TV

See photos from inside the real Watcher house that inspired Naomi Watts' horrifying TV show

Take a tour of the New Jersey home that once hosted a tormented family who received threatening letters from an unknown stalker before Netflix adapted their story into a series.

By

Joey Nolfi

Published on October 13, 2022 07:00PM EDT

A house is not a (horrifying) home until a mysterious stalker sends your family endless, threatening letters.

As loosely outlined in Ryan Murphy's new Netflix series The Watcher (and, more concretely, in the non-fiction 2018 Cut article from which the show drew inspiration), that's precisely what happened to Derek and Maria Broaddus, a married couple who purchased an idyllic, $1.4 million New Jersey mansion before hastily vacating their home amid the influx of terrifying mail.

While Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale bring movie star flair to the pair's story, their fact-to-fiction translation of the family's story contains major differences — including a complete overhaul of the family name (it's Brannock in the series) as well as the look and feel of the central house located at 657 Boulevard in Westfield.

A video posted to YouTube by David Realty Group, the company that eventually sold the place for $959,000 in 2019 (above), shows just how much the Netflix production changed the aesthetic of the home. The actual structure's kitchen is far more modest than the one that Watts and Cannavale occupy in The Watcher, as is the living room. The exterior of the TV home — dark brown wood — also contrasts starkly with the actual building's sage siding.

Notably absent from David Realty Group's in-house photos, though? That spine-chilling, wood-paneled (seemingly musically inclined) room that pops up throughout the show.

Netflix previously unveiled a walk-through tour of the show's version of the home starring Jennifer Coolidge, who plays a real estate agent named Karen in the project.

The Watcher (also starring Margo Martindale and Mia Farrow) is now streaming on Netflix. See a real-life tour of the actual home that the series is based on in the video above, followed by Coolidge's tour of the in-series home below that.