The Doctor’s Diagnosis: B
Watcher is a solid Hitchcockian thriller that only played in theaters for about five minutes. That’s a shame because, despite some issues, this is one of the best thrillers that I’ve seen in years. Anchored by an excellent performance by Maika Monroe, this is an old-school suspense film that delivers some truly tense scenes and depends more on character and shot composition than cheap jump scares.
Monroe plays Julia, who has moved to Bucharest with her husband because he has taken a new job there. While sitting at home alone all day, she notices that there is always a man standing in a window across the street and he always seems to be staring at her. This bit of stalker behavior combined with recent murders in the area makes Julia start to think that the man in the window and the serial killer must be one and the same, but nobody (including her husband) believes her.
The setup for the film is pure Hitchcock, most obviously Rear Window, as Julia spends her time alone and becomes increasingly convinced that one of her neighbors is far more sinister than others believe. The Hitchcock influence isn’t a detriment, though, as this pulls off paranoia and suspense in a way that would make the old master proud. For a good chunk of the running time, one does wonder if Julia is being paranoid or if her suspicions are valid and the film sells this uneasiness very effectively. Even in scenes where Julia is being followed (including very effective scenes in a grocery store and a movie theater), there is a sense of dread that is combined with a question of if her boredom and loneliness has simply gotten to her. These are some of the best suspense scenes in a long time, especially in a theatrical film, and first-time director Chloe Okuno is certainly one to watch in the future.
However, the film truly works because of star Maika Monroe, who takes a fairly generic stalker plot and tuns it into something surprisingly endearing. I best know Monroe from 2015’s It Follows, which is one of my favorite horror films of that decade, and I really don’t understand why she hasn’t become a bigger star. She completely carries this film, transforming what could be a one-note cliché into a truly sympathetic character. I was really pulling for Julia because of Monroe’s performance and this could have easily become a boring, cookie-cutter film in the hands of a lesser actress (and filmmaker). Burn Gorman also deserves praise as the titular man across the street. Simultaneously unassuming and unhinged, Gorman is the perfect psychopath next-door. What makes the performance work is that he isn’t a complete asshole and he isn’t clearly a homicidal maniac. He just seems a bit off, just enough to for the audience to know that something isn’t right. It’s an unnerving performance that reinforces the idea that the people that you need to worry about aren’t always the loudest or the craziest-looing ones.
While the increasingly desperate plea of Julia is the running thread, and often a strength, of the film it often does reach ridiculous levels. In particular, her husband is often an almost unbelievable asshole, not believing a word that she says or seemingly even willing to look into the matter. If my wife told me that a dude was repeatedly staring at her, I would at least take a serious look into the matter before dismissing it and dismissing her as crazy. The local police pose a similar issue, as I would think that they would take her claims more seriously when there is literally a serial killer in the area. The lack of belief in Julia’s story is necessary for the plot, but could have sometimes been handled better as the disinterest and incompetence of these characters sometimes becomes distracting. I may not be a cop or a husband, but I like to think that I would look a little more closely into this shit before declaring that she has just lost her damn mind.
The suspense generated in the first hour or so also didn’t quite have the payoff that I had hoped for. I won’t get into spoilers, but the last act basically delivers on the exact setup of the film without any twists or turns. Considering the obvious Hitchcock influence, I had hoped for some sort of shock value at the end that never comes. It isn’t bad, it just comes across as disappointingly pedestrian.
Despite those gripes, Watcher is a very good paranoid/stalker thriller and the very fact that I’m mentioning Hitchcock so much makes it a breadth of fresh air in a cinematic world dominated by blockbusters. It will probably be out of theaters by the time that you read this, but I strongly recommend checking it out when you can.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watcher_(film)#/media/File:Watcher_poster.jpeg
