Synopsis
Using raw, firsthand footage, this documentary examines the disappearance of Shanann Watts and her children, and the terrible events that followed.
American Murder: The Family Next Door
2020 Directed by Jenny Popplewell
Cast
Director
Producers
Editor
Composer
Genres
Popular reviews
More-
This one actually felt very exploitative to me. If you're looking for something to put the events of this case in a timeline - I guess, this documentary does a decent job. But that's all it does. It takes existing footage and arranges it in a specific order. It doesn't attempt to explore the reasoning. It doesn't attempt to uncover something you can't already learn from a simple Google search. It doesn't give it any kind of perspective. All it does is puts the a timeline together, puts the word "murder" in the title, and waits for the true crime crowd to tune in as it puts a family tragedy out on display.
-
This format of documentary - where they only use real recordings and footages - is incredibly enjoyable to watch.
-
-
imagine using Facebook so often that people could almost make an entire documentary just from your posts
-
kind of obsessed with the unnamed friend shannan is pouring her heart out to about the possible infidelity and she's just like "no girl dont say that"
-
Apart from being a terrible tragedy, I also was shocked by the obsessive taping of the children and social media posting.
-
-
-
-
-
-
American Murder: The Family Next Door follows the first hand footage and accounts from the family and friends of Shannon Watts about her disappearance and the subsequent murder investigation that followed.
Going into this Netflix documentary I had very little knowledge of this case but the use of real footage and videos of Shannon really worked at surmounting the fact that this is a real story and how truly gut-wrenching it was hearing what the final words of the little girls were. I never expected this documentary to truly explain how the mother and daughter died in such detail but yet shockingly that worked really well at hammering in the fact that the killer really was quite evil and how…
Recent reviews
More-
Weird that people self-document enough to make found-footage documentaries of real-life murders. But it works. (I had not heard of this case before.)
-
-
such a heartbreaking story, and also, to comment on the filmmaking, such an intriguing way of presenting the case
-
Been sitting here trying to articulate how I feel after watching that. But basically it's just... Fuck that guy.
-
watching things like this just—angers me. it’s insane to me to think about the fact that someone is capable of doing such awful things to others. to a mother. to a wife. to children. it’s just so upsetting to watch unfold, but this documentary was so well put together. everything from the actual video footage, to the facebook inserted “home videos,” it all gave the documentary that much more meaning. it showed you the insides of their live, how precious those children were, so innocent and undeserving of what happened to them. it showed you how strong the mother was. how selfless and also undeserving of what the husband put her and the children through. and the begging—god, it made…
-
It feels strange and kind of inappropriate to describe a real life murder as not that interesting of a story, but the fact is that there's not a huge amount that makes this particular tragic tale stand out from a million other similar tales we've heard about. I can assume that the reason the documentary was made was because the filmmakers realised that they could piece it together entirely from existing footage shot by the family and police and news crews, and from social media posts. There's no typical talking heads here.
This is a novel approach and does help it to stand out amongst myriad other similar true crime documentaries, in form if not content. I won't reveal any… -
so sad. i dont think it was correct to make this. i guess her family was chill with it, but like this is just a sad story that has been turned true crime entertainment googoogaga who dun it? For sure entertaining, but also just really sad, sad story sad that this was made. How to make documentary not exploitative???
-
-
-
-
-
If you’ve seen the YouTube compilations of news channels talking about this case, you don’t really need to watch it.. because it’s just that. This documentary is quite literally a bunch of clips from the already-well-known footage published all over the internet, with exploitative text messages popping up every once in awhile.
Popular Lists
More
Films Directed by Women
Vanessa 6,543 films
Check out the official top 100 narrative feature films by women directors list
FAQ (please read before commenting)
1) Why…
The World is Hell: Hopeless Cinema
Darren Carver-Balsiger 963 films
Pessimistic worldviews. For when you want to wallow in despair.
It doesn't matter if we all die.
Suggestions welcome.
DISCLAIMER:…
Random Movie Roulette
Tobias Andersen 8,758 films
Rules: Generate a number (from 1 to x) via: www.random.org
See how many number of films there are in the…
2020
Austin Burke 241 films
Every movie that gets a wide/Streaming service release, in the US, in 2020 (or if I see them at a…
True crime
poco e. 950 films
I Hate Myself: Repugnant, Vile, Disturbing, Hopeless, Gross, Bizarre, Bad Cinema That Will Make You Regret Existing
Biscutbuu666 1,161 films
The fully annotated and definitive list of movies that are: 1) Horribly violent or exploitative 2) Emotionally devastating or psychologically…
2020 - Ranked
🎃🔥Mr. Like🔥🎃 230 films
Ranking every film, documentary, short film, mini-series released in my zip code in 2020 from best to worst. This list…
The Ultimate Film Canon: 21st Century (2001-2020)
Ⓚⓔⓥⓘⓝ Ⓗⓐⓦⓚⓘⓝⓢ 5,108 films
The dawn of the new century, the first 20 years.
Top films of each year
2001 - Mulholland Drive 2002…
52 Films Directed by Women (2020)
Allison M. 🌱 274 films
I list features only.
1. Them That Follow (co-dir. Britt Poulton) 2. High Life (Claire Denis) 3. Making Mr. Right…
