I'm into the true crime thing and one case that's always fascinated me is John List. How does that have any bearing on the Netflix show about an unrelated case, you ask? I will explain, I promise. Oh, yeah, and SPOILER ALERT for the movie in question.
The Watcher is an unsolved case from 2014. A family bought a nice new home and started getting letters from someone calling themselves "the watcher". Knowing they were being watched even by a harmless person would be creepy enough, but these letters escalated into talking about "young blood" and "what's in the walls". The letters also claimed that watching the house is a family tradition - the letter writer's forebears did the same thing. DNA testing on the envelope flaps revealed the writer to be female, but nothing more is known. They moved out of the house and that was the end of that (to the best of my knowledge).
The John List case happened in the 1970s but he wasn't caught for nearly twenty years. John List was a devout Lutheran who lived with his mother, wife, and three children. He lost his job as an accountant, but pretended to go to work rather than tell his family. He funneled money from his mother's accounts to cover the bills. Eventually, he made some phone calls to establish that the family was going out of town for an extended period of time. Then shot his wife and mom. He shot two of the kids when they got home from school, then went to the third kid's game and shot him when they got home after. He put all the bodies in one room (except Mom, she was too heavy and on the third floor), put on gospel music, and vanished. Oh, and he cut himself out of all the family photos. Also bear in mind his wife was Helen and his daughter was Patricia. After the murders were discovered, there were rumors of teenaged Patricia being in a relationship with a teacher. Letters left behind with the bodies indicated that his motive was to save their souls -- they were falling into sinful ways.
Both real-life cases happened in the same town, but decades apart and otherwise there is no connection.
Now the movie: It's a fictionalized account of the 2014 case. It starts out sticking largely to the facts - Dean and Nora buy the place and move in. They plan to renovate the kitchen and basement. They have two children and a ferret. And the letters start arriving. At first, they dismiss it as a prank, but then the kids start hearing music from an intercom and the ferret is found in the upstairs hall with a crushed skull.
Suspects include two of the neighboring families, alienated by Dean's hostile response to misunderstandings, the realtor - a college friend of Nora's who keeps pushing her to sell the house she just bought, a local teacher who is into old houses, and John List Graff.
John Graff used to live in the house. He was a devout Lutheran who lived with his mother, wife, and two children. He lost his job as an accountant, but pretended to go to work rather than tell his family. He funneled money from his mother's accounts to cover the bills. Eventually, he made some phone calls to establish that the family was going out of town for an extended period of time. Then shot his wife and mom. He shot daughter Patricia when they got home from school, then went to the son's game and shot him when they got home. He put all the bodies in one room, put on classical music, and vanished. He cut himself out of all the family photos. His wife was Helen. At one point, it's implied that Patricia was in a relationship with a teacher. (Said teacher is later found dead, shot by a different gun.) I'm particularly taken with the name List becoming Graph with just a spelling change. Both are ways of sorting information.
When Dean discovered this news, I had to pause the show and text a friend. From there, it just kept getting more ridiculous. The show, not the weak attempt to hide that this dude was John List.
Because Graff removed his face from the family photos, no one knows what he looks like. The neighbor couple is murdered, but not really. The Dumbwaiter guy was totally normal until the same year Graff killed his family. There are tunnels between the houses, a remnant from the Prohibition Era. Toss in a false confession and some family drama (teen daughter, ya know).
Had this show been advertised as a satire or parody, it would have lived up to the hype. But it's supposed to be a thriller. They never solve the case and leave lots of loose ends, probably for future seasons of the show. Honestly, I'll probably watch. It's hilarious.
