The Watcher spins a chilling tale — but how much of it is true?
Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s seven-episode series stars Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale as Nora and Dean Brannock, a couple who exhaust their savings to purchase their dream home in the suburbs. Soon after moving in, the Brannocks begin receiving mysterious letters from “the Watcher,” who promises to keep a constant eye on the home and its new residents.
The series is based on a New York Magazine article recounting the chilling experience of a real couple, Derek and Maria Broaddus. “When Ryan [Murphy] sent me the article, I devoured it,” Watts says. “What I loved about the story most of all was that it could happen to anybody. And those kinds of stories are instantly compelling — ordinary people in extraordinary situations.”
Cannavale also learned about the story of the Watcher from Murphy. “I didn’t know anything about it until I was referred to the piece in New York Magazine,” Cannavale says. “As soon as I started asking people if they knew about this story, it seemed like everybody had read this article.”
Read on to learn more about the true story behind The Watcher.
Yes, The Watcher is based on the true story published in the 2018 New York Magazine article “The Haunting of a Dream House,” by Reeves Wiedeman.
The article details how Maria and Derek Broaddus purchased their dream home in June 2014, not far from where Maria grew up. Shortly after closing, the Broadduses began receiving anonymous letters from the Watcher.
The first letter was friendly and welcomed them to the neighborhood. But subsequent letters were increasingly hostile and focused on the family’s three young children.
Feeling unsafe, the Broaddus family employed the help of local law enforcement to find out who was sending the threatening letters.
The real-life Watcher house is located at 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey, and the house in the series shares the same address. However, the neighborhood and homes filmed for the series are in New York.
The home was put up for sale in February 2015 — eight months after the Broadduses purchased it.
After a series of price reductions, the listing was removed in June 2015. The Broadduses filed a legal complaint against the previous owners for failing to disclose letters they’d received.
With their lawsuit going nowhere, the Broadduses relisted the home in spring 2016, but all the offers backed out. They considered selling the house to a developer who could tear the house down and create two houses, but the planning board rejected the plan.
Eventually, the Broadduses found a tenant to rent the house (and recoup some of the investment) and sold the house in July 2019 for $500,000 less than they paid for it five years earlier.
While based on a true story, The Watcher fictionalizes some elements — namely, the Broaddus family never even moved into the house at 657 Boulevard, whereas the fictional Brannocks take up residence there.
The figures are slightly different as well: In the show, the house is listed for $3.2 million (causing considerable financial strain on the Brannocks), whereas in real life it was purchased for $1.35 million.
🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐
As the series reveals in its closing moments, Westfield police have still not uncovered the identity of the Watcher — but maybe the upcoming Season 2 of The Watcher will shed more light on the subject.
