Watcher is a 2022 thriller movie directed by Chloe Okuno (V/H/S/94). Starring Maika Monroe.
She is not related to Marilyn Monroe , but she is a very good actress.
Watcher Plot
A couple moves to Bucharest for his job. She finds herself displaced and friendless and begins to feel harassed and suspects a serial killer who beheads his victims.
Review
This is a movie in which everyone does their best and try to give each shot a tone of classic cinema that, unsurprisingly, does leave us with ‘a “good movie” aftertaste’. That said, it does not provide the viewer with much more.
The story is about a young woman suspicious of her neighbor, and whom nobody believes (we will not say anything). The most outstanding aspect in this movie is the performance by Maika Monroe, who maintains the character in long shots, scene after scene, and knows how to build the character convincingly and with subtlety. She is a good actress, although she will probably not win an Oscar for this movie (note: Jodie Foster said the same about her own role in The Silence of the Lambs, and, well, she ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Actress).
The downside of this movie: there are few resources for it to “shine”. It is a limited-budget movie, well lit, but it doesn’t have too many subplots that stand out. Nor does its director, Chloe Okuno, want to make a novel splash of a movie, consistently leaning towards a classic style, which, by the way she she conveys to us, in a meta way and without much subtlety in the scene where the protagonist is at the cinema watching the Charade (the 1963 Hollywood classic with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant). She knows how to play with the rhythm, and offers us an experience that is pleasing to the eye, but not fascinating: in terms of plot, direction and approach, it is quite similar to so many other productions, it is, though, quite good in some technical aspects.
The storyline develops well, at a slow pace, and without depending on scenic brutality, being the psychological thriller it is.
Our Opinion
The performance by Maika Monroe is what stands out in this movie. The film itself is quite good for a low-budget movie.
Movie Reviews
“Horror, in [this] smart, provocative film, is ever-present on the fringes of every woman’s everyday experience. In ‘Watcher’, the victim confronts the male gaze and stares right back, with seriously spine-tingling results.”
Damon Wise: Deadline
“Monroe is fantastic (…) ‘Watcher’ taps into something sharper, creepier and enjoyably ’90s in its psychological execution. Okuno conducts them all brilliantly, snagging flashes of humor amidst the tension.”
Jacob Oller: Paste Magazine
Trailer
