We all like to watch–it’s natural whether we like to admit it or not. Our intentions can be harmless or sinister, but Chloe Okuno’s restrained, effective thriller, Watcher, confronts how much our eyes linger on those who are unaware of our gaze. We all people watch or let out stare go unnoticed, but what would you do if you felt someone watching you too much?
Maika Monroe plays Julia, a former actress who moves with Francis to Bucharest for his job. Even though she doesn’t speak the language or have any friends in Romania, she remains the supportive partner even when she has to sit silent at a dinner table since she can’t understand any of her fellow dinner guests. Their new apartment has wide, tall windows that look out into a narrow street, but they provide a perfect view into the building across the way. The more time Julia spends alone, the more she begins to notice a figure watching her from across the street. The face is obscured, but the shadow is there. Is it some Kevin McAllister, shadowy trickery? Or is someone paying too close attention to her?
Once the idea is inside Julia’s head, it’s hard for her to shake the notion that she is being watched. When she goes to the movies, she can feel the eyes boring into the back of her head, and she escapes to a local supermarket where she is convinced she is being followed. Local chatter of a killer of women named The Spider doesn’t help matters.
While the premise of Watcher isn’t a new one, Okuno threads her film with palpable dread, and she is helped by the subtle skills of Monroe. The frame lingers to tighten the tension or Okuno drenches her shots in shadow to make your eyes dart around to try and find a hint of movement or danger. Watcher is an exercise of simplicity and restraint, and the director doesn’t need jump scares or clutter to evoke a mood. The apartment itself looks remarkably different between night and day. When the sun is out, the walls are painted with hues of light blue but the moment you turn off the lights, you can see the shimmer of a wallpaper accent that you didn’t see before. Audiences might know Monroe best as she ran from a silent killer in It Follows, but it’s even more gratifying to see her mature into an actress who can play a role where she has so much to do on her own.
The next time you find yourself doing some people watching, just remember one thing. Someone might be doing the same thing to you.
Watcher is in theaters now.