Netflix is known for its creepy true crime dramas. That is certainly the case with his latest series The viewer, starring Bobby Cannavale and Naomi Watts as the new owners of a dream home in suburban New Jersey that quickly becomes hell. The series is based on the shocking true life events of Derek and Maria Broaddus and their three children, who bought 657 Boulevard in Westfield, NJ, eight years ago for $1.3 million. CBS New York.
The viewer is about Dean (Cannavale) and Nora Brannock (Watts), a fictionalized version of Derek and Maria Broaddus. After putting all their savings into buying their dream home in the idyllic suburb of Westfield, New Jersey, they quickly realize the neighborhood isn’t exactly welcoming. The family’s icy welcome soon turns into a veritable hell when ominous letters begin to arrive from someone calling themselves “The Watcher”, terrorizing the family to their breaking point. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s latest creation, The vieweris all the more creepy because it is inspired by true events.
In the real version of the story, three days after the family arrived at 657 Boulevard, they received the first letter in their mailbox, which read:
Dear new neighbor at Boulevard 657,
Allow me to welcome you to the neighbourhood. 657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades, and as it approaches its 110th birthday, I’ve been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father in the 1960s. It’s my time now. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out.
Do you have to fill the house with the young blood I asked for? Better for me. Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? As soon as I know their names, I call them and I draw them too [sic] me.
The writer also once claimed “to have run from room to room to imagine life with the wealthy residents there. And now I watch and wait for the day they [sic] young blood will be mine again.”
Signed “The Watcher”.
What happened after the Watcher letter?
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After Derek and Maria Broaddus received the first letter, the couple received two more letters from “The Watcher”, with the third letter wondering why the family hadn’t moved in yet. “Where did you go?” The Watcher wrote. “657 Boulevard misses you.”
The Watcher House went viral in 2015 when the family sued the previous homeowners, John and Andrea Woods, for failing to disclose that the home came with a Watcher. As the lawsuit alleged, the previous homeowners had also received a letter from the Watcher a week before the sale of the home became official. The legal battle lasted for a few years, during which time the Broaddus family tried to sell or demolish the house and build two new buildings.
In 2017, when the house was finally rented out to a tenant, another Watcher letter arrived. This time, the letter was in a more sinister tone, but the tenant agreed to stay.
While The Watcher case is no longer an active case, it is still open. The watch has never been identified.