Film Review: WATCHER: Maika Monroe Stars in a Routine Stalker Film [Sundance 2022]

Watcher Review

Watcher (2022) Film Review from the 44th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Chloe Okuno and starring Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman, Burn Gorman, Tudor Petrut, Daniel Nuta, Madalina Anea and Stefan Iancu.

When Maika Monroe appeared in the 2014 independent horror film, It Follows, she received terrific critical notices and won many fans that have helped make that film a cult movie favorite. Now, Monroe is back in another thrilling movie, Watcher, but this time out, it features a much more conventional story line than the 2014 picture. Director Chloe Okuno’s new movie has enough genuine suspense in the early scenes to reel viewers in but eventually settles down into a more routine stalker film that feels like it has been done countless times before and, most likely, has.

As the film opens, Julia (Monroe) and her boyfriend, Francis (Karl Glusman) move to Romania. As the couple settle into a new apartment building, Francis becomes overwhelmed with work and that leaves Julia by herself a lot of the time. She is soon seemingly being stalked by a man who seems to be watching her from the window from another apartment building across the way. It becomes apparent when she goes to a movie theater by herself that someone is truly stalking her as the man appears in the theater and changes his seat to the one right behind her prompting her to flee the scene.

This apparent stalker seems to be following her at the supermarket as well which leaves Julia frightened as she drops a jar of pickles which shatters on the floor in true dramatic suspense film fashion. She hides in the back of the store and, again, escapes. She tells Francis which leads to the police becoming involved at some point. There’s also a female neighbor/stripper in the story named Irina (Madalina Anea) who befriends Julia but soon disappears prompting Julia to think that the same stalker is after her as well.

Daniel Nuta plays Cristian, a friend of Irina’s who comes looking for her and meets Julia who soon seeks his help to find out what is going on. There are a few twists and turns here but nothing that hasn’t been seen before. A perfect example of a scene that falls completely flat is when Francis leaves Julia alone and she goes to take a shower. As the film shows us Julia taking her shower, we expect something suspenseful to happen but then the movie just cuts to the next scene. Another problematic scene is when Julia is actually attacked by the stalker but then the sequence simply turns out to be nothing but a dream. Viewers have become so tired of dream scenes in horror movies that whenever a key part turns out to be just a dream, all you can do as an audience member is roll your eyes in disbelief.

I would write Watcher off as a total disappointment but it picks up steam towards the end when Julia comes face to face with her apparent stalker (Burn Gorman) on a stalled train. It’s not that the movie gets good, it’s just that it keeps you wondering where, exactly, it’s headed. It doesn’t end up going anywhere new or too exciting but the conclusion offers some quick but genuine by-the-book thrills.

There are a number of false alarms in the new horror movie too such as when a loud noise next door turns out to be just a missing cat of a neighbor in the apartment building. Almost every horror film cliche can be found in Watcher and that hugely detracts from the quality of the picture as a whole.

Maika Monroe is a talented actress and portrays Julia with enough likability that we want to root for her throughout the movie. There are a couple of red herrings too here such as when Francis talks in another language to a key character which makes people think something else may be going on than what actually is. Especially when Julia starts to understand what he is saying.

And, speaking of the other language (Romanian) in the film, the movie could benefit from subtitles which would help the audience understand what the characters are saying to each other when they’re not speaking English.

Watcher is not the worst movie of its kind but is far from a good film. It’s the type of movie that you can watch as “safe, simple viewing” knowing that you will predict a large chunk of the plot and be entertained in spots but all along, you’ll know exactly where this movie is ultimately headed. You’ll also have seen these scenes in other movies before but that’s why it’s easy to watch. However, that doesn’t make it good. And, just for the record, Monroe fans may enjoy it a bit more than I did.

Rating: 5/10

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