American Murder: The Family Next Door Film Review
Christian Pil
Ms. Michelle Clark
October 25, 2020
ENGL-100-ONH
“Shannan Watts” is the name of the loving mother who was unlawfully mistreated by her husband. She is very active in social media which gives everyone a sense of her personality. But on August 13, 2018, she was unable to reach which got her best friend worried since she was the last one to have contact with her, dropping her back home from the airport. Police started investigating and one thing clear was shown in the footage which is the unbothered father. Slowly everything fell into places and got her husband to serve three life sentences for murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters. This story got the attention of the filmmaker Jenny Popplewell which what got her to makeand produce the documentary titled “American Murder: The Family Next Door”. This is also an example of how social media could be real different in what is happening in person where in this case the Watts family looked incredible strong and happy online where you can see them going trips to the beach etc. but in real life them parents are having conflict with their relationship which ended up in a murder mystery case. Social media played the biggest part in this documentary where it showed a good and a bad side of it making a lot of impressions for everyone.
Throughout the movie, there are some hints and clues that was showed around and one biggest clue was the neighbor who already knew that something is up and wrong with the way the husbands act. By this happenings , it gives audiences a kind of “I knew it!” moment and would just wait till the end if they were right or wrong in whichcase I was wrong.
Reading the topic before getting to watch the whole documentary gave me mixed feelings where a lot of possibilities could have happened and hoped that Shannan Watts and her daughters were safe and they just moved out. But it turned out the opposite. I am not the type of person who judges an action quick based on my instinct, but rather I investigate for factual evidence. I hoped that her husband was just trying to be calm since panic is not a good reaction at times like that but I was wrong and her husband did in fact do what I thought and hoped and he wouldn’t do which is to end her family’s life so he can start a new one. But after getting to see the film, it made me realize that people are really unpredictable and you can never know what is going on in someone’s mind no matter how close you are to them. Also good communications could save lives rather than keeping one thought to themselves which could build up no matter of time.
This documentary definitely changed my views not just on personality but also on mindset. It made me think that you can never trust anyone. Although I still believe in the goods of every human being. But things could have not gotten that far only if he decided to speak out with his feelings and rather get separated. Just like what the lawyer said, “If he was this happy and wanted a new start, get a divorce. You don’t annihilate your family and throw them away like a garbage.”. I would say I would connect more to the people around me so they would have an idea with my point of view and my opinions rather than get misunderstood which could have different outcomes from their own vision. Being more open helps them understand what it feels like in your stand and would clarify more thoughts and clear misinterpretation unless you are a close person like Shannan’s husband who would rather keep it silent until it gets to that point he chose to do what he thought would clear everything.
Jenny Popplewell did a good job in summarizing every action into one documentary and adding visuals, sounds, and effect transitions that helped the film look more realistic than it is. She also did gather up information not just in one site and used her skills on gathering up evidence and footage that she can get. She showed how Shannan tried her best trying to fix her family and coming together as a one like how they look like on social media but sad reality is by this time it can never happen again as they are not living in this world anymore. Jenny made the film so effective by showing two sides of the story and not just focusing on one argument but by coming up with a great transition to summarize the whole document about Shannan’s family case. Her husband may have scapegoated most of the time blaming her for his actions that he thought would make him look so innocent but thankfully there are new inventions nowadays that could track a person’s feelings and those parts of the film made it way more interesting on what was the reason behind all of this. The best part was the judge giving them justice and the father of Shannan choosing to be a more mature humanity in making decisions not like Shannan’s husband which made this documentary very effective.
This documentary showed no recreation of any scene but instead used real life footage from every scene. Starting from police’s body camera, ring security camera, to news recap and court live filmed. Which made it very credible and trust-worthy of information that was given as I know that none of the scenes were edited or reacted. I couldn’t give any reaction by how the shots were made as it was raw and live footages.
A coaster of emotion was felt while watching it as it started from a happy family shown by Shannan’s social media to worried that her and her childrens goes missing to thrilled with what really happened to sad on how misfortunate happenings happened to them with having any clue on how things would go that way. By these emotions, I felt how effective the film was as I was watching it which what gave me ideas and thoughts on what is really the reality compared to social media.
A lot of her and her husband’s messages were scattered around the documentary which gave deeper meaning on how their feeling and perspective on each scenario explains on how one thing led to another and how their arguments are bigger and stronger for not admitting the truth.
Reaching out to seek help from a psychiatrist or a friend would help a lot better than trying to do something where everything seems a little not going on your way. You can never be sure about what is going to happen in the future, so is you can never know someone that well even if you trust them long enough to think they wouldn’t do such things. Most crimes are happening to the victim and one of their trusted people, because if it is not then it would lead them to have more precaution on that person. As Iv’e said, Not everything in social media is real so be careful and always being vigilant is better than sorry. Everywhere and everyone is unpredictable, even in the family next door.
