“The hardest thing I‘ve ever watched.”
Netflix has become known for their hard-hitting true-crime documentaries and their latest offering, American Murder: The Family Next Door, is no different.
The film launched on September 30th, and over the weekend it has had a big reaction on social media, with viewers calling it “terrifying” and “disturbed.”
American Murder: The Family Next Door tells the story of the Watts family murders that took place in 2018 in Frederick, Colorado. Christopher Lee Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann Watts, and their two young daughters.
“This documentary examines the disappearance of Shanann Watts and her children, and the terrible events that followed,” reads Netflix’s official synopsis.
The film uses social media posts, police recordings, text messages and home video footage to recreate the events of Shanann Watts and her daughter’s disappearance.
The stark retelling of a woman and her children being killed by her partner has understandably left viewers moved after watching the film.
On Twitter, one user called it “truly terrifying” and another said it was “possibly the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
https://twitter.com/rachidabenamar/status/1312337119000645632
American murder – the family next door is possibly the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Heartbreaking pic.twitter.com/ZSoGHbKdnH
— 🦋 (@superhopie) October 3, 2020
Other viewers said that their “heart broke watching that documentary,” and that the film was really “sad and frighting.”
I am very disturbed after watching American Murderer the family next door. My heart broke watching that documentary.
— Tiffαny. 💜 (@TJemmott1) September 30, 2020
Just watched ‘American Murder: The Family Next Door’ on Netflix. What a sad and frightening documentary. It’s scary how we can never really know what people are capable of. The violence so many women face at the hands of their partner is terrifying.
— TONI TONE (@t0nit0ne) October 3, 2020
I think American Murder: The Family Next Door was so well done. I am in love with this style of storytelling.
— Sarah Turney (@SarahETurney) October 1, 2020
Another viewer called it “the hardest thing I’ve ever watched.”.
https://twitter.com/coletzzz/status/1312394913661681666
American Murder: The Family Next Door is directed by Jenny Popplewell. It is executive produced by James Marsh, the British filmmaker who made the Oscar-winning documentary Man of Wire, and also directed the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything starring Eddie Redmayne.
Christopher Lee Watts admitted to strangling his wife Shanann Watts, and smothering to death their two young daughters, four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste, in August 2018.
Shanann was pregnant at the time, and her unborn son did not survive. Christopher Watts received five live sentences, without the possibility of parole.
The documentary is streaming on Netflix now.
