**THE WACPINE OF ‘AMERICAN MURDER: THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR’**

WRITING: 6
ATMOSPHERE: 8
CHARACTERS: 6
PRODUCTION: 8
INTRIGUE: 7
NOVELTY: 7
ENJOYMENT: 8

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**The Good:**

Largely told through CCTV, camcorder and social media footage, this documentary feels grounded in reality by being slightly rough around the edges. There is something oddly satisfying about a true story being told in this way.

Amazingly, despite the structure of the documentary, there is some strand of a plot weaves within the narrative.

The emotional impact of this if hits harder and feels more authentic than with many similar documentaries, mostly thanks to the raw footage shown.

Those interrogation room scenes are pretty freaking intense to watch. The growing realization as to what has happened hits very hard.

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**The Bad:**

The unusual presentation makes the structure kind of messy an incoherent and the pacing is a bit off. The resulting production feels amateurish and unfinished.

The film mostly follows one track and doesn't sprawl out very much, making it feel like a one-sided documentary not intent on sparking a discussion or presenting different theories.

Unlike the best documentaries, this one isn't intent on finding answers and trying to understand why thing happened the way they did. Instead, it focuses on just telling us exactly how the world came to know about what had happened.

You could call this a Wikipedia article in film format. It tells us how and when stiff happens but doesn't give us context or present reasons.

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**The Ugly:**

Christopher's confession.

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**WACPINE RATING: 7.14 / 10 = 3,5 stars**