Watcher, A Review

Who’s watching you?

Watcher follows Julia (Maika Monroe), an American woman who moves to Romania with her husband Francis (Karl Glusman, Gypsy) after he gets a job promotion. Whereas Francis speaks the language and has no trouble fitting in, Julia struggles to acclimatise herself and spends most of her days alone. Staring out of her large apartment window one day Julia notices a man (Burn Gorman, Enola Holmes) in the window across the street who appears to spend his days just staring at her.

Brushing it off first, Julia then becomes concerned when a famed serial killer nicknamed the spider begins roaming the streets and she becomes convinced that it is the man across the window. Raising her concerns to Francis, she is gently brushed off with him believing she simply has as an overactive imagination. Deciding to investigate herself, Julia begins following the stranger, potentially putting herself in grave danger. But is this man a brutal serial killer or is Julia’s imagination really just hetting the better of her?

In terms of storyline Watcher is definitely
not anything new but the genre is one I know and love and will always be happy to return to. Thrillers where the lead protagonist spies on a couple or singular person and begins to suspect them of a crime will always be one of my favourite story tropes and even if nothing new is added I feel like I can always sit back and enjoy one of these films, TV shows or books. Watcher is exactly what it says in the title but I still had a lot of fun with this one I can definitely see myself re-visiting on a rainy day.

It may sound weird but I liked how the film chose not to translate the Romanian from the other characters, meaning we really saw (and heard) everything through Julia’s eyes. Because we were just as in the dark as her language wise, we too felt just as isolated and for most of the film Julia was the only character we could understand. One of the main themes in Watcher is being alone and feeling isolated and I think because we couldn’t understand what half of the cast were saying this really ran true and conveyed the messahe a lot more strongly.

The Romanian setting definitely added an extra touch to Watcher and I really loved the moody scenery and picturesque country, I feel like it really contributed to the overall vibe of the film. Julia’s isolation is one of the main themes within the film and so most of the story we follow her and only her, going shopping, sitting in cafés and generally moping around. The setting here definitely contributed to the film’s overall effect and I think location is always important in these types of thrillers. The main objective was to make the audience empathise with Julia and feel alone and I definitely got that feeling from watching, further improving my viewing experience.

Overall I really enjoyed this film, the premise might not be anything new or exciting but it’s a genre I’ve come to know and love and enjoy any variation of. Watcher really isolated its audience through the Romanian language and I liked how we could really relate to Julia on this level. That city setting and constant moody feeling also really added to the films tension and I just really love this film, it was a great watch.