‘Watcher’ gets there, but it’s a slog
It follows, again. In the scary, but often listless stalker thriller “Watcher,” a serial killer nicknamed the Spider has unleashed a reign of terror in Bucharest, Romania, where the film was shot and is set.
The Spider has cut the throats of four women, one so savagely that he almost decapitated her. At about the same time, young married American couple Francis (Karl Glusman) and Julia (Maika Monroe) arrive in Bucharest. Francis speaks Romanian and has a good job waiting for him. Julia, a former actress, does not speak the language or have a job. She does a lot of waiting around, doing little to nothing. She does, however, notice a man (Burn Gorman, another asset) in a flat opposite the couple’s, which features conveniently enormous windows, staring at her every time she looks up.
This is the simple as one, two, three setup of “Watcher,” a film that at times recalls Monroe’s previous credit, the 2014 cult film “It Follows.” “Watcher” also recalls “Peeping Tom,” “Rear Window,” “Psycho,” “The Woman in the Window” and other voyeur films. Directed by firsttime feature filmmaker Chloe Okuno, who co-wrote the screenplay with Zack Ford (“Girls’ Night Out”), “Watcher” has a lot of empty space. Julia gets up, goes to a cafe, buys flowers, takes the underground to a tourist attraction, buys a Dracula figurine. This is Romania, after all. Unlike the Count, she drinks red wine.
Julia meets a young woman, who lives next door. Her name is Irina (Madalina Anea), and she works in a strip club. She keeps a gun in a drawer in her living room. We know we’ll see that again. Julia is “reevaluating” after quitting acting. She also quit smoking. But soon, she’s purchasing packs of Marlboros. After watching “Charade” at a movie theater and stepping
‘Watcher’ also recalls ‘Peeping Tom,’ ‘Rear Window,’ ‘Psycho,’ ‘The Woman in the Window’ and other voyeur films.
outside, Julia has the keen sense that someone is following her. Is it her imagination? Or is it the Spider?
Okuno gets some mileage out of the paranoia attractive women must feel when they are alone in a strange place because there is a good chance that there are men who wish them harm. But do Okuno’s characters need to be so inarticulate? Couldn’t Francis wax on about what it’s like to work in Bucharest?
Eventually, Julia turns the table on her tormentor and begins to follow him. Is that a good idea? Yes, we’re going to get a scene that turns out to be “just a dream.” Is Julia really going to walk into that dark tunnel to follow that suspicious man?
While Okuno and Ford are not exactly scintillating writers, Monroe is gifted enough to keep us interested in what happens to Julia, and I must say the trick at the end of “Watcher” was carefully planned, nicely done by Monroe and works quite well. So, while it is a bit of a slog getting there, the payoff in “Watcher” is worth the wait.