American Murder: The Family Next Door (2020)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
A chilling true crime documentary unravels the brutal 2018 Watts family murders through the lens of digital-era connectivity.
The story
The film tells the story of the 2018 Watts family murders, which took place in Frederick, Colorado. It uses archival footage including social media posts, law enforcement recordings, text messages and home video footage to depict the events that occurred. The film plays out in a found-footage mystery structure, not revealing until the middle that Chris Watts killed his family; his interviews are interspersed with interviews and quotations from friends and family, Chris's shocked mistress who had believed that Chris and Shanann were separated, and text messages copied from Shanann's cell phone.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
The film tells the story of the 2018 Watts family murders in Frederick, Colorado, using archival footage like social media posts, law enforcement recordings, and home videos. Structured as a found-footage mystery, it initially hides the fact that Chris Watts killed his family until the middle of the film. The narrative intersperses Chris's interviews with those of friends, family, and his mistress, alongside text messages from Shanann's phone. The documentary explores public theories regarding motives, contrasting labels of Shanann as a 'narcissist' with her family's claims of public bullying. Chris alleged physical abuse from Shanann, which the film later reveals as a false allegation. By the end, the film pastes together the events leading to the murders without providing a solid answer on his motive. It reveals that Chris buried Shanann in a shallow grave at an oil field and stuffed his daughters' bodies into twenty-foot-high oil tanks on the property.
- First release year
- 2020
- Runtime (minutes)
- 82
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Jenny Popplewell
- Genres
- true crime documentary; collage
- Themes
- marriage; deception of social media; domestic violence
- Tone and mood
- chilling; mystery
- Premise and plot tags
- true crime; social media; domestic violence; mystery
- Source material / true-story basis
- true crime
- Content notes
- violence against women
- Production trivia
- Netflix reported that 52 million households started the documentary in its first month.; The film uses a found-footage mystery structure.; The film reveals Chris Watts buried Shanann in a shallow grave at an oil field.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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