Watcher – ABC Film Challenge – Female Directors – O (Chloe Okuno) – Watcher – Movie Review
Director: Chloe Okuno
Writer: Zack Ford, Chloe Okuno (Screenplay)
Cast
- Maika Monroe (It Follows)
- Karl Glusman (Nocturnal Animals)
- Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim)
- Gabriela Butuc (Closer to the Moon)
- Madalina Anea (The Protege)
Plot: A young American woman moves with her husband to Bucharest, and begins to suspect that a stranger who watches her from the apartment building across the street may be a local serial killer decapitating women.
Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Watcher starts when Julia (Monroe) movies to Bucharest with her husband Francis (Glusman). He has a career opportunity they can’t pass over and Julia must get used to a new life in a country she doesn’t know. Julia does find herself feeling alone and struggles to cope with the new life.
One night she starts to believe a neighbor across the streets has been watching her. This leads her to become paranoid she is being followed and questions her own safety. Meanwhile, this only intensifies when a serial killer is discovered to be roaming the streets.
Verdict on Watcher
Watcher is a horror thriller following a newlywed woman trying to adapt to life in a new country. She finds herself alone a lot and starts believing the neighbor is spying on them. As her suspicions start increasing, she starts to find the people in her life unsure of her claims.
This is a movie built on tension. It uses the uncomfortable nature of moving to a new country to create paranoia feeling. One that is finely balanced between paranoia and real fear. Maika Monroe carries the movie with her performance which keeps us on edge. This movie is an excellent vision is suspension, tension and uncertainty.
Final Thoughts – Watcher is filled with suspense, tension and paranoia.
