Unlike usual, this year I decided to make my own new year’s resolution and one of them was to get in the habit of watching more movies. And so last Friday, I decided to watch the 2022 movie “Watcher”.
Watcher is a suspense thriller/horror movie that can be described as:
“ While a serial killer roams the city, a young American actress -Julia- moves with her husband — Francis- to Bucharest and notices a mysterious stranger who’s watching her from across the street”.
As a fan and an avid watcher (no pun intended) of horror, it’s kind of rare to find something that gets under my skin, only few have successfully done so. With all of that in mind, I decided to limit my knowledge about the film.
The film opens with Julia and her half-Romanian husband on a cab ride from the airport to their apartment. Francis is introduced as Julia’s only means of communication as Francis and the taxi driver chat in Romanian while she asks “what did he say?”
As they enter their apartment building, she glances up at the building across, and sees something eerie. In the darkened building, there’s one window that’s dimly lit, and a man stands there, staring down at them.
On their second night, as the couple is walking back home they pass a murder scene, where we are introduced to the plot of the serial killer that the Romanian police called the spider.
Julias’ slight unease about the guy in the apartment across the street who is always watching her starts to grow each day. But whenever she attempts to speak of her feelings, something holds her back. Maybe she is just being paranoid. After all, she is in a new country, where she doesn’t speak the language, and spends her day idling about.
She feels isolated and it doesn’t help that her husband works long hours, leaving her to her own devices.
Julia’s uneasiness and dread grows as she sees him again at the grocery store. She is now really spooked by the man and decides to tell her husband, who is somewhat trying to be supportive of his wife. There’s a distinct feeling of Francis that she is making a big deal out of nothing.
“Julia: I’ve always wanted to live an aimless existence in Bucharest; smoking cigarettes and scaring my neighbors with my hysterics”.
As the movie progresses, we watch as Julia descends more into the anxiety of being watched, not being safe in your own home. The boundaries blur, Julia is a watcher too. When he looks at her, she looks back and she follows him to his work.
“Julia: He’s staring right at me.
Francis: Maybe, or…
Julia: Or what?
Francis: He’s staring at the woman who’s staring at him.”
Tension slowly builds up, as the viewers keep switching from is the watcher the serial killer or is he just a guy who stands at his window and watches people?.
The film is charged with dread as we wait for things to unfold. The entire movie was soft and quiet in contrast to the loud knocks, music playing from Irina’s apartment, the train, and finally the gunshots.
Watcher has a way of creeping under your skin, providing such an uncomfortable atmosphere led by the incredible performance of Maika Monroe.
The subway train scene really got me dreading how it is going to end.
“Watcher: I Want An Apology”.
That and the bag scene.
Overall, the movie was really worth the viewing.
