Watcher Movie Storyline. Julia (Maika Monroe), an American, moves to Bucharest with her boyfriend Francis (Karl Glusman). Unable to speak the language, isolated while Francis works, and in fear of a local serial killer, she begins to perceive that she is being constantly watched and followed by a sinister neighbor.
Composed and stylized with uncompromisingly elegant aesthetics, Chloe Okuno’s striking thriller, Watcher, feels like an artifact of a different era, when smart mid-budget chillers were among the most anticipated coming attractions. Although she playfully winks at them briefly, Okuno doesn’t quite go the erotic thriller route here, and instead molds something that recalls the works of Alfred Hitchcock, David Fincher, and Roman Polanski at equal measure, with audible echoes of Repulsion and Seven bouncing through the walls and hallways of its sophisticated interiors.
Once again ruthlessly followed (or is she?), It Follows’s Maika Monroe plays that familiar genre woman in peril whom no one will believe. Left with no resources but her own intuition, Monroe’s Romanian expat navigates a foreign town, dismissive mansplainers, and obstructive language barriers to fend for her own life in a stunning gaslighting whodunit, against a blood-curdling villain for the ages.
Watcher is a 2022 American thriller film directed by Chloe Okuno and written by Zack Ford. The film stars Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman and Burn Gorman. It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2022. Later, IFC Midnight and Shudder acquired the North American distribution rights to the film. Shortly after, AGC International sold worldwide rights outside North America to The Watcher to Focus Features.
Film Review for Watcher
There’s been an unexpected symmetry in the U.S. Dramatic Competition scheduling this year in that the first three films all centered on the Black experience in this country while the next three films all featured alienated female protagonists, adrift by location or situation. Is it a coincidence? Festival attendees, in-person or virtual, have a habit of trying to find patterns in a program. What does this say about independent film and the state of the world? The Sundance Comp program this year has very clearly centered stories that feel timely, whether they’re #MeToo allegories or dissections of what we mean when we say Black Lives Matter.
Chloe Okuno’s “Watcher” is the former, and the best Competition film I’ve seen so far. With star Maika Monroe once again facing creeping dread, it will draw comparisons to “It Follows,” but the template here is more ‘70s European Paranoia Horror, films about people in new, uncomfortable places, ones where they may not be welcome. Sleek and effective, “Watcher” is an old-fashioned thriller with a modern heartbeat, an announcement of Okuno as a major talent to watch.
Watch as Okuno slinks and slides her cameras down the imposing halls of the apartment building occupied by Julia (Monroe) and her husband Francis (Karl Glusman). Her camera placement with cinematographer Benjamin Kirk Nielsen is spectacular, using low angles to make the very walls of Julia’s house feel somehow threatening without drawing too much attention to the technique. I love a filmmaker who understands how to turn a relatively mundane setting into an imposing one and that’s what Okuno does with this small corner of Budapest, where an average woman named Julia may be losing her mind.
At least that’s what the people around her try to convince her is happening. She looks out of the massive window of her large apartment and sees life going on normally in the building across from it except for one room in which it appears there’s a figure watching back. When Julia thinks she sees the same man (Burn Gorman) following her to a movie (she watches “Charade,” a classic that clearly inspired this project) and then to a grocery store, her panic rises, especially when she sees news reports about a serial killer named The Spider. Francis is never home because of his busy work schedule, allowing Julia’s fear to elevate with every passing day.
How afraid should we be? Is it paranoia or self-preservation? This is a question that women, especially when alone, simply have to ask more than men, and “Watcher” gets at this idea of calculating risk without overplaying that card. Unlike some Sundance 2022 films, its themes aren’t over-highlighted, allowed to be the smart backdrop to what is a very refined thriller. I think Monroe is under-directed a bit to be a bit too low-key, but it allows the film to feel more realistic than the exaggerated form of something like Giallo, which this easily could have been with just a few tonal shifts. The end feels a little rushed, but it’s effective, leaving “Watcher” as a tight, moody thriller that’s definitely (sorry) worth watching.
Watcher (2022)
Directed by: Chloe Okuno
Starring: Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman, Burn Gorman, Madalina Anea. Daniel Nuta, Cristina Deleanu, Tudor Petrut, Cristina Deleanu, Gabriela Butuc, Stefan Iancu, Simona Patruleasa, Aida Economu
Screenplay by: Zack Ford
Production Design by: Nora Dumitrescu
Cinematography by: Benjamin Kirk Nielsen
Film Editing by: Michael Block
Costume Design by: Claudia Bunea
Set Decoration by: Anca Visan
Art Direction by: Tatiana Duricu
Music by: Nathan Halpern
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: IFC Midnight, Shudder
Release Date: January 22, 2022 (Sundance), June 3, 2022 (United States)
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