mom from this doc were eerily very like my own cousin and his mom. Looked just like the few pictures I had seen of them together later in their lives. Even the house, and the strong Midwestern feeling I got from their pictures, were on the mark. (My cousin and his mom lived in Kansas, same time period, everything.) If you are interested in the personal stories of crime victims, and the perpetrators who murdered their loved ones, you will probably like this doc.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

12/21/22

Full Review

Audience Member

As a documentary it is very well done. But I think people will be more focused on the story it tells. A horrible story whose indirect perpetrators emerged unscathed from the crimes that they themselves promoted. More than anything I feel ashamed for a system that protects the powerful. And it is not a question of the times because it is quite recent. Honestly, if such a horrendous crime is covered up what can we expect...?😳😳😳😳😳

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

charlie s

This was interesting. Great insight. Very sad story told well.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Tim Travers Hawkins

Director

Amy Loughren

Self

Charles Graeber

Self

Robin Ockleford

Producer

Henri Singer

Executive Producer

Susannah Price

Executive Producer

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Capturing the Killer Nurse: Trailer 1

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Noel Murray

Los Angeles Times

Whether dramatized or presented as journalism, it remains shocking to hear how the problem of Cullen kept getting passed from one institution to another.

Nov 11, 2022

Full Review

Kate Erbland

indieWire

Even for true crime obsessives, Tim Travers Hawkins' Capturing the Killer Nurse likely won’t hold much attention -- particularly when interested parties can watch Lindholm’s far superior dramatization of the same material, [The Good Nurse].

Rated: C-

Nov 10, 2022

Full Review

Owen Gleiberman

Variety

Loughren is a compelling character. So are the cops, and so, in his way, is the documentary’s “star,” who we hear on tape (from Graeber’s extensive interviews with him)...

Nov 10, 2022

Full Review

Santanu Das

Hindustan Times

Even as Cullen's actions come to light, Capturing the Killer Nurse fittingly spotlights on the moral depravity of the collective healthcare system that so surreptitiously held back his name only because of their economical interests.

Jan 31, 2023

Full Review

Barbara Shulgasser

Common Sense Media

But unlike many true crime documentaries, this one has a story that rivals great fiction whodunnits.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 15, 2022

Full Review

John Serba

Decider

Capturing the Killer Nurse makes you feel queasy... and the feeling only gets worse as it suffocates us with the type of overwrought wordless reenactments and sinister music we’d see in exploitative sub-basic-cable true crime dreck.

Nov 15, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

Charlie Cullen was an experienced registered nurse, trusted and beloved by his colleagues at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey. He was also one of history's most prolific serial killers, with a body count potentially numbering in the hundreds across multiple medical facilities in the Northeast. Based on The Good Nurse, the best-selling book written by Charles Graeber and dramatized in a Netflix feature film starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne that released this fall, this new documentary from Emmy-nominated director Tim Travers Hawkins (XY Chelsea) reveals the twisted story behind Cullen's hidden spree of murders. Using audio from Cullen himself and emotional sit-downs with those closest to the events including whistle-blower and fellow nurse Amy Loughren, the detectives who cracked the case, author Graeber, and family members of the victims, the film traces how the truth was initially too shocking for anyone to comprehend, and how Cullen's horrific actions underscore an even bigger danger still lurking in our healthcare system.

Director: Tim Travers Hawkins
Executive Producer: Henri Singer, Susannah Price, Charles Graeber
Genre: Crime, Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 11, 2022

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