‘Watcher’ is a psychological thriller that follows Julia and Francis, - a young couple who relocate to Bucharest after Francis gets a promotion. Julia begins to suspect she is being watched by a neighbour from across the street, who may be hiding more nefarious motives.
Julia and Francis move to Bucharest after his work takes them there. Having grown up in the States with his Romanian mother, Frances is fluent in the language, but Julia is not. The two settle into their new home, yet Julia grows increasingly more isolated, not knowing anyone there and facing the language barrier.
On their way home after a night out, Julia and Francis see police cars and a crowd in their neighbourhood. The next day they find out that a woman was killed there and uncover that a series of women have been killed in the neighbourhood. Julia becomes increasingly paranoid believing that the neighbour from across the street, Daniel, is watching and following her. One evening Julia befriends her neighbour, Irina. The two have drinks and Irina tells her about the gun she owns for self-defence.
Julia decides to follow her neighbour, tracking him to his job as a janitor at a strip club, where she finds Irina to be working s well. Later that night, Julia hears a commotion in Irina’s apartment and forces the landlady to investigate further. They find nothing there and Francis grows more frustrated, believing Julia’s fears to be unfounded.
Accompanying Francis to a company party, Julia is disheartened by the fact that she cannot join in the conversation and eventually leaves after she picks up on her husband commenting on her obsession with the serial killer. Julia boards a train to get back home, where she sees Daniel. The two talk, until Julia makes her way off the train, after spotting what looks like a decapitated head in a bag that Daniel is carrying.
Deciding to leave, Julia starts packing. She decides to check on Irina one more time, only to find her decapitated in her apartment. She is subdued by Daniel who slices her throat. Believing her dead, Daniel prepares to leave, only to be spotted by Francis in the hallway. On realising the situation, Francis is further shocked as Julia shoots Daniel down, with her looking at Frances before the scene cuts to black.
‘Watcher’ is a dark and suspenseful psychological thriller with a familiar narrative – a voyeur who grows increasingly paranoid and suspicious of the people around them. Even though the premise has been explored before, diving into the madness an individual can create for themselves, ‘Watcher’ takes a different approach and examines the combination of fear and paranoia paired with predatory and abusive behaviour towards women.
The film does not carry with it too many shocking twists, as it seems there are only so many ways to go – either Julia’s fears are in her head or she is being watched by the killer. The reveal comes at the very end of the film and isn’t too surprising, Daniel was in fact the killer and was after Julia. The most effective and memorable moment of the film is just before the credits roll – as Julia looks on to Francis after shooting Daniel, conveying her disappointment in her partner for not believing her. With a single look, Maika Monroe, who plays Julia, manages to instil a sense of sadness as a result of a continuous struggle that someone who is being dismissed has to overcome.
The focus of the film is Julia’s slow yet very real mental decline. After the initial excitement of relocating fades, we get to experience the isolation and quiet nature of Julia’s life. As her world has seemingly shrunk around her, the reports of the murder invade her thoughts and she resigns herself to exploring it further. Coupled with her unwittingly observing her neighbour watching her, Julia actually manages to pick up on the suspicious character, eventually leading to her surviving his attack. The film works well in showing how relying on our intuition and pursuing to uncover what’s behind some questionable activity can serve well to save us from predatory behaviour.
The film is great in illustrating the frustration that results from an individual being consistently dismissed. With this happening over and over again, as Frances does not take Julia seriously and the police are apparently unable to help, ‘Watcher’ serves well as a comparison between Julia’s circumstances and women not being believed when reporting on harmful and dangerous behaviour towards them. Again, Monroe delivers a stand out performance by depicting Julia as an exhausted woman by the end of the film, where she is only believed where she escapes her attacker within an inch o her life. Unfortunately the social commentary here is all too real and only works to the credit of making the film all the more impactful.
Making great use of drab and dreary sets, the film accentuates Julia’s progressively dark thoughts as her concerns are continuously disregarded and she has no one to turn to for support. Powerful and saddening, ‘Watcher’ is an apt and effective commentary on the current state of affairs in terms of abuse towards women, delivered with an outstanding performance from Maika Monroe.
Score: 3/4
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