With Halloween just weeks away, people are turning to the scariest, most thrilling movies and shows they can find to get their fix of fear before the 31st rolls around.
A trend this year seems to be scary shows based on real events, with Netflix’s The Watcher fitting right in. However, the couple the show is based on has zero interest in watching the series, for a pretty understandable reason.
‘The Watcher’ is Netflix’s latest thriller.
The miniseries follows the true story of a couple who moved into what they thought was their dream home, but start receiving frightening letters from a stalker who called themselves The Watcher.
Given the spooky season, it’s been a hit so far.
Well, sort of.
It’s gotten a lot of views, that’s for sure, but tons of mixed reception among fans.
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It boasts conflicting high and low scores on review sites, with some people claiming it has the worst ending they’ve ever seen on television.
Those disappointed viewers aren’t the only ones who have grips with the show.
So does the original couple it’s based on.
This whole tale began in 2018 when an author named Reeves Wiederman wrote an article for The Cut telling the tale of The Watcher. You can read the original, bone-chilling article here .
Remember, this all really happened.
The article is a true story, with all the proper accounts to back it up. There was even a follow-up, the same author speaking to the same family about the experience four years later, with the show just about to come out at the time.
The original Broaddus family revealed their thoughts about the series.
Well, their lack of thoughts really, as they admitted they have no plans to watch it.
They said that watching the trailer alone was “stressful enough” for them, and I can’t really blame them.
They weren’t involved in the show’s creation.
Wiedeman reported that when the Broadduses sold the rights to their story to Netflix, they only had two requests.
Don’t use their real names, and don’t cast actors who look like them even a little bit.
Wiedeman says the Broadduses just want privacy.
Besides the Broaddus family themselves, Wiedeman is the person most familiar with this case, and has been expressing their wishes to keep them out of the public eye.
“They just want to move on,” he told Vulture , “They don’t want a lot about their lives out there. For them, it’s been a balance between obsessing for years about the case and who did this to them but also trying to get on with their lives.”
Wiedeman has also been sharing some of the show’s inaccuracies.
Not only did the countertop drama that happened in the show not happen in real life, as seen above, but there were also no secret tunnels or dumbwaiters in the home as portrayed in the series.
Netflix taking creative liberties isn’t a new thing.
In their other latest fall hit, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story , there are a few changes made between the real story and their dramatized version.
Though, that’s the least of that series’ problems.
h/t: Insider
