Movie Review

Title : “American Murder: The Family Next Door”

Country : Colorado, America

Released : September 30th, 2020

Director : Jenny Popplewell

Publisher : Netflix

American Murder: The Family Next Door is a heinous American true crime documentary movie directed by
Jennny Popplewell. The film tells the story of the 2018 Watts family murders which took place in Colorado.

In 2018, Chris Watts confessed to killing his pregnant wife, Shanann, in a state of anger after she strangled their
daughters, Cece and Bella, in response to his request for separation. Days after, he admitted the lie and claimed to
be the killer of his two beautiful kids.

The story appeared to be tailor-made for easy consumption: a young family, seemingly happy and well off, is
cracked wide open when mom and daughters gone missing, leaving the father begging for them to come home. The
director tries to build that story from the inside out, opening up with a smooth, social media setup that brings us into
the lives of the Watts family and then detonates them as the case (and the truth) reveal themselves. Instead of giving
a straightforward timeline to patch up the gaping question of his motives of taking his family’s life, the directors
came slowly with the relationship story of the two, Shanann and Chris, that makes us wonder what other kind of
entertainment will be shown up?

The film seemed impeccably produced by meticulously weaving together a wealth of information – including a
body-cam footage, neighbors’ security videos, Google Maps overviews, personal video taken by Shanann’s friends,
claustrophobic interrogation room setups, and the social-media messages so many armchair sleuths pored over to
discredit Shanann. The result is an immediately immersive story, but it can’t help but feel a little too well designed.

For me, the movie is truly terrifying account of precious life’s being taken by a complete monster. I can feel the
loss and ongoing nightmare they feel daily. I will say that the best punishment for Chris Watts is living his whole
life knowing he took the life of those who loved him unconditionally.
Vocabulary

Heinous : terrible/awful

Strangle : squeezing the neck of someone to death

Tailor-made : special made

Well off : rich

Detonate : explode / blow up

Patch up : solve

Impeccably : faultlessly

Meticulously : very detail

Claustrophobic : having an extreme fear

Sleuth : detective

Pore over : do research

Discredit : harm someone’s good reputation

Immersive : almost like real (usually use computer display or system)

Unconditionally : without conditions or limits