American Murder: The Family Nextdoor is a documentary that was released last year on Netflix. It quickly became a sensation, as viewers were not only drawn to the story itself but also were fascinated by the usage of firsthand footage to tell the tale.
The documentary covers the disappearance and murder of Shanann, Bella, and Celeste Watts. It follows Shanann’s husband Christopher Watts when he discovers that his family is missing until he ultimately confesses to all three of their murders. To learn more about the story, check out my last post (it goes over it in detail).
What is so intriguing about this documentary is that it utilized strictly firsthand footage of the entire event. Typically, documentaries will transition back and forth between firsthand footage, interviews, and possibly reenactments of events. Using a combination of old family videos, police cam footage, text messages, and Facebook posts from Shanann’s personal page, one was able to catch a glimpse of Shanann and Chris’s relationship, her connection with her family, and the untimely death of both her and her daughters.
In my opinion, the first-hand experience made me feel more connected to Shanann as a human being. Although any tale as horrible as this one makes you feel sadness and empathy for the victim (or victims), it is hard to for a deep connection with the victim because he/she is unable to tell their own story. By using Shanann’s real text messages and Facebook posts, director Jenny Popplewell was able to integrate Shanann’s voice into the film. A voice that usually would have been omitted and silenced because of the selfish actions of Christopher Watts. I have yet to see a documentary about murder so tell the story of a victim so eloquently. It is almost as if Shanann is telling us herself, and at times I often forgot that she was dead.
Just as a side personal note, there is a portion of this film in which Chris has gone over to the neighbor’s house to look at the recording of the neighbor’s camera from the night before. We can see this all occurring through the police body-cam footage of the police officer who was with them. Once Chris leaves his neighbor’s house, the neighbor turned to the officer and said something along the lines of, “He’s acting real weird man.” Alluding to the fact that Chris might have had something to do with the disappearance of his family only moments after Chris left his home. When I saw this part, it made me laugh out loud (as I saw a lot of myself in that neighbor). I had a few friends text me to say that the neighbor reminded them a lot of me, and I think a lot of us true-crime fanatics could picture ourselves butting into an investigation and seizing the opportunity to let the officers know which people we think were, “acting real weird” during the investigation.
If you have a Netflix subscription, I strongly recommend that you watch Jenny Popplewell’s American Murder: The Family Nextdoor.
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