Synopsis
Evil wants to be seen.
As a serial killer stalks the city, a young actress who just moved to town with her boyfriend notices a mysterious stranger watching her from across the street.
2022 Directed by Chloe Okuno
As a serial killer stalks the city, a young actress who just moved to town with her boyfriend notices a mysterious stranger watching her from across the street.
Maika Monroe Karl Glusman Burn Gorman Tudor Petruț Gabriela Butuc Madalina Anea Cristina Deleanu Bogdan Farcaș Daniel Nuta Ioana Abur Flaviu Crisan Ștefan Iancu Florian Ghimpu Lucian Ionescu Radu Bunescu Alexandru Ion Ciprian Chiriches Ionuț Grama Simona Pătruleasa Ioana Hirica Alice Cora Mihalache Aida Economu Andreea Sovan Adrian Radulescu Petre Moraru Marius Cobzariu
Derek Dauchy Aaron Kaplan Sean Perrone Roy Lee Mason Novick Steven Schneider Rami Yasin Elizabeth Grave Gabi Antal John Finemore James Hoppe Ben Ross
If I had a nickel for every time Maika Monroe starred in an indie horror film where she plays a character that gets followed around by sketchy-ass people that may mean her harm…I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice
Watcher is an incredibly solid thriller that plays it safe in terms of story, but makes up for the lack of twists with an adventure that's easy-to-follow and sound design that genuinely had my heart pounding. Maika Monroe needs to stick with the horror genre, because her performance here was what made it worth the viewing. Between this, It Follows, and The Guest, I'm super excited to see what she does next, and the same applies to director Chloe Okuno after this feature debut & her segment in V/H/S/94. Stellar all around -- this knows exactly what it's capable of and sticks to it, with a mastered approach to tension-building. Just wish it had subtitles that read more than (speaking in Romanian).
👌🏻60%
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A young woman moves into a new apartment with her fiancé only to be tormented by the feeling that she is being stalked by an unseen watcher in an adjacent building.
Sundance 2022 | Movie #6
Taking a note from similar “Thrillers,” this film builds a subtle and unnerving story that revolves around a semi-compelling lead character. Maika Monroe does a nice job of putting the audience in her shoes, as her mounting suspicion is something that carries over to us watching. There are a few murders taking place around this new neighborhood, but the question is whether or not these have anything to do…
SUNDANCE 2022
Maika Monroe plays Julia, a woman who has traveled to Bucharest, Romania with her husband, Francis (Karl Glusman). The opening shots evoke Lost in Translation and Rear Window simultaneously. Julia doesn’t speak the language, but instead of a warm, welcoming Bill-Murray-type, she believes her neighbor is watching her. It doesn’t help that there’s a man on the loose, intent on decapitating women.
It’s true that it’s a slow burn film. Julia is disbelieved by the police, laughed at by her husband, and considered troublesome by her building’s management. Always looking over her shoulder and talking to everyone she can to grasp the situation, Julia admits that she feels like she’s losing her mind.
Maika Monroe is definitely one…
"Look... this isn't normal" - Julia,
- 2022 Ranked: boxd.it/eWNQo
- Sundance 2022: boxd.it/f5MjG
Will people just start listening to women in these god damn movies?
You gotta be in the mood for something really slow and vibey or this won't work for you. It moves at a snail's pace but I really liked the look of the film and Maika Monroe really suits this role. The film effectively built tension for me in addition to creating an isolated feel that is central to what makes the movie interesting.
Maike Monroe and a weird but slow film... it's up to you.
What a nasty little surprise for my first film from the 2022 calendar year! Watcher is a fantastic exercise in psychological horror, delivering everything I could have possibly wanted and so much more than I expected. First-time director Chloe Okuno's steady escalation of tension results in a remarkably confident showcase for her cinematic instincts, as the ominous, quietly paranoid atmosphere gives way to full-blown terror. The refusal to subtitle the considerable amount of Romanian dialogue proves to be so clever, effectively placing the viewer in the shoes of Julia (Maika Monroe), a woman who follows her douchebag fiancee to Bucharest, where she is completely foreign and out of place. Monroe is pitch-perfect, once again proving herself to be an exceptional…
WATCHER is a hollow & rudimentary psychological thriller disguised as some art house European horror film. Maika Monroe conveys the insecurity & paranoia of moving to a new environment & Burn Gorman is effectively creepy as her stalker but it all builds to an underwhelming climax.
Sundance #24
SUNDANCE 2022
Film #5
Well made with lots of intrigue but not enough payoff.
The setting being in Romania intrigued me right away. It Follows, Maika Monroe plays American expat Julia who moves to Bucharest with her husband Francis played by Karl Glusman. Right away Julia begins to feel isolated. Making matters worse she doesn’t speak Romanian and her husband speaks it with friends rarely bothering to translate unless Julia asks. Director Chloe Okuno wisely avoids subtitles which places the viewer (unless you know Romanian) in Julia’s headspace.
There is nothing original about Watcher (even the title is generic). Yet it gets by on atmosphere. It’s well shot and has some great scenes of Julia being followed by a creepy man around…
Writer/director Chloe Okuno’s accomplished, fully absorbing debut is a thriller about gut instincts, gaslighting, the social power of language, and the hazy line between fear and paranoia. Obviously, it centers on voyeurism, letting its lead character, Julia, be both the stalked and the stalker.
Okuno steadily, skillfully escalates the creeping tension. She’ll let ordinary actions play out in real time, sustained by her striking framing and the looming threat of a serial killer called The Spider. It’s all so smartly done that she earns a few jump scares, and I seriously did jump for two of them. Otherwise, I was practically fetal in my chair.
Malika Monroe plays Julia as quietly hesitant before descending into jittery mania. With her start-to-finish,…