American Murder: The Family Next Door

What Is the Series About?

American Murder: The Family Next Door is a Netflix documentary film directed by Jenny Popplewell and released on September 30, 2020. Rather than relying on talking-head interviews or dramatic reconstructions, the film is built entirely from real footage: social media videos, home recordings, text messages, police body-camera footage, and surveillance material. It tells the story of the 2018 Watts family murders in Frederick, Colorado — one of the most widely covered domestic homicide cases in recent American history — in which Christopher Lee Watts killed his pregnant wife, Shanann, and their two young daughters, Bella and Celeste.

The film is catalogued on IMDb under the ID tt12987894 and carries a rating of 7.2/10, reflecting broad but emotionally intense viewer engagement since its release.

The Case

On the morning of August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts, 34 years old and 15 weeks pregnant, returned home to Frederick, Colorado, after a business trip. She never left the house again. Later that same day, a friend who came to check on her called police after getting no response, and the Watts family was reported missing.

Investigators quickly focused on Chris Watts, who gave media interviews claiming he had no idea where his family was and pleading publicly for their safe return. He failed a polygraph examination, however, and on August 15, 2018 he was arrested after confessing to the killings. He led law enforcement to the bodies: Shanann had been buried in a shallow grave, while Bella and Celeste had been submerged in oil tanks at an Anadarko Petroleum work site where Chris was employed.

The Victims

- Shanann Watts, 34, was a direct-sales health products consultant who maintained a vibrant social media presence documenting her family life. She was 15 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.

- Bella Watts, 4 years old, was the couple's eldest daughter.

- Celeste Watts, 3 years old, was the younger daughter.

All three — four, counting the unborn child — were murdered by Chris Watts on the morning of August 13, 2018.

The Perpetrator

Christopher Lee Watts, Shanann's husband and the girls' father, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts related to the deaths of children under 12 while in a position of trust, one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased body. Investigators and subsequent reporting revealed that Watts had been conducting an extramarital affair and had told Shanann he wanted to separate.

Watts pleaded guilty to all charges on November 6, 2018, avoiding a trial. He was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 84 years for related offenses. He is currently serving those sentences in federal prison.

Production

Director Jenny Popplewell made a deliberate structural choice: the film uses no traditional documentary interviews, relying instead entirely on real footage — Shanann's own social media posts, the couple's home videos, text message exchanges, police body-cam recordings, interrogation footage, and surveillance video. The result is a documentary that unfolds almost like found footage, but with the weight of knowing every frame is real.

This approach allowed Popplewell to let Shanann speak for herself, in her own words and images, rather than having her story filtered through others. The film draws attention to the jarring contrast between the picture-perfect family life Shanann shared online and the violence that ended it — a tension that gives the documentary much of its unsettling power.

The film was released as a single feature-length documentary, not an episodic series. Netflix listed it under the title American Murder: The Family Next Door, and it became one of the platform's most-watched documentary titles in the weeks following its premiere.

Reception

Critical and audience response was intense. Media coverage praised the all-archival approach as unusually immersive, with CNET noting it uses real footage to chilling effect. The decision to forgo reconstructions was widely seen as both an ethical and artistic success, centering the victims rather than sensationalizing the crime.

The film holds a 7.2/10 on IMDb and generated significant social media conversation upon release. Tabloid coverage described audiences as sickened by what they watched, a testament to how viscerally effective the documentary's approach proved to be.

Not all commentary was unambiguously positive, however. Some outlets argued that the Netflix film left out key details from the full case, including information that emerged from Watts's later prison interviews and statements given to investigators after his initial confession. Critics noted that the documentary is limited to the footage and records available from the immediate investigation period, and that the full picture of Chris Watts's motivations is more complex than the film conveys.

Common Sense Media flagged the documentary for its intense content and recommended viewer awareness before watching.

The Case Today

Chris Watts remains incarcerated, serving five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Since the documentary's release, additional details about the case have continued to surface through law enforcement documents, prison interviews, and investigative journalism — some of which complicate or deepen the portrait of both the marriage and the murders.

Shanann Watts's family has remained vocal in keeping her memory — and those of Bella and Celeste — in the public eye, resisting narratives that reduce the victims to a backdrop for their killer's story. The case continues to be cited in discussions about domestic violence, the performance of family happiness on social media, and the possibilities of true crime filmmaking as a genre.

American Murder: The Family Next Door is available to stream on Netflix.