A stranger in a strange land, what do you do with nowhere to go, and nothing but time on your hands? When everyone else around you is living their lives, how do you NOT look out the window to follow the action? How do you NOT become a Watcher?
Moreover, what do you do when ANOTHER Watcher starts watching you? And, what do you do when no one believes you?
The Plot – Watcher
She’s a long way from home. A now ‘former’ actress, Julia, played by Maika Monroe, looks for a fresh start when she and her Husband relocate to Bucharest.
Francis, played by Karl Glusman, recently received a major promotion at work. The new gig takes the happy couple to the land of Francis’ mother, Romania.
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Work keeps Francis occupied, leaving Julia to her own devices. Alone, with no one to talk to, and unable to speak the language, Julia quickly gets bored.
A quick look out the window reveals a city full of people living their lives. Julia looks and looks — Watching.
Unafraid to freely gape and gawk at others, she pours herself a glass of wine and takes in the show. That is, until Julia sees someone looking back. Suddenly, the watcher becomes the watched; and she doesn’t feel so good about that.
It doesn’t help matters that a serial killer is on the loose, and he just so happens to be targeting attractive, young women — exactly Julia’s demographic.
After a man sits directly behind her in a nearly empty theater, and follows her into a grocery store, Julia’s paranoia raises to a fevered pitch. Not only does she have a Watcher, she had a stalker following her around the neighborhood. And, the police aren’t willing to do much about it.
The Good – Watcher
The Cinematography
The strong visuals in Watcher set the tone for the whole picture.
Bucharest’s Soviet-era downtown core serves as the central location for the film, contributing to the foreign, dark, austere feel of the Cinematography. On top of that, the majority of the film’s scenes occur at night, adding to the isolation and alienation Julia feels as the film progresses.
Director Chloe Okuno and Cinematographer Benjamin Kirk Nielsen further the feelings of anxiety and mystery by obscuring the Watcher’s face until the third act of the film.
We only see the face of Burn Gorman‘s ‘Watcher’ through window blinds, cast in shadow, on low resolution security cameras, etc. We even see Julia’s head blocking our view of him as he sits directly behind her.
The unseen face prevents us from fully ‘knowing’ our enemy. The bigger the unknown, the bigger the threat. And, the more Julia’s anxiety feeds back on itself.
The Throwback Thriller
Watcher feels much like so many of the Suspense/Thrillers that came out in the 80’s and 90’s.
While this particular horror sub-genre may have peaked twenty years ago, Watcher brings back so much of what made the genre popular. The mystery and hidden danger elements are perfectly executed, and pay homage to what came before, but also give us a new feel.
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Our heroine isn’t perfect or innocent, nor is she inviting danger recklessly like so many in the genre. Julia is smart and logical, slowly escalating her level of alarm, relative to the level of danger.
While she takes risks, and can be sloppy in her recollection of events, Maika Monroe’s Julia gives us a depth of character and audience point of view that drives the film.
Far from perfect, but the depth and realism due justice to the genre.
The Bad – Watcher
Predictable Versus Unexpected
The thing about genre films is that they generally follow a certain formula — for good and for bad.
Done well, a genre film can use the expected tropes and formulas as a shorthand with the audience that knows exactly what it signed up for. Done poorly, the predictable feels like the whole film telegraphs itself from a mile away.
The execution of Watcher is top notch, and while the general direction of the film isn’t a surprise, the execution keeps you guessing until the very end.
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This is a failure of the genre, as opposed to a failure of this film. In other words, if you like this genre, you will like this film. If you are a film fan in general, but not of this genre, the film feels slow and familiar.
It is well executed, but not so good that it overtakes the genre itself.
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The Review – Watcher
Very much what the trailer shows, Watcher delivers on its promise. Its execution gives fans of the genre what they want, and does so in a suspenseful and three dimensional way.
The Eastern Europe setting and obscured face of our ‘Watcher’ drive the tension for our main character. She’s truly a fish out of water, and feels very much alone for good reason.
Julia also is more than just a pretty face, even though that’s exactly how she is treated by the Bucharest natives, Francis’ co-workers, and even Francis himself, at times. Her anxiety escalation is gradual and logical given the situations she’s in, and she isn’t the typical drama queen character that normally appears in films of this type.
The Cinematography and Direction are top notch, with just enough jump scares and twists to keep you guessing, but not so much that it doesn’t give you what you want.
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While there have been many films about voyeurism before, even going as far back as Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ from 1954; Watcher is a fine example of the genre that peaked back in the 80’s and 90’s. Unlike Rear Window, however, Watcher is NOT one that transcends genre.
If you like this genre, you will love this film. If you’re indifferent to the genre and just love movies, I believe you’ll be bored with the slow pacing and predictable nature of the film.
Voyeur genre super-fans: go see this film. Everyone else: wait for streaming, at best.
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Score
Score
Review Nation Score
Maika Monroe has way too much time on her hands in 'Watcher'. An American feeling alone in Bucharest feels like she's being watched.