So I watched the new Netflix documentary American Murder: Family Next Door. Halfway of watching it, just wanted to shut it down because I could not bear watching the kids being murdered by their own dad whom they considered as hero. My God. From the start, I knew Chris, the father, is the primary suspect because if Shannan has been abducted along with her kids, some suspect would already have been negotiating for ransom in exchange for their lives.

It was only 10 minutes before the documentary has to end that he started to admit of killing his wife. He denied that he killed his children, that it was Shannan who both killed them. Well, dead man tells no tale as they said. How could Shannan do it, it doesn't make any sense. First, she was not an abusive wife and as a mother of two kids. Second, she loved her family so much. Chris would have called 911 immediately for fucking sake but instead he strangled her to death and his kids were even watching on what happened to their mom. He imediately drove and dug a grave for her wife's body in the vicinity of an oil field while he also disposed his children in an oil drum, treated it as garbage bin for her children's bodies.

All because of a rich fucking mistress, he wanted a fresh life and just murdered his family altogether. He could have settled for divorce instead. But he chose to reveal his true color, his sociopathic life. Criminal like him is a waste of American's taxes.

WARNING: DON'T LET YOUR KIDS WATCH THIS

An excellently-produced documentary covering the investigation of the disappearance of pregnant mom-of-two Shanann Watts (34) and her daughters Bella (4) and Celeste (3), and the [spoiler]timeline, documentation and media coverage leading up to the discovery of their triple murder and following on from the killer's arrest[/spoiler].

I most appreciate the way that it uses real text messages, footage recorded [spoiler]prior to their deaths[/spoiler] by Shanann and her friends and family, and recordings made by the authorities and everyone else immediately after the fact.

My only quibble with the doc is that it could have been more in-depth than it ended up being, but it does work well as a film, in both length and pacing. I do like that it gives a more in-depth view of the family's lives than most such casefile films could, and better still, it doesn't use them to sensationalise, [spoiler] or to make Shanann look like a bad mother, as has been done with victims who were popular social media figures in many similar situations in the past. Despite the bit showing how horrible people on the internet were about her after she and her girls vanished, and how much that hurt the people who'd loved her. I do wish folk wouldn't **do** that! [/spoiler].

I don't really feel I should review the actual _case_ in a post like this, on a site like this, or that it's my place, but I do have one final thing to say - or two? [spoiler]Hearing that Watts actually bundled his two little daughters into the backseat of his truck _right next to the murdered body of their mom_ and, as if that alone hadn't been sufficiently horrendous, went on to murder sleepy, tiny, three-year-old CeCe _right in front of_ four-year-old Bella, who was awake, coherent, adored her daddy and had reportedly been questioning what was going on the whole time, was just about old enough to understand how badly he'd hurt them both, and seems to have been pretty protective towards her baby sister ...[/spoiler] There isn't much I've heard about this case, or similar ones, that's more carelessly, heartlessly, casually evil than that considered action. On a second watch, [spoiler] the recording where Bella sings that song about her daddy being a hero ... [/spoiler] that's even more of a gut punch in hindsight. [spoiler] That poor baby. [/spoiler]

I also feel I should say, I completely believe Shanann's dad's idea about [spoiler] how she herself died. There's no way a mom who loved her babies as much as Shanann obviously did would give in to being murdered without a fight, leaving not a single defensive injury on him at all. She probably _was_ sleeping when he killed her, just as her father believes. [/spoiler]

Not that that makes any of this case any _better_. I doubt anything could. But it's covered about as well as it could be in a documentary of this length, I believe.

**THE WACPINE OF ‘AMERICAN MURDER: THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR’**

WRITING: 6
ATMOSPHERE: 8
CHARACTERS: 6
PRODUCTION: 8
INTRIGUE: 7
NOVELTY: 7
ENJOYMENT: 8

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**The Good:**

Largely told through CCTV, camcorder and social media footage, this documentary feels grounded in reality by being slightly rough around the edges. There is something oddly satisfying about a true story being told in this way.

Amazingly, despite the structure of the documentary, there is some strand of a plot weaves within the narrative.

The emotional impact of this if hits harder and feels more authentic than with many similar documentaries, mostly thanks to the raw footage shown.

Those interrogation room scenes are pretty freaking intense to watch. The growing realization as to what has happened hits very hard.

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**The Bad:**

The unusual presentation makes the structure kind of messy an incoherent and the pacing is a bit off. The resulting production feels amateurish and unfinished.

The film mostly follows one track and doesn't sprawl out very much, making it feel like a one-sided documentary not intent on sparking a discussion or presenting different theories.

Unlike the best documentaries, this one isn't intent on finding answers and trying to understand why thing happened the way they did. Instead, it focuses on just telling us exactly how the world came to know about what had happened.

You could call this a Wikipedia article in film format. It tells us how and when stiff happens but doesn't give us context or present reasons.

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**The Ugly:**

Christopher's confession.

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**WACPINE RATING: 7.14 / 10 = 3,5 stars**