Netflix’s latest docuseries, True Haunting, is a horror show executive-produced by James Wan. The 5-part series tells the story of two hauntings. Here, we’ll be looking at “This House Murdered Me.” The show is presented in a format you’ve seen on Netflix a bunch of times before: interviews with victims intercut with dramatized reenactments of the events being described. In typical Wan fashion, this is a story about a haunted house and a family that has newly moved into their dream home, which is soon going to be the home of their nightmares. Also, is it me, or has the internet’s obsession with Mormonism gone a bit far lately? Wherever I look, there’s something about this denomination showing up, I mean, even their “secret lives” aren’t spared. With that said, though, let’s dive into “This House Murdered Me.”
Why Did April And Matt Move To The Avenues?
This story takes place between March 2004 and August 2006. It all begins when a 16-year-old Mormon girl named April Miller gets pregnant with her first child. Growing up in a Mormon household, this was something that shocked her mother, who felt like she had raised her child wrong. There’s a surprising amount of overlap between growing up in an extremely regimented faith and becoming pregnant at 16. As far as acts of rebellion go, it’s not the best for either parent or child. April managed to build a life for herself regardless, and a few years later, she was a mother to two boys, Nate and Shane, but still a single mother, out of the doctrine and living by herself. That was when she met Matt Willson, and they knew right from the start that they were meant for each other.
Matt and April started a life together soon enough, and he integrated into the family with ease. I appreciate that he calls Shane and Nate his kids in the documentary, too. But since they were now a family of 4, it was important for them to have an American-style family home. While they found a home at first in Salt Lake City, their dreams were shattered when somebody broke into their house. Fortunately, nothing happened at the time, but they learnt that somebody had been burgled the same night; it was a real wake-up call for the family. With two young kids, April had always dreamt of living in the “Avenues,” a safe and fancy neighbourhood. Somehow, one fine day, while Matt was driving through town, he found a “for sale” sign in front of a stunning house in the Avenues.
Matt had started working as a contractor sometime earlier, mostly repair work and some roof building jobs, and though the house was kind of in shambles, he was confident he could put it back together. In fact, he wanted to use the house’s condition to get a good deal on it, allowing their modest family to finally afford an Avenues address. Also, when Matt and April look through the house, they find a man painting over something in the foyer, but don’t pay much heed to it (big mistake). April obviously doesn’t hesitate in saying yes to the house; this has been her dream for the longest time, but to make things easier, she decides to take up an unusual job.
Soon enough, they move in, and April tries out for this job, setting up “dates” for an escort agency called Salt Lake Secrets (probably not the real name, eh?). April’s hesitant at first for sure. She realizes she’s doing something wrong, her Mormon ways coming into play, but she knows her family needs her, and she’s willing to do anything to keep them afloat. She’s a bit embarrassed by the job, but she makes in one night what she used to make in a week. To explain the hours (she works into the morning most days), she starts telling people she’s been working at a nightclub (is that less embarrassing though? I’m not sure). With April gone all night, Matt takes on the role of house husband.
April’s the first to notice something odd because, one day, she sees her younger son Shane swinging way too high on the tyre swing in the front yard. Worried his brother is pushing him too far, she goes to tell them to be careful. But she’s shocked to see that Shane’s alone. More importantly, when she asks him about it, he says he was being pushed by Benjamin. April thinks her son is just being a kid and playing with imaginary friends, but she still feels an eerie presence in the house. On the other hand, there’s a rusty old claw-foot bathtub in the upstairs bathroom that April wants Matt to get rid of, but the plumbers all say they don’t want to work on it because it feels like it’s still full of water, making it too heavy to pull it out.
What Happened With Shane?
While April was out to work every night, Shane started having nightmares, waking up screaming. Matt, who had no prior experience being a stay-at-home dad, had to deal with this all by himself. Shane was waking up in the middle of the night, hyperventilating, convinced something was waiting for him in his closet. On one occasion, he woke up just in time to see the closet door slowly open and a presence emerge. 7 years old at the time, the only thing he could think of doing was hiding under the blanket until his dad rescued him. April would be unreachable during these episodes, and it really started to take a toll on Matt and Shane. April would come home and start drinking wine at 6 AM. One fine day, she decided to take a bath in the rusty tub. While in there, April felt like she was being drowned and heard someone tell her to get out of the house. It looks like Shane was also hearing similar words from Benjamin. Additionally, one night, Matt invited some friends over, and even they saw a strange man standing in the front yard. Later, when Matt was by himself again, he yelled at the man from his porch, alerting a neighbour.
April had no option but to reach out to her mother and send the kids off to stay with her for a few weeks, not knowing what was haunting their home. First, they got her to babysit the kids in the house when they had to be out for work, and Matt was travelling for the weekend. When Nate and Shane were playing a game of hide and seek, the latter hid in the laundry chute, which was the biggest regret of his life. When he was in there, Benjamin told him that he should get out of there because “he” always found them there, but it was too late, and poor Shane felt somebody grab his legs. Fortunately, Nate was able to pull him out, but the damage was already done.
To add to the trauma, it was April’s mother who got the worst of the scares because she felt somebody pull her off the mattress she was sleeping on in Shane’s room when Matt and April were away. Also, Shane is still pretty traumatized by these incidents and even began crying when talking about them in the interview, 20 years on. As you can imagine, April’s mother immediately blamed her for the mess her family was in. She apparently brought it on them because she was doing the devil’s job.
Additionally, one night, April and Matt are woken up by a loud noise that freaks them out. April even sees a boy who tells them they have to leave, so Matt grabs a pipe and heads down to the basement, where there’s strange noises coming from the boiler. Though he doesn’t see anyone, when he turns around at a loud noise, he hits his head on the plumbing and falls over. This is when he sees a terrifying, shadowy figure, who looms over him and tells him, “Just leave it alone, boy!”, scaring the heck out of him.
What Happens After The Sage Cleansing?
Matt remembers the red writing on the wall that he saw getting painted over. When he cleans it up, he finds the words “this house murdered me” on the wall (hence the title of the story). April and Matt discover that the previous family who lived there had also suffered in the house. So much so that the man’s wife had left him, and then he had moved into a motel and killed himself (as told to them by their neighbors). But even after trying to appease the man’s spirit, things continue to remain eerie in the house. Then one fine day, while cleaning the ivy, Matt and April discover a new window they hadn’t seen before.
While the kids are away, Matt breaks through a false wall and discovers a hidden room which leads to this window. What the couple find inside is horrifying; the walls are covered in children’s drawings that are intense and detailed retellings of what may have gone down in that house, long before they moved in. The atmosphere in the room was incredibly heavy and suffocating, and April knew she had to do something to offset it. Also, it’s important to note that Pamela, April’s mother, told her that this was all happening because she let go of the Book of Mormon.
Finally, they decide to do a sage burning cleanse of the house to expel William’s spirit from the house, but what they discovered was more than unsettling. They essentially invite a woman named Debbie to exorcise the house. April already knew that the previous family was Mormon, but what she didn’t know was that William was evil, and abused his 4 tiny children as well as his wife, Ruth. Benjamin was clearly one of the children who had been constantly telling the family to get out of the house (yes, even Matt and April had heard it). The woman discovers that Ruth took her own life in the rusted bathtub. In hindsight, this might explain why April heard Benjamin say “it drownded,” when she was in there. It had to go first. But the discoveries only got worse, because when they went to the basement, they discovered that the kids had been burned alive in the furnace.
In Mormon culture, when a kid turns 8, they’re supposed to confess their sins. If William’s kids got to that age, they’d out him, which he didn’t want. Of course, Ruth couldn’t live with the blood of her kids on her hands, so she took her own life. Finally, the medium found the room in which William died. Here we get to see actual footage from 2006, where she tries to enter the room but feels a force pushing her out. Moreover, you can hear her arguing with someone, clearly William, that she’s going to enter, and he can’t stop her. Finally, she makes it to the window, which she opens. She then tells William to let the family go to the light. Finally, things are resolved, and the house is cleansed, but does this make it easy for April and Matt to stay on in Avenues? Matt and April may have had paranormal researchers and a medium come into the house to help cleanse it, but they were still unsettled by the house because of what had happened there. They couldn’t continue living there anymore.
Where Are Matt and April Now?
At the end of True Haunting episode 5, it’s nice to see that this house didn’t break this family, because I don’t know if it’s me, but the conclusion to these stories generally is the same: the family is left broken and possibly broke. Matt and April moved their family between 8 houses over the next 20 years. They said that they became nomads, and after what they witnessed and were part of, they’d never settle in one house again. It seems Shane is mostly okay despite the trauma, and I don’t know why documentary producers see trauma and go, “So tell us, why is this traumatizing?,” You can see why! The one interesting thing is that Nate, the older brother, never showed up for the documentary, nor is he talked about much on the show. Maybe he didn’t believe his little brother? Maybe he’s estranged from the family? Or maybe he just didn’t want to be out in the public eye. Regarding the house, it seems the family living there is doing perfectly fine, which means whatever April and Matt did worked or it was just the family and not the place, eh?
