Direction: Chloe Okuno
Country: USA
Watcher, the debut feature by Chloe Okuno, is an assured step in the psychological horror/thriller genre, and its viewing benefits from a well-plotted build-up, unexpected countermoves, and a decorous climax.
Maika Monroe stars as Julia, a woman in her thirties who moves from New York to Bucharest with her workaholic husband (Karl Glusman), who accepted a marketing job there. Their new apartment is spacious and cozy, but she starts to feel uncomfortable with and suspicious about a sinister man (Burn Gorman) who keeps watching her at all times from the building across the street. Her fear and uneasiness are discredited by everyone except Irina (Madalina Anea), the sympathetic neighbor next door who works as a stripper. The suspicion quickly leads to paranoia, for which contributes the news of a serial killer slitting women's throats in the neighborhood.
The screenplay, adapted by Okuno from an original by Zack Ford, holds well together, with Monroe and Gorman uncorking decent performances and shining with unglowing charisma. The latter, in particular, manages to be brilliantly disturbing.
Mentioning Hitchcockian voyeurism would be too strained and nothing here is going to knock you off your feet, but the film keeps us entertained and pretty much on the edge of our seats until the end. The director, avoiding complicating what is simple, makes it straightforward, with no frivolous scares. In doing so, she achieves more than most modern thrillers. Keep in mind: it’s the atmospherics that command here, treating us with a nifty good time.
