People Keep Visiting the New Jersey House From “The Watcher”

The series has been a hit for Netflix

"The Watcher" premiere
Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale attend the New York premiere of “The Watcher” at Paris Theater on October 12, 2022 in New York City.
Dominik Bindl/Getty Images

Netflix and producer Ryan Murphy have what appears to be a sizable hit on their hands with the new series The Watcher, which adapts an article by journalist Reeves Wiedeman about a family whose plans to move into a home in Westfield, New Jersey were derailed by a series of threatening letters that they received.

While the series has — as adaptations tend to do — altered some elements of the story, the basic details remain the same. That includes the house that’s at the center of it all. What happens when you have a real-life house at the center of a runaway television hit? Turns out you get a lot of people curious to see the inspiration for their new favorite streaming series.

As it turns out, some residents of Westfield — a town located southwest of New York City, and due west of Elizabeth, NJ — aren’t thrilled by the influx of visitors. That’s one of the main takeaways from a new article by Nicholas Fernandes at NJ.com. Fernandes describes a scene last week with “yellow tape surrounding the house and a barricade placed in front of the driveway to prevent trespassers.”

One Westfield resident described being stuck in traffic behind people lined up to drive past the house where the series was set. (Though not — it should be noted — filmed. That took place in New York State.) The article goes on to note a downturn in traffic around the house; perhaps that’s one upside of the binge-watching model?

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