Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers and disturbing content.
“American Murder: The Family Next Door” is a Netflix documentary that takes place in Colorado and explores the events of a 2018 true crime story. Director Jenny Popplewell offers a unique approach to the murder documentary, straying from the usual commentary and analysis format. The documentary delves into a modern timeline of Shanann Watts’s life by looking at her social media. The documentary shuffles through Shanann’s posts prior to her disappearance and live police footage from the moment Shanann’s friend, Nickole, started worrying about her.
The film follows the Watts family through the months leading up to the murder of the pregnant mother and her two children, Celeste and Bella, and covers what happened after. “American Murder,” as tragic as its story is, turned out to be a great documentary.
“American Murder” begins by depicting the Watts as a happy-go-lucky family. Viewers are shown extensive footage of the family laughing together. This includes videos of Shanann telling Chris she’s pregnant, the daughters’ first trip to the beach and goofy, heart-filled father-daughter moments. An emotional connection to the family is established, only furthering the distress of this dreadful story.
The film moves towards a flustered Nickole who cannot get a hold of her friend and goes to the police to express her concerns. We hear Shanann’s parents panic on the phone, and Chris comes home from work to find a team of police investigating the property. Chris, Nickole and the investigators enter the home to find no sign of the rest of the family. Chris seems alarmed and anxious, as the police ask questions about the last time he saw his wife and daughters. At this point, it is an unfathomable disappearance.
Initially, Chris convinces the audience of his innocence. He is horrified by the disappearance of his family and expresses hope for their return in a news interview. It is not until he fails his polygraph test that we understand the severity of his lies. Once the Watts’s friends and family are interviewed and questioned, the police find out and reveal personal information about the couple. From Chris’s texts and calling history, it is uncovered that Chris had an affair with a younger co-worker.
After learning about Chris’s girlfriend, the story unfolds quickly. It takes several excruciating months of investigations, but Chris finally confesses to killing his two young daughters and his pregnant wife. Around 80 minutes into the documentary, Chris comments on the morning of the event stating, “I felt like there was already something in my mind that was implanted that I was going to do it and I woke up that morning, it was going to happen and I had no control over it.”
He will spend the rest of his life in a Wisconsin prison.
This highly-publicized case is alarming but incredibly prevalent in the United States. The documentary concludes by exposing the terror of rising rates of domestic abuse and women being murdered by their partners. The onset of COVID-19 has played a role in worsening this reality, as many couples are isolated in their homes.
Viewers are informed that every single day, three women are murdered by their ex or current partner. With these moving statistics, “American Murder: The Family Next Door” becomes influential as well as intriguing, as the film aims to use the Watts’s story to increase awareness about domestic abuse.
