Hudson Valley House Stars In Netflix's Creepy New Show 'The Watcher'

RYE, NY — Have you watched "The Watcher," just released on Netflix, and wondered why the house at the center of the creepy story based on real events looks so familiar?

The limited series, "The Watcher," directed by Ryan Murphy, and starring Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale, Mia Farrow and Jennifer Coolidge, follows married couple Dean and Nora Brannock who move into their dream home in the suburbs with their children. But soon after moving in, they begin to realize some peculiar things going on in their new neighborhood. The family starts receiving disturbing letters from someone called "The Watcher" who says it is their duty to "watch over" the house and begins terrorizing the family. The seven-part series is inspired by real-life events, in Westfield, New Jersey.

Filming on the show actually took place across New York, from September 2021 - March 2022, primarily in Westchester County. According to Dirt, the producers of the show chose to use a house on Warriston Lane in the prestigious Milton Point area of Rye to stand in for the creepy house in New Jersey.

According to property records, the property sold for $1.93 million in August of 2020, but the 6-bedroom, 7-bathroom, 10,166-square-foot house is now estimated by Trulia to be worth $6.255 million.

The home is situated on 1.25 acres and is located on a cul-de-sac just steps away from the Long Island Sound. The cedar shake and stone colonial, built in 2016, was designed by renowned Greenwich-based architect Douglas Vanderhorn and constructed by Significant Homes of New Canaan. The home boasts four full floors of natural light, all en-suite bedrooms, a chef's kitchen with Calcutta stone, a 10-seat movie room, a game room with full bar, a wood-paneled library, an indoor basketball court, a full gym, a golf simulator, a 3-car garage with an electric charging station, 6 fireplaces, a Savant media system, ceilings ranging from 10' to 25', a fourth floor office with water views and a 70' swimming pool/spa.

It seems that only the exterior of the Rye property was used in the Netflix series, while interiors were movie sets built to resemble the interior of the New Jersey house where the chilling events took place.

You can watch the official trailer for the series below, starring the Rye property:

The real-life saga of "The Watcher," began in 2014 when Derek and Maria Broaddus purchased a 1905 Dutch colonial located in Westfield, NJ for $1.3 million, hoping to raise their family there.

However, before they were even able to move in, an anonymous letter writer began sending threatening letters with disturbing references to their three children.

The family said they were too scared to move into the six-bedroom house due to the threats the letters contained, such as "allow me to watch you and track you as you move through the house" and referring to the children as "young blood."

To this day, no one knows the identity of the real-life letter writer who sent the horrifying messages to the family.

The Broaddus family tried to sell the home multiple times and was forced to eventually drop the price. In Aug. of 2019, the home was finally sold for $959K to another couple, Andrew and Allison Carr.

The Broaddus couple also tried to sue the previous owners of the home in 2016, claiming they knew of "The Watcher's" threatening letters but did not disclose any information while selling the home. A Superior Court judge eventually dismissed the lawsuit in 2017.

According to Jersey Digs, a conspiracy theorist from Cranford believes that Derek Broaddus, an insurance salesman from Portland, Maine, was behind the letters all along. He finds it curious that Broaddus is from the same hometown as Stephen King and believes he took inspiration from the famous author.

With reporting from Patch's Remy Samuels.