American Murder: The Family Next Door

American Murder: The Family Next Door

Shanann Watts led an extremely digital life. She religiously posted videos of her picture-perfect family on the internet, and if you watch enough of them, through the footage that’s publicly available via social media platforms, you can start to get a sense of who she was as a person. Recognizing how much of Watts’ personality was right there in front of us online must have been the jumping off point for Netflix’s “American Murder: The Family Next Door” to conceive their true crime documentary in such a refreshing way.

There isn’t one sit down talking head interview or staged event re-created for this doc every single image is either something that was uploaded to the internet, shot by investigators, or texted by players involved and it makes for a movie that feels deeply personal, and not always in a good way. It can’t help but feel a little like an invasion of privacy.

Yes, Shanann signed off on putting her life online; no, she did not sign off on having it dissected and analyzed after her death, nor did she probably ever consider whether or not her text messages would be fair game for some true crime documentary (and I’d love to know who gave approval for these things). So while I’m sure Shanann’s family approved you have to imagine they were heavily involved in making this happen there is always the question of how much stories like these should belong to the loved ones of the people involved and how much they should just be exposed to the whole wide world. And I’m not sure this movie always justifies its invasion of privacy.

The counterargument here would be that “American Murder” shows what kind of darkness an online persona can hide. The facts themselves are not really up for debate; it’s not one of those mysteries where people spend hours arguing about message board minutiae or descending into Reddit rabbit holes or dedicating 13-part podcast series to the cover-up. On August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts came home from a business trip.

Her husband Chris strangled his pregnant wife to death in their bed and then drove her body out to a work site he had been managing, where he buried it in a shallow grave; then he dropped their other two children, whom he’d smothered to death already, into an oil vat at the same location. He was a total fucking monster, and the theory is that he pretty much wanted to erase one life so he could start another with his mistress.

Among the first few minutes of body cam footage after Chris was found to be missing his family-wife Shannan and their daughters is perhaps the most chilling part of this documentary. It shows him pretending to wonder where they could be when just hours earlier he had strangled her to death and suffocated both kids. And that’s what makes a sociopath: They can go through life with dead eyes. He’s so calm. It’s terrifying. (He’s too calm, in fact; if my wife and kids were gone, I’d be freaking out-and cops had to have been instantly suspicious at his lack of emotion.)

On August 13th and over the next few days, “American Murder” jumps back and forth between what’s happening on Facebook friends realizing Shanann’s posts are all public in real-time as she disappears and what detectives are doing, or not doing as we’ll get to in a minute. There’s also texts between Chris and Shanann sprinkled throughout all this stuff we know now only served as cover for the truth that was coming out more every day about how much he hated her, how monstrous he was. So again, this is not a mystery story. The question is not whodunnit? Or even why dun nit? But rather how it came to this.

There’s too much of everything except investigation in “American Murder.” Too many shots from Shannann’s Facebook feed some without any context other than that this is what she posted the day before her death! Why?! We already knew she died! This isn’t storytelling or even journalism; it’s exploitation.

The one thing director Jenny Popplewell does give us more than enough of is video from inside the law enforcement offices were Chris was being interviewed after failing a lie detector test.

This portion of “American Murder” is really something special if you enjoy watching cops ruin their only shot at a confession by not being able to keep their lies straight. These were seasoned detectives, but they had not rehearsed enough before the interrogation began and once Chris saw them sweat.

At this point, we know that he’s guilty of killing his wife. We know he’s guilty of killing his daughters. We know he put them in oil tanks at an oil field where he worked. What we don’t know is how in the world this guy was ever able to get away with any of it even for five days.

Having said all this about “American Murder,” there’s one thing I want to make clear: There are plenty of exceptions within the documentary genre more than most other genres, I’d venture to guess but generally speaking, true crime stories are mostly made by people who tend to exploit tragedy for personal gain or fame or ratings or money. Or some combination of all those things.

The silver lining here is that usually (admittedly, not always) when they’re exploiting a crime like this for personal gain or fame or ratings or money (or some combination of all those things) at least it helps solve the case. This time those efforts didn’t really pan out.

As a fan of true crime documentaries myself, I’m often asked why they’re so popular, and I think the common interpretation that it’s rubber-necking or morbid curiosity is dead wrong. At least in my case, what attracts me to these shows isn’t anything as shallow as seeing gory details played out on TV; no. I’m interested in true crimes because unlike other kinds of mysteries (which have been completely ruined for me thanks largely to CSI and its ilk), there’s still room left open for speculation here!

And while it may be a bit narcissistic on my part well maybe more than just “a bit My reasoning goes something like this Sure XYZ happened to person ABC, but come on now! That could never happen to someone like me! I don’t even know any murderers or criminals personally!

So for those of you who might’ve suspected otherwise: Yes, I am aware that most crimes are committed by people the victim knows. No need to tell me twice.

And that’s just it! It provides a sense of safety by othering crime.

But if there’s one thing about this documentary that really struck a nerve with me. The banality of evil is something we should all be more conscious about in our lives because it truly is everywhere around us and sometimes even closer than we think like next door or inside our own homes.

Watch American Murder: The Family Next Door For Free On Gomovies.