Netflix‘s global fan event Tudum is well underway and during the stream, The Watcher, the new limited series from acclaimed television writer Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story), received a new trailer. The footage shows the terror the couple living at 657 Boulevard faces as someone constantly watches over their house and invades their lives. Thanks to their nosy and suspicious neighbors, however, everyone in town’s a suspect, leading to paranoia as they try to deduce who is tormenting them. Along with the new trailer, Netflix also announced a release date of Thursday, October 13, putting the series right in the middle of spooky season.
Everything for the Brannock family seems idyllic in the opening seconds of the trailer. They’ve got a luxurious new house in a quiet neighborhood and one of the neighbors was even nice enough to leave a letter welcoming them and explaining the history of their home. As they read through the letter, however, things turn sinister as it becomes clear that someone is always watching them and the ambiguous voice of said watcher reads out the final line proclaiming their torment has just begun.
Paranoia plagues the family as all their moves are now subject to this sinister stranger. The trailer perfectly encapsulates that feeling of anxiety as nearly every neighbor is shown with their eyes on the Brannocks in some way, whether with binoculars or flat out telling them that they’ve got their eyes on them. The police see the constant threatening letters as nothing more than a prank, their sleazy real estate agent Karen Calhoun (Jennifer Coolidge) is urging them to sell, and others around town warn them to leave while they still can. Still, the Brannocks refuse to leave even as their anonymous tormentor invades their house, making their lives a true living hell.
The worst part of it all is that the limited series is based on a true story of a real house in New Jersey which a couple bought in 2014 and was eventually forced to abandon thanks to the threatening letters. The real Watcher was never found. Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale lead the star-studded series as the couple whose life is ruined by the Watcher with Coolidge, Mia Farrow, Margo Martindale, Terry Kinney, Joe Mantello, Richard Kind, Noma Dumezweni, Christopher McDonald, Michael Nouri, Isabel Gravitt, Henry Hunter Hall, and Luke David Blumm rounding out the cast.
Murphy co-created the series with frequent collaborator Ian Brennan (Scream Queens). The pair have connected on a number of series over the years from Glee to Halston, though they most recently came together for Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story which recently premiered on Netflix. The pair also executive produces with Watts, Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Bryan Unkeless, Eric Newman, Paris Barclay, Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost, and Scoop Wasserstein.
The Watcher premieres on Netflix on October 13. Check out the unsettling new trailer below and stay tuned here at Collider for more Tudum coverage.
via Collider