User reviews

This documentary got me hooked within minutes. Stepping into this family's private life with only original police footage and personal homevideo's gave the most realistic image to start a horrific story. The mystery surrounding it made me feel instantly anxious of the outcome. The tension rises to unbearable levels until the climax hits. I wouldn't recommend this to young parents or anyone who likes to sleep right after watching this, because I won't for some hours... that's for sure.

A very intoxicating detective story. But what makes it really spooky is, if you've seen fiction films like CACHE and DOSSIER 51, this uses real surveillance footage and text message and voicemail evidence as most of the film's content. It's a technological marvel -- but in a scary, Big Brother/Stasi way.

A concise documentary covering the disappearance of shannan watts and her two children, and the subsequent investigation. The timeline was well established and well presented. The first hand footage was quite extensive.

I can only say that I maybe the only one who was not aware of this terrible crime committed. Using Police body cam , Personal home movies. Facebook and text messages this had me gripped from start to finish. I was absolutely glued. I was left emotional and drained.

A better Netflix crime story. Why? Because it's only the real footage or news stories that's used in the film. It's not filled with people being interviewed talking about the event from the past which just pads the runtime. It works better and keeps you invested with body cams and real police interviews. Nothing is staged. It's all real.

Other than stitching up vignettes in a chronological order, this documentary offers barely any new insight to the Watts familicide. It has been nearly two years since his incarceration and there are no recent interviews with the killer or family members.

The story plays like an episode of Air Crash Investigation (minus the investigation) - multiple failures must occur to precipitate the ultimate catastrophe. Chris stalks Shanann on Facebook. Shanann agrees to meet but would repeatedly rebuff Chris' advances. But why? Best guess would be her feelings of inadequacy about herself and her lupus. She finally succumbs to his charm and agrees to marry him. But Chris' family fails to attend his wedding because Cindy, his mother, does not approve of Shanann and does not want to lose her son to her. What does this say of Cindy? It would take a deeply narcissistic person to make her son's wedding about her and sabotage her son's happiness.

According to the neighbours, Chris Watts is a subdued man. In his text messages to his wife, we see a man whose words do not reflect his actions. This is a man so accustomed to putting on a performance that he probably does not have a coherent sense of self because he has dedicated his life to appeasing everyone around him, not least his mother. According to Shanann's friends, she is "bossy"; in other words, she is a control freak. This is consistent with her anxious and validation-seeking personality. She massively over-reacts while at her in-laws despite an already tenuous relationship with Cindy. Her text messages to her friends and husband also do not paint a portrait of someone with healthy emotional regulation. Despite all of her protestations via text messages and hand-written letters to her husband detailing her anguish, she seems incapable of having face-to-face discussions with him without flying off the handle. This was a couple in dire need of relationship counselling and the basics of effective interpersonal communication.

Nothing can bring back Shanann and the kids. Just as the lessons of air crashes have made air travel safer and prevented more lives lost unnecessarily to air crashes, these tragedies hopefully serve as cautionary tales to couples in toxic or unfulfilling relationships. Get help as soon as issues arise. Most of all, do not flog a dead horse. Sometimes the best thing to do is simply to walk away calmly with dignity.

It's a fairly basic true crime mystery...but my God, the personal access, shocking details and masterful editing make it one of the most well-told of the over-crowded sub-genre.

I did not have any information about this case or story, before seeing this documentary. I like how this was put together and how it all unfolded with it's terrible truth. Do not google the case and just watch it.

A must watch for true crime lovers. A really sad, heartfelt and unfair story, leaving you angry and thoughtful. See it on a day or night when you are not having a bad day or night. It might make you feel sick to your stomach.

9/10

Intriguing story but annoying doco. I followed the story back when it happened and was very interested in it. What he did was obviously messed up, but his wife says he's distant in their relationship, when she constantly has her phone recording everything and taking pictures, put the phone down and live life and maybe the distance between them would have had a chance to close. Perfect example of Facebook "look how how perfect my life is", but in reality...

Even though I had previously watched crime shows on this tragic story, I felt this was done from a perspective in which focused on highlighting events that I either knew little or nothing about, which made for a sad but informative watch.

This is a very bad man! Absolutely disgusting! Hard to watch!