When Maika Monroe's acting career took off in 2014 with the hit horror film It Follows, it looked like the actress was on her way to superstardom. Instead, she chose a different path, building an impressive resume with some superb smaller films such as Villains and Significant Other. Perhaps the best thing she's done in the past few years is last year's Watcher, a thriller with Monroe at its center as a woman being stalked by a serial killer. While films with that premise have been done numerous times, Watcher is something different, latching on to its star with a quiet performance that starts out slowly, with the tension increasing bit by bit throughout, until the unnerving ending that won't soon leave your memory. Written and directed by Chloe Okuno in her first feature, Watcher an important film for both men and women to witness.
'The Watcher' Begins as a Story About Loneliness and Possible Paranoia
Much of Watcher centers on loneliness, as Maika Monroe plays Julia, who used to be an actress in America, but who is now a fish out of water in her new home of Budapest, Romania, where her husband Francis (Karl Glusman) works after a transfer. Julia is lost, unable to speak the language of her husband's new co-workers, while also being so far from her true home and past career. Her husband and his friends gossip about the news of The Spider, a serial killer on the loose who is killing young women around Budapest and then cutting off their heads.
While Francis is gone all day at work, Julia is stuck in their apartment without much to do. She is a lonely woman, trying to learn the language, walking through the city during the day alone. One night, through the large picture window in their bedroom, she sees a shadowy figure watching her from the window of the building across the street. When she's out, Julia can feel someone watching her. Tension mounts as a woman near where she lives is murdered. An interview with a survivor mentions the feeling of being watched before being attacked.
While in the city again, Julia can still sense someone watching her as well. She tries to ditch whoever is following her in a movie theater, but when someone then sits right behind her, Julia bails to a supermarket. The same person walks in behind her not too long after and Julia tries to hide from him in the aisles. She manages to hide behind a door and get a decent look at his face, but thankfully he doesn't see her. Julia tells Francis what happened later that day and gets him to go to the supermarket to have them review their camera footage of the incident. Even though a man can indeed be seen slowly creeping behind Julia, Francis dismisses it as a coincidence and concludes that Julia is simply stressed by her new surroundings.
Our Heroine's Fears Are Proven Correct
That night, Julia sees the shadowy figure watching her again from across the street. Is it the same man who was following her at the store? We can't tell. Julia is brave enough to wave to him, and to her horror and ours, he waves back. She's not exaggerating. Julia now has proof that the man is indeed watching her. She calls the cops about it, and they go to the building to talk to the person that lives there, a man named Daniel Weber, played by the great English actor Burn Gorman, but nothing comes of it.
Julia is convinced that he's the serial killer The Spider that everyone keeps talking about, so she takes matters into her own hands the next day and turns the tables on Daniel by following him. She watches him walk into a strip club called The Museum. Julia goes into the club, where she discovers that Irina (Madalina Anea), her next-door neighbor and only friend, is a dancer there. She also sees Daniel, who works there as well as a janitor.
That night, Julia hears strange noises coming from Irina's apartment, where she lives alone. It sounds like a struggle is ensuing. Concerned, Julia knocks on Irina's door, but no one answers. She gets a neighbor with a key to let her in, but when they go inside Irina's apartment no one is there. Again, Francis ignores her concerns. You could start to wonder if Julia really is imagining things, but then Irina's ex-boyfriend, Cristian (Daniel Nuta), tells Julia that he was supposed to meet Irina the night before, but she never came back home from work. Julia is certain that her watcher has done something to Irina, so she gets Cristian to go with her across the street and confront Daniel themselves. Cristian knocks on Daniel's door, but no one answers. After Cristian is gone, and now alone, Julia tries knocking on the door too. This time someone answers, but instead of Daniel, it's an old man. Later in the evening, the cops show up at Francis and Julia's apartment with Daniel in tow. He has called them about Julia, who he says is stalking him. Daniel explains himself and even though she's highly uncomfortable, gets Julia to shake his hand.
Sometime later, after being made of fun at a party she goes to with her husband, Julia bails and gets on a subway to go back home. In her almost empty car sits Daniel. He watches her, then even gets up and walks toward her. He apologizes for scaring her, saying that he's not a bad person, but that he's simply a lonely man taking care of his sick dad. Julia doesn't believe him, and now she has another reason to be very suspicious, for he carries a bag with him that looks like it could have a human head inside.
Creeped out, she gets off the subway and damn near runs home. When she gets inside her apartment, she begins to pack, ready to leave behind this stalker and the people who don't believe her but only mock her. Then Julia hears the sound of music in Irina's next-door apartment. She knows she shouldn't, but she has to investigate it. She lets herself inside Irina's apartment and suddenly this slow-burn thriller turns into an all-out horror film. Irina is home, or at least what's left of her, for her headless body sits waiting to be discovered. Daniel pops up from behind her and puts a bag over her head, causing her to faint. When she awakes, Daniel is there watching her. He confesses to being The Spider and how he'd even been hiding in the closet with Irina when Julia looked inside the apartment days earlier.
'The Watcher' Shows How Far a Woman Must Go To Protect Herself
There seems to be no means of escape, but just then Julia hears Francis arrive home from the party. She tries to scream, but Daniel slits her throat with a knife. It's no minor wound. Julia is gushing blood. She struggles to get to the gun she knows Irina keeps in the apartment, but she can't make it there. Her world goes dark as the watcher looks on.
We now switch to Francis in the apartment he shares with Julia. He sees her cell phone laying out but no Julia. Francis calls her and hears the phone ringing in the next-door apartment. When he steps out into the hall, there's Daniel coming out of Irina's door. They look at each other, and as we wait for Francis to finally stick up for his wife, shots ring out and Daniel falls to the ground dead. Standing behind him is Julia, somehow still alive, but covered in blood. She has come to, found Irina's gun, and dealt with her attack all by herself. She gives Francis a weak but annoyed look, as if trying to tell him all of this with just her eyes. The film ends there. We don't know if Julia lives or dies. If she does survive, we know she'll be out of Budapest as soon as possible.
The film works on many levels beyond being a thriller with a simple story about a woman being stalked. It speaks to what so many women go through, being watched in such an uncomfortable way, whether it's by a serial killer or just a man who doesn't understand boundaries. It also shows us how when women do speak out about how they are treated by men, we are quick to dismiss it and not believe them, even going so far as to gaslight the woman and make her feel crazy. That can be from a clueless, self-involved husband, or society as a whole. Lastly, as the director so violently put it in the last scene, if all else fails, and no one will believe you or stick up for you, a woman is strong enough to handle her aggressor on her own if she has to, or with the help of a female friend going through the same thing, for its her dead friend's gun that saves her. At the end, Julia is proven to be right, but at what cost? She has to lose everything, not almost just her life, but perhaps her marriage as well, just to prove herself in a world that is quick to look the other way.