Review of Watcher (2022) by Rmell — 04 Jun 2022

If it’s not exactly in Hitchcock’s neighborhood, Watcher is in the same zip code. There’s an echo of Rear Window through the gloomy, canyon streets of the Bucharest apartment district at center stage of this film.

This time the creepy chill isn’t coming in what we see in a bored protagonist’s voyeurism. It is in what we feel growing in Julia, a bored, vulnerable wife who believes she’s being watched in this stylish thriller.

Maika Monroe plays Julia with superb sensitivity, with a face that more eloquently reveals the angst she’s feeling than words can. First-time feature film director Chloe Okuno uses Monroe’s face the way Hitchcock could use faces, as canvas best suited to convey foreboding and dread.

Monroe carries this film through its slow but elegant pace, and Okuno seduces us through any predictable turn. Okuno does so with the kinship she makes us feel for her star. This film is all about being watched, and Okuno and Monroe make Julia worth watching.

This isn’t a slasher film, though there’s a gruesome glimpse of a violent act near the end. The tension is almost entirely built the way Hitchcock built it, in what we sense is coming, in what we think’s around the corner.

There’s a terrific scene Okuno gives us on a subway, a closeup of a plastic grocery bag being carried by a mysterious neighbor. What the hell’s in that bag? It’s a masterful snapshot of the entire movie’s appeal.

Again, it's not Hitchcock, so don't go expecting it to reach that high bar. But if you like Hitchcock, there are landmarks you'll appreciate seeing on Julia's journey through the neighborhood.