Above all, it delivers what it promises – and is frightening in the process.Soldiers from the Joint Task Force Atlantic's Immediate Response Unit, 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, were debriefed after spending the day digging up hot spots in Barrington, Nova Scotia. The walls seem to close in on her, and production designer Nora Dumitrescu’s selections help that with a drab Old-World setting.īut it all rests on Monroe’s shoulders to convince us of her out-of-kilter life, trying to adapt to a foreign country but feeling more isolated and alone than ever, and she splendidly comes through.Ī nominee for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, “Watcher” takes a story with familiar beats and with fresh eyes, collaborators made it their own. Composer Nathan Halpern capitalizes and effectively adds to the spooky vibe with his memorable score.Ĭostume designer Claudia Bunea has made smart choices, especially for Julia, whom we can see change through her fashion choices as her misery grows. Shrewd editing by Michael Block provides well-earned jump scares and some jolting surprises just in case you were lulled into a ‘nothing’s wrong here’ feeling. Along with cinematographer Benjamin Kirk Nielsen, they frame the angular hallways, windows, staircases, and doors to build an eerie tone. Okuno employs a steady, deliberate pace and wisely chooses to play up the shadows and vary the lighting to make Julia’s solitary moments even more unsettling. It all adds up to a few heebie-jeebies moments.Īn interesting turn by Madalina Anea as the alluring, sophisticated neighbor Irina is a terrific addition to the claustrophobic setting.ĭirector Chloe Okuno, who wrote the story for the screen based on Zack Ford’s screenplay, gives a stylish, contemporary female spin on a classic old-school thriller, and it gets under your skin with her methodical approach. Nor that Julia doesn’t understand the language – she is taking lessons but feels even more lost when she’s surrounded by natives blithely chatting away. It doesn’t help that the nightly news features a grisly neighborhood murder that may be the work of a serial killer. In a stereotypical preoccupied husband role, Karl Glusman is nondescript as Francis, going through the motions of becoming increasingly perplexed, and alarmed, by Julia’s behavior. He does more with the thinly drawn part than likely was on paper. We feel her nagging ‘What is wrong with me?’ just as we experience the unsettling surroundings from her point of view.Īs an odd, lonely janitor named Weber, the versatile character actor Burn Gorman is able to project both sadness and strangeness at the same time. Watcher with Maika Monroeīut we wouldn’t have 95 tension-filled minutes if everyone believed her, right? Maika Monroe, who effortlessly slips into the horror-genre as the pretty and smart blonde, toggles the fine line of sanity. Those condescending, patronizing looks that women know all too well. Shades of Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” and the proverbial female protagonist doubting herself – while men wonder if it’s her imagination or other stress triggers causing the hysteria. Is she imaging things or is she being stalked? There’s a guy (Burn Gorman) peeking outside nightly from an adjacent building. Only she has this uneasy feeling that she is being watched. A former actress, she walks around the streets of Bucharest, a stranger in a strange land, and attempts to keep busy to relieve her crushing boredom. When her husband Francis (Karl Glusman) gets a job promotion that requires a move to Romania, Julia (Maika Monroe) accompanies him on the adventure – and plans to be supportive. An uneasy feeling of dread grows and intensifies during the creepy “Watcher,” a competent thriller whose elements, while not exactly original, come together as a believable modern-day psychological horror show.
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