‘The Watcher’ is Netflix’s latest true story tale meant to get you watching and wanting more. It’s about how a single person’s obsessive interest in the truth of paranormal activity led him to become the world’s most famous paranormal investigator.
This isn’t the first time ‘The Watcher’ has made headlines. As a teenager, Robert Graysmith, who went on to become one of Hollywood’s greatest-ever screenwriters, was drawn to the bizarre.
Then, in 1957, Graysmith published an article in Rolling Stone about the eerie phenomena he was encountering in upstate New York. The article became a cult hit and inspired the film of the same title, based on the book by Graysmith.
So what can we learn from the story behind Graysmith’s character and his work?
What is ‘The Watcher’?
According to the book on which ‘The Watcher’ is based, The Watcher was a real person, but he was never named in the film.
The story centres around a man named George H. W. Bush, who was a congressman in the 1930s. His interest in investigating the paranormal led him to adopt the pseudonym “The Watcher” when he began to work with a reporter to document strange happenings in the American capital.
Bush was part of a group of congressmen who, in the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11, sought to find out whether or not the government was being exploited by a foreign government, especially if the perpetrators could be identified.
Bush also felt that certain institutions, such as the federal police, were using their access to the government to discredit him politically. He believed there was a sinister cabal in the federal government that was trying to prevent him from becoming president.
This led to the creation of a ‘Watcher’ group which eventually became known as The Committee to Skeptical Inquiry, or CSI, because Bush wanted to appear unbiased.
Bush began investigating the supposed supernatural forces in Washington, using the pseudonym “The Watcher”.
Bush became interested in the field thanks to his father’s work as a lawyer after the death of his mother.
“If someone had been asked in the 1930-40s why Bush was interested