August 13, 2018, a pregnant woman and her two daughters went missing from their suburban home, just north of Denver, Colorado. While police interviewed him, the husband to the woman and father to the daughters, 33-year-old Christopher Lee Watts admitted to killing all three of them and disposing of their bodies. It was a fairly open-and-shut case, mainly due to the guilt and/or stupidity of Watts. The reason he got caught is because he agreed to take a police's polygraph test three days after the crime, which he obviously failed. With not much prodding from police detectives, he cracked and confessed to his father who didn't seem to know that his son should have kept quiet or at least gotten a lawyer. Three months later, Watts pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, which essentially was the end of it.
Directed by Jenny Popplewell, what makes this case outstanding is obviously the nature of the crime. Technically, Watts' crime didn't rise to the level of mass murder, even though it could be counted as such. Mass murder is the killing of four or more people in 24 hours. Since, Watts' wife was 15-weeks pregnant, some could consider that he did kill four people. Watts' crime is what's described as family annihilation or familicide. Statistically, there haven't been that many of Watts' type, but, after his conviction, reports and studies came out that said Watts is very typical of the cases of familicide in terms of profile and motivation. Watts is part of a list that includes men like Ronald DeFeo Jr. and Bradford Bishop.
What's different from the DeFeo and Bishop cases, which are from the 1970's, and even some of the more recent cases, is the amount of video documentation that exists of the perpetrator and his victims before and during the investigation. Watts' wife was Shan'ann Cathryn Rzucek, a woman who constantly or consistently posted home videos to Facebook. Going back to 2015 and into 2018, Popplewell had a treasure trove of videos of her with her family. Mostly, they're just happy videos of the children playing with her or Watts. There's even video of their wedding. Those videos are inter-cut with video from the police's body camera footage on the day that Rzucek was reported missing, as well as the police interview footage of Watts in the days after. Popplewell even had access to the text messages from Watts' and Rzucek's phones, which detail the turmoil and marital issues happening in between all of this video footage.
If you've seen HBO's I Love You, Now Die (2019), one should be familiar with documentaries that tell stories about people who are deceased or even those who are alive via the text messages on their phones. Graphics, mimicking the screen of smart phones, pop up on the screen. It obviously gives a voice to Rzucek about her relationship that she didn't always share publicly on Facebook. Popplewell seems to craft her documentary only using these text messages and videos.
There is some news footage that was presumably broadcast that she put into this film, but Popplewell doesn't incorporate any interviews that she would have had to conduct herself. This is a bold and decisive way to tell the story, but it's also limiting. There are some nuances and pieces of insight that are lost, but, the storytelling here isn't inadequate. There aren't that many stones that are left unturned. It instead all culminates in a stunning confession that was recorded on audio of Watts detailing his crime. The shock and the horror of it are probably more terrifying and chilling than most horror films.
Finally, I have to say that after watching How To Get Away With Murder, it has to be said that Watts is either the dumbest criminal or he was one that wanted to be caught. No where is that point clear is when he's brought in to take a polygraph. For a man to kill his own children, two little girls, he obviously wasn't in his right mind, but, for him to take that polygraph and then confess inside a police station only proves how dumb or ignorant he was. He could have lawyered up and not said anything and the police wouldn't have had anything on him. Not that I'm advocating that this case remain unsolved and the bodies not be found, but I suppose it shows how not smart he was or how guilty he felt. Yet, it's up to the viewer to determine if you think him a monster or not.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 23 mins.
Available on Netflix.
Comments
Post a Comment